Yesterday we went on one of the most beautiful hikes of my life! We're anchored in Daniel's Bay, just a few miles from the main anchorage on Nuku Hiva where a river flows into the ocean. After securing the dinghy on shore at the river's mouth, we followed the dirt road through the village where a local man waved to us. His name was Mae (pronounced ma-ae) and he is one of the fifteen village residents. Immediately Mae offered us fruits from the surrounding trees. He pulled down a pomegranate; something called a "pistache" and another nameless fruit foreign to us and had us taste them. The fruits here are unbelievably sweet and delicious. You think you've had great tasting bananas before, but you haven't until you've tasted the bananas here. Mae pointed the path to the waterfall and we set out, walking through glorious smells and brilliant colors of the fruit trees and flowers.
Along the way, we passed a few well-kept houses, grazing horses, pet dogs tied to trees and a small open-air church. Further into the jungle, the path narrowed to single-file and slightly muddy, requiring one eye on the ground to navigate rocks. Ancient ruins lined the route. Hundreds of years ago, 20,000 people lived on this island before the white man's diseases slain them. This appeared to be an important route in its day because of the size and depth of the rocks lain along the way.
It was a two hour walk to the waterfall, which again was just a trickle due to lack of rainfall. The guidebook said this is the third largest waterfall in the world. With water, it would have been spectacular! As it was, the depth of the canyon and surrounding beauty of the spires and lush green valley was breathtaking in itself. The pool at the base of the falls offered a cool freshwater bath but our swim was cut short. Not sharks this time. Eels. That's right. Two-to-three foot long, black eels as thick as fire hose, were swimming in the pools. Later Mai told us they were not dangerous but loved to swim around people and play. That sounded a little freaky to us especially after we fed them baguettes and saw their large mouths.
After the hike, we accepted Mae's invitation to his home for fruit. He had cut up papaya, mango and banana and served fresh coconut milk still in the shells and some coconut meat. Bear played with his myriad of animals: a gaggle of baby ducks, eight week old kittens, and a baby goat were among the collection. With our every compliment came an offer from Mai to take the item with us. We left with an assortment of fruit and almost a kitten! In return, we invited Mae to the boat for dinner that evening which he readily accepted with the addition of a friend.
Mae and Alexander came to dinner toting another bag of fruit, a liter of homemade hooch (fruity but nasty) and a French/English dictionary. (Mae's English is pretty good but Alexander did not speak any.) We had an interesting and entertaining conversation throughout the evening while serving many cold beers and Swedish meatballs. It was fun to experience firsthand the hospitality of the islands that we've read about all these months.
