Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Highlights of the Magnificent Marquesas
Isolated, wild, brooding; bold mountain landscapes jutting up above a vast, rippling sea.
The magnificent Marquesas have attracted many an escapee from western “civilization”
over the centuries - including us modern-day sailors, willing to cross a seemingly infinite
ocean on small, frail boats with small, all-too-human crews. Many of us are pulled as much
as pushed, lured by a siren song composed by those who came before us. But it's hard to
know what's legend and what's reality among these storied islands. So where to begin?
As Thor Heyerdahl wrote, “A painter is better armed to convey the majesty of the Marque-
sas than a writer.” The islands are long-extinct volcanoes that rise high above the ocean
floor, their slopes deeply chiseled by the elements. It's a wild and enticing landscape like
nowhere else in French Polynesia. The islands fall into two clusters: a southeastern (wind-
ward) group consisting of Hiva Oa, Fatu Hiva, and Tahuata, and, seventy miles to the
northwest, a leeward cluster made up of Ua Pou, Nuku Hiva, and Ua Huka. Given the ab-
sence of fringing reefs, this is by no means a sheltered archipelago; passages between is-
lands are exposed. Each island is truly unique and offers its own special highlights to the
cruiser. Marquesan people are open and friendly - strike up a conversation and you will im-
mediately be plied with more juicy pamplemousse than you can possibly carry.
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