We spent most of our first day here on a hike to the waterfall. Fortunately we have hooked up with a nice young French family who doesn't mind us tagging along (and letting them interpret for us).

The waterfall was awesome--the hike was just the right length--mostly in the shade, in very pretty surroundings, and the temperature a perfect 79-80. We kept saying "We're not in the Tuamotus anymore, Toto". The Toots are flat coral atolls with mostly palm trees and scrub. The Marquesas are awe-inspiring volcanic rocks with lush vegetation. We just couldn't get over how lush everything was.

As we walked through town, Dave was drooling over all the fruit we saw hanging on the trees...mangos (almost in season), papaya, limes, oranges, pampelmousse, breadfruit, bananas, etc. Joce (Joss), the French guy from s/v Lares, promised that he would help us get some fruit after the hike.

On the way back, we found some 'free range' limes along the side of the road, and filled a bag with them--nice little Key Lime-sized limes. Then we stopped at a few places, with Joce telling the people that we were looking to trade for fruit. One guy just gave us 2 stalks of bananas. Another made an appointment to meet us on the quai with some fruit tomorrow morning.
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At 8/10/2010 5:09 PM (utc) our position was 10°27.91'S 138°40.06'W

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Labels: Marquesas