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Compass Points
Why go? “Time stops in the Marquesas” – Jacques Brel (Belgian singer-
songwriter, also buried on Hiva Oa).
Island Factoids
No group of islands lies farther from a continent than the Marquesas.
Located in the South Pacific, they were settled by indigenous Polynesians
in AD 300. Today they are part of French Polynesia, which includes
Moorea, Bora Bora, and Tahiti. To collect on Gauguin’s $50 fine,
Tahitian authorities commandeered his paintings and auctioned them
off cheaply – or worse. “A lot of the paintings were burned, including a
large picture of a Tahitian woman holding a breadfruit,” says Barnaby
Conrad. “It’s heartbreaking. I must say I don’t admire the man, but I
sure admire his paintings.”
Visitor Information
Simply go to www.TahitiTourism.com (click on “The Islands” and select
The Marquesas), or www.marquises.pf/2index.htm.
Getting There
Barnaby Conrad traveled with Cruise West (www.cruisewest.com): “The
ship went to islands you’d never get to in a million years. It was small,
with only 50 people on board, but the staterooms were bigger than on a
regular cruise ship; it was like your own private yacht. There was no glitz
or Hollywood shows, but wonderful food.”
Conrad and his wife recently returned to the Marquesas on the
1,080-passenger Crystal Serenity (www.crystalcruises.com), which was “a
little more jazzy than we wanted,” calling at Nuku Hiva, the largest island
in the archipelago.
Conrad made travel arrangements through the Montecito office of
Santa Barbara Travel Bureau; (805) 969-7746.
Air Tahiti (www.airtahiti.pf ) serves Nuku Hiva from Papeete and
Rangiroa.
Where to Stay
The Hanakee Hiva Oa Pearl Lodge (www.pearlresorts.com/hiva/main.
php), perched on a hill above Atuona, offers bungalows, an infinity pool,
views of Traitors Bay and 3,900-foot Mount Temetiu, and excursions.
A year and a half ago, I sailed to the island on a small cruise ship. The
thing about Hiva Oa is that if you want to get away from the world
–
really
want to get away from the world – and if you’re looking for a
tropical island that’s unspoiled, the way Tahiti was a hundred years ago,
this is the place for you. Not many people live on the island, but it’s
absolutely spectacular, quite different from Tahiti and totally different
from Moorea. It’s kind of stark. In fact Herman Melville, who wrote
Omoo
and
Typee
in the Marquesas, described Hiva Oa as forbidding, with peaks
rising up out of the sea.
You kind of have to make your own fun on the island. Hiva Oa doesn’t
have great beaches like Hawaii or the Caribbean. The water is nice, except
they say that half the people on the island have had limbs amputated by
sharks. But apart from that...
Well, I’m not making it sound very attractive; there are some safe
beaches and pretty little bays. The main settlement is Atuona, where I
walked in Gauguin’s footsteps. The original market where he used to go is
still there. And I climbed up to Calvary Cemetery, where he’s buried. His
gravestone is just a black rock that has “Paul Gauguin 1903” inscribed
on it. Originally, there was no marker at all, because he was so disliked
by the French government. But an American came and put this one up.
Next to the rock is one of the strange-looking statues Gauguin liked to
carve, a replica, I think. In Atuona they’ve also reconstructed the painter’s
studio and “house of pleasure,” which had burned down, and you can look
around.
Gauguin lived a dissipated life. He died of cirrhosis of the liver and
syphilis – so you could say he was an incurable romantic.
Mountains rise out of the ocean to soar to over 4,000 feet in height on the
Marquesas, a small group of islands nearly 1,000 miles northeast of the main
island of Tahiti in French Polynesia