Nuku Hiva, Marquesas

Our last port stop before heading home towards the States was on the island of Nuku Hiva. Part of the Marquesas Islands. Nuku Hiva is called the Mystical Island. It's also been known to have the reputation of being the cannibal island. There's a story that says that tiny people called menehune came to Marquesas and were massacred almost to the point of extinction. The survivors went into hiding deep inside the island and are said to come out at night and capture little children and take them away and eat them. Ack!!! Now that's a scary bedtime story. It is also said that on some of the smaller islands in the Marquesas (not Nuku Hiva), that cannibalism may still exist. We were advised to stay in groups and not venture too far inland, hahahahahaha!

I was excited to visit this island because I'm a HUGE Survivor fan (the TV show) and Season 4 was filmed on Nuku Hiva. AND.....our tour guide Richard was one of the scouts that found the tribes' campsites, etc. He took us to the overlook of one of the beaches used in the show. I really got a kick out of that!

We had a great day, in part because it was our last island before returning to San Diego and also because it was an drop dead gorgeous day - sunny and clear, somewhat cool breezes now and then. It was hot though, I won't lie. But well worth getting off the ship, onto a tender and heading over to the island. I had organized a half day tour with Richard of Temarana Tours. There were 22 of us and he had a caravan of jeeps waiting for us. There is not much infrastructure on the island to handle large amounts of passengers from cruise ships - no big buses, etc., so most people involved in providing tours use their own cars. Richard had 6 jeeps/vans waiting for us and off we went.

The roads were mostly paved so our jeep ride wasn't too bumpy at the beginning. This is our first lookout vista stop. You can see the ship way down there!!!!!

This is Richard. Such a nice guy.

We found a small reptile! Gecko? Plain lizard?

This is the Survivor beach!!!! There was a village nearby, around the bend of the little bay there, but the Survivor tribes had no idea one was so close.

This is such a pretty island!!

Snort approved. And he was happy to get off the ship for the day! He got tired of hanging out with the towel animals in my cabin all day!!

We visited an old temple meeting area - lots of mosquitos there! I have about a dozen bites to prove it, and that was after spraying organic coconut oil and citronella. Yes, it worked, but not 100%.