Monday, May 17, 2010

Doing this a bit arsey - but hey!





Wind from all regions and overdosing on strange meat and gratis fruit

Well the trilogy continues, as does the gusting wind from the north, south, east and west; yes, bad wind seems to be the theme at the moment. We are supposed to be in the Trade Winds belt, with constant south easterlies, however wind is coming from everywhere at the moment (and its got nothing to do with all the fruit). Oh and it rained overnight, which is the first rain we have seen in an age; but when it does we have to close windows and the temperature is soon through the roof (you wouldn’t believe how hot it is here overnight, so perhaps I shouldn’t be moaning about the wind after all).

Yesterday we did a tour of much of the island of Nuka-Hiva, which proved to be really interesting. It is quite a big island with an airport of sorts, however the road from the main town to the airfield is still unmade (as are all the others) and we now realise why everybody drives a 4x4. The island is quite stunning and despite the fact that they are in the middle of the worst drought on record, everything within the interior is very green and lush. As with all of these island, fruit is everywhere, so again we overdosed on mango and banana.

We spent about 8 hours travelling around and 90% of it was on dirt roads, however we did get to visit several ancient sites and learn something of the bloody past of this island. Inter tribe fighting was always taking place and the pits where prisoners were held before execution, the sacrifice alters and the shaped stones for crushing skulls of these lucky enough to be selected to meet there makers were everywhere. The last known act of cannibalism took place on these islands 100 years ago, however when you visit these sites, you realise how much it must have been part of the everyday way of life. So when the next village invited you over for supper the usual 'Bring a bottle' for us meant 'Bring whoever you can spare for the entree' for them.

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