Category: Local Sights

I was invited yesterday to attend a fund raiser for the Tahitian dance group “O Tahiti E”, which was created in 1986 by Marguerite Lai, who named the group after the original name for Tahiti (or Otahiti which was used on early navigational charts). It is one of the oldest dance troupes in French Polynesia.

I was invited to attend by Tehani, the person who is running Tahiti Crew, the organization I hired to help me with the bureaucracy of checking into and out of French Polynesia. Tehani asked me if I was going to do some sight seeing. I told her I was very busy working on the boat, and I asked her if there was one thing I should see while in Tahiti, what would she recommend. She asked what I was interested in and I replied “the culture.” Tehani arranged for me to ride with her aunt Corinne and mother Sarah (and two friends Cathy and Tania) to the event, which was held at the restaurant for the Gauguin Museum near the isthmus that connects Tahiti Nui (the larger, western section) and Tahiti Iti (the eastern peninsula).

I had been told I should were a colorful shirt. My wardrobe is limited, but I did manage to find a shirt with some palm trees, albeit in muted colors. Fortunately, Corinne presented me a beautiful lei of fresh flowers to make me more presentable.

During the 45 minute drive to the restaurant, Corinne, who has a PhD in the history of Tahiti, gave me a history lesson. The southwest corner of Tahiti Nui is relatively flat, and therefore the land is very valuable. They grew cotton there during the US Civil War and supplied the north. They grew sugarcane there and made rum during the US prohibition. Today it is mostly a golf course.

When arrived, we were greeted by the “chief “ if the dance troupe, none other than Marguerite Lai. Corinne and Sarah were friends with Marguerite, and Marguerite‘s sister, whom Sarah had worked with together with Tania. Marguerite’s sister joined us at our table.

A meal was served. The food reminded me of Chinese stir fry, with rice and chicken, pork, and beef dishes. The entertainment started with a group of men playing ukuleles and percussion instruments. We were encouraged to buy raffle tickets. I won a coupon for a dress and gave it to Sarah.

The dance troupe entered the stage as people finished eating. The traditional dances told stories where the words were retold symbolically in the dances moves themselves. The aparima is a dance from Tahiti (and the Cook Islands) where the mimicks (ʻapa) with the hands (rima) are central, and as such it is close to the hula or Tongan tau’olynga. It is usually a dance for groups, although the talents of individuals were also showcased during the performance. There are two types of aparima: the aparima hīmene (sung handdance) and the aparima vāvā (silent handdance), the latter being performed with music only, and no singing. The music is often played on the guitar or the Tahitian ukulele, and both were used during the performance.

At the end of the performance, the entire dance troupe posed for a photograph (Marguerite Lai is in the center of the group).

The Kon-Tiki expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca god Viracocha, for whom “Kon-Tiki” was said to be an old name. The trip began on April 28, 1947. Heyerdahl and five companions sailed the raft for 101 days over 6,900 km (4,300 miles) across the Pacific Ocean before smashing into a reef at Raroia in the Tuamotuson August 7, 1947. This is the motu that the Kon Tiki landed on.

in 2007, Heyerdahl’s son erected a monument to the event, which I visited today.

While my original plan was to sail from the Marquesas to the Fakarava atoll, Nature had other plans for me. My wind vane wasn’t working, the TillerPilot was being temperamental, and some nasty weather was on the way. The idea of navigating the dense atolls without a wind vane in inclement weather was not appealing. About one-third of the way to Fakarava I bailed and headed south to the Raroria atoll, which was 100 nm closer. Raroria is known for the location where Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki raft arrived after its 101-day journey from South America in 1947. I reached Raroria after dark, so heaved to offshore until morning, when I passed into the lagoon about 8:00, during slack (high) tide. I first went to the small village of Raroria, which has a population of about 200, mostly pearl farmers and fishermen. As it turned out, the once-a-month supply ship had arrived the day before, and the small store was relatively well stocked. I anchored in the small bay with a catamaran that had arrived an hour before me, and took my dinghy to the dock. The dock had a few colorful boats moored to it.

The village consists of a network of narrow concrete roads. Before I went to the store, I took a look around the village. There is an interesting open-air chapel constructed of rocks.

I also visited the cemetery. While there were many graves from the early twentieth century, most of the headstones for those were hard to read due to weathering. There were also some recent graves.

I followed the directions I was given to the store and almost ended up in the living room of a stranger. Although I don’t speak French, the woman figured I was looking for the store and kindly showed me where it was. The couple who ran the store were delightful. They tried to talk me into staying the night because there was always a party on Sarurdays with music and dancing when the pearl farmers on the other side of the atoll returned for the weekend, the party and church the next morning. However, the anchorage at the village was sketchy and bad weather was forecasted. The anchorage is surrounded by reefs and an unmarked wreck, and not much room to swing on anchor in a storm. I decided to move my to the north side of the lagoon, about 10 nm away. And, that was a good decision, because one heck of a gale hit that night.

I rented a car yesterday to drive to Loreto from Puerto Escondido to provision. Since I had a car, I took the opportunity to drive into the mountains to see the Misión San Francisco Javier. I understand it was the second church built in the Baja California Sur state (the bottom half of Baja), the first being built in Loreto.

The mission was founded by Jesuits of the Roman Catholic church in 1699 and closed in 1817.

The architecture comprises the usual cruciform groundplan.

On the left as you walk in, there is a sanctuary with a basin of holy water.

On the ceiling is a relief.

The clergy are buried outside the church. Some of the grave markers (like this one and others from the early 20th century) are from after the mission was closed.