Yes, Nuku Hiva is as beautiful as reported. And we haven’t even gotten to any of the clear-water anchorages yet. A friend on another island in the archipelago reported being able to see his anchor chain lying on the bottom in 35 feet of water.
All checked in, no problem, the only expense being that of a per-person fee to an agent to write a bond letter and prepare a page or two of paperwork. (In French Polynesia, non-European Union citizens have to show an outbound airplane ticket, post a cash bond equivalent to the price of an airplane ticket, or have someone put up a bond that the visitor will not throw him/herself on the mercy of the local health-care system and government resources.)
The biggest check-in hassle was proving that I am currently enrolled in Group Health – my plastic wallet card doesn’t show dates of coverage. Fortunately I was eventually able to show the agent a Group Health Web page that did indicate I am covered through 2016. Matt and Ana had exactly the same issue with Kaiser Health – the data were not conveniently available at all and, for security reasons I suppose, could not be printed.
The sharp contrast to checking in to the Galápagos was amusing. There, gaining permission to enter was hideously expensive and complicated and time consuming, and required a great many officials from the Navy, Aduana (Customs), and Migración, and much shuffling and rubber-stamping of papers. Here, the Gendarmerie, which handles immigration as well as routine police work, didn’t care in the slightest about our zarpe (permission to leave our previous port), inspecting the hull, eyeballing our dwindling food stores and minimal liquor supply, etc., and required only brief, rapidly completed paperwork.
French is the local idiom, of course. I’m having trouble both remembering much French at all (despite having been pretty good at it, although much longer ago than I care to remember) and not having Spanish come out of my mouth when I fully intend to try to say something in French. I feel as though I’m trying to get some rusty, frozen-up old machine operating again after decades of disuse. I suppose I’ll get better with more time and practice, but it sure is frustrating and pretty embarrassing right now.
A Hungarian fellow named Adrian came over from a nearby boat as soon as we had set the anchor to welcome us to the anchorage and show us where to go to check in. When we expressed some wonder at the hassle of the Ecuadorian check-in, Adrian said with a smile, “Don’t worry, you’re in Europe now. It’s all mellow here.”
Silver Lynx at anchor in the rain in Taiohae. Note 3-masted megayacht in background.
Congrats to all on making it safely to the Marquesas! You are bring back lovely memories. Good luck with the French. We’ve been in Belgium for 7 months and are going back to France, surprising at how much you forget so quickly (but then I wasn’t ever any good at it really!)
Enjoy your time there – we are looking forward to seeing more pics and reading more (it’s a great blog) – when we were there the local ladies were made on perfume (even a few drops in a bottle – we exchanged some odds and sods of perfume (that were buried/unused bits and pieces left over) for a lovely wooden carved bowl.
BTW our Dutch barge is going up for sale – fancy the European canals after that sojourn?