Written by Mia back in June. Just to remind you, we are not currently in the Marquesas! We are in Tahiti as this gets posted. So this is a few months old. Sorry for playing catch-up!
The weather was not favorable to move on and so we got to add another anchorage to our list on Nuku Hiva. This time it was a gorgeous open bay on the northern coast called Anaho. There is no road access but there are a few people living here. They have some fruit orchards and a little church, although it didn’t seem to have services, even on the Sunday we were there. There are also some tables and a bar on the pretty little beach which we heard used to be a small cafe. We were sharing this bay with a dozen or so other boats.
We spent a lot of time in the water here and did some amazing snorkeling. A little silver fish adopted me, And followed me around for 30 minutes or so and I named him “Flash”. It is wonderful to just pause and watch a little fish community on the reef. As you spend some time with them, you start to see their personalities come out, some are definitely more curious than others while some are very shy and some kinds of fish are always hanging out together. On a snorkeling excursion to the other end of the bay, we spotted lots of manta rays. They are amazing creatures and so graceful as they fly through the water. We swam with some that had a 2 meter wing span. A little research tells us these were only medium sized, although it didn’t feel like it when we were swimming together.
Ashore, we had a good couple of wanders although the mozzies kept us from hanging out too long in the evenings. Teo is amazing at spotting treasures and found us some beautiful cowry shells. One day we walked over the hill to Hatiheu Bay which does have road access and a couple of shops. We visited this place under odd conditions. The Aranui was in town. The Aranui is a supply ship that also has tourist cabins, it is a bit of a hybrid cruise ship that brings lots of supplies and tourists to the islands. We have seen lots of locations change dramatically while cruise ships visit and this was no exception. We cashed in though and had a lovely meal with live entertainment. Our walk over the hill to and from Hatiheu was muddy! It had rained a lot but it was fun to slip and slide and we were delighted to pick lots and lots of mangoes on the way. We met some horses and shared with them, too. We also had to giggle as we heard loud music approaching long before the cowboy on horseback with a ghetto blaster on his shoulder and his dog trailing behind came into view. Our feet all needed a good wash before going back to the boat. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Anaho Bay.
