Pitufa.at

After 2 years of cruising we’d advise everybody who’s setting out with similar plans from Europe or the US to bring several pairs of good walking shoes along. Cruiser’s life’s hard on the shoes, they’re exposed to tropical sunlight, get immersed into saltwater from time to time and have to be washed regularly because of muddy hikes. Our high quality trekking sandals gave up after 1.5 years and the replacements we’ve bought on the way only last a few months: glue comes off, soles break apart and eventually fall off–at the moment I have to sow on the straps of my Panamanian sandals after each hike and we bring along a repair kit whenever we set out… The only shoes you can buy here are flip-flops and rubbershoes, no wonder most locals hike barefoot ++++++++++++++ Nach zwei Jahren Cruisen wuerden wir jedem, der mit aehnlichen Plaenen aus Europoa oder den US aufbricht raten, einige Paar gute Schuhe mitzunehmen. Das Bootsleben nimmt Schuhe hart mit, sie werden tropischer Sonne ausgesetzt, bekommen immer wieder Salzwasser ab und muessen nach gatschigen Wanderungen regelmaessig gewaschen werden. Unsere hochqualitativen Trekkingsandalen haben nach anderhalb Jahren aufgegeben und die Ersatzschuhe, die wir unterwegs gekauft haben, machen’s meist nur ein paar Monate: Kleber geht auf, die Sohle bricht und faellt am Ende ab. Im Moment muss ich die Riemen meiner panamesischen Sandalen nach jedem Ausflug nachnaehen und wir nehmen Flickzeug auf jedem Ausflug mit. Die einzigen Schuhe, die man hier kaufen kann sind Flip-Flops und Gummischuhe, kein Wunder, dass die meisten Einheimischen barfuss gehen

Today, we went by dinghy to the neighbouring bay and village, Hakaui, where the path into the Hakaui valley to the Vaipo waterfall starts. Landing the dinghy looked scary amidst the many breaking waves. The tide was high enough though, and we could go over a sand bank into the small river. The village was larger than we expected and it looks almost manicured with its many flowery bushes and pretty little houses. The valley behind is simply breathtaking–the further you go, the valley narrows while the cliffs get steep, steeper and even steeper (about 800m high). And at the end a waterfall plunges down from over 300m. The views on the way make this a worthwhile hike even though the end of the track at the waterfall is a bit of a disappointment because from there only the lower bit is visible and the pool is a muddy brown puddle. ++++++ ++++++ +++++ Heute sind wir mit dem Dingi in die Nachbarbucht zum Dorf Hakaui gefahren, wo der Pfad durchs Hakauital zum Vaipo Wasserfall beginnt. Das Anlanden sah zwischen den Brechern furchterregend aus, aber wir haben’s ueber eine Sandbank in den kleinen Fluss geschafft. Das Dorf selbst war groesser als erwartet und sah beinahe manikuert aus mit vielen bluehenden Bueschen und suessen kleinen Haeuschen. Das Tal dahinter ist einfach atemberaubend – je weiter man geht, desto steiler werden die Klippen und ragen schliesslich 800 Meter hoch auf. Die Aussichten vom Weg aus machen die Wanderung durchaus lohnenswert, auch wenn der Endpunkt ein wenig enttaeuschend ist, weil nur der untere Teil vom Wasserfall sichtbar ist und der Pool in den er stuerzt, eher eine schmutzigbraune Pfuetze ist.

While daring surfers ride the high waves on the beach behind Pitufa, Pitufa’s crew’s limited to surfing on the internet… We haven’t had a good connection in months are now placing orders for spareparts for the boat, researching for new articles, catching up with e-mails and other cruiser’s blogs.
Today we decided to also use the opportunity of having a proper hospital (one doctor on duty, no ultrasonic soundings, but an x-ray machine, a fellow cruiser who’s an in-patient explained with a grin that patients have to bring their own cushions and cutlery) to get a few ailments checked. A bump on my wrist was diagnosed as a harmless cyst, my chronic backache confirmed as a chronic backache (hurrah!) and Christian’s aching throat refered to a dentist. We’ll try to find a dentist, before finally heading out to other bays.

After spending so much time in quiet, remote areas, Taiohae, the little maintown of Nuku Hiva, seems like a bustling metropolis to us. Suddenly we have to look for traffic before crossing a road, the range of goods in the ‘magasin’ (almost big enough to be called a supermarket) seems mindboggling, there’s several hotels, restaurants and a daily veggie market with local produce.
The island’s also much bigger than what we’re used to. We took a walk to the entrance of our bay and that alone took more than an hour. Despite frequent rainfall this side of the island seems rather dry with mainly acacias growing on the volcanic rocks. Yesterday we wanted to take a look at the interior, but the ridge behind the bay’s 800 metres high, the road winding up in steep serpentines. We quickly gave up hiking in the boiling heat and hitched a ride instead–the first car stopped and the family let us squeeze in with them. Up in the mountain’s the vegetation’s much lusher and we were actually freezing in the cool, humid air the fringe of the clouds reaching almost down to us. Our walk took us through pine forests and pastures With lots of cattle and horses grazing–a completely untropical atmosphere, even though we’re only 9 degrees away from the equator…

On the chart Hapatoni didn’t look very tempting, but we’re glad we stopped here. We’ve had a large pod of dolphins staying in our bay for two days, hunting, jumping, playing around Pitufa The village is neat and pretty, and we took a walk on the coastal road leading along the bays and over the cliffs under an azure blue sky–it came as a surprise that the mountainous islands can actually lift the curtain of clouds that usually hangs over the high peaks. We decided to visit the man we had seen from afar working in the garden opposite our anchorage. Teii led us up the hill to some petroglyphs, gave us bags of manioc, taro, avocados, oranges, pamplemousse, guavas and of course mangos. This part of the island is covered in mango trees, the fruit are everywhere lying on the ground, but as the trees grow rather tall, they’re almost impossible to pick. Teii solved the problem with a bag on a long stick and some adventurous climbing. All he wanted in return were a few metres of r ope and some new music for his mobile phone.

Yesterday Giorgio took us and Mark and Liesbet from Irie round the island on his boat ‘Hoa Motu’. We picked a beautiful day with sunny skies and got wonderful views of the steep, green volcanic slopes of Fatu Hiva. Unfortunately we had very little wind so we had to motor quite a bit, but we nevertheless caught a small tuna and a large wahoo, so today we’ll all have BBQ on Pitufa.

As some of you might remember we left Panama with 120 litres of wine distributed in the bilge, under mattresses and basically wherever we could find some space, because we knew that alcohol would be very dear in French Polynesia (just to give you an idea: a box of ok Chilean wine cost about 2 Euros in Panama, 10 in the Galapagos, but 15 Euros in the Gambier…). Other boats didn’t stock up quite that well, so many of our friends are already running low on booze and have started experimenting with different recipes for homemade lemon cider. Of course we were curious too and so every boat had some bottles filled with a mixture of lemon juice, sugar, yeast and water standing in the sun. According to the recipe we screwed the top tight wondering about pressure building up as we did so, but not worrying too much. Last night we heard a crashing sound and come the morning we found the shards of the bottle on the aft deck covered in happy fruit flies. During breakfast a loud POFF qui ckly followed by another explosion like a gunshot announced yet another bubbly experiment gone ballistic on our neighbours. Poor Giorgio had left the bottles in the cockpit and spent the morning getting sharp splinters out of the lines and scrubbing sticky remains from the seats… Yesterday a new boat arrived with an English skippers and an Australian and a Canadian girl as crew. Ivy (the Canadian) just sniggered at our amateurish attempts and enlightened us on complicated recipes and fermentation techniques and suggested (due to the lack of proper gear) closing up the bottles with condoms, so that the pressure can be released without the fruit flies getting in. Fortunately Liesbet bought a packet of balloons in Panama (meant as presents for local kids), so now the boats will soon be decorated with brightly coloured balloons–we’ll report on further developments. Yesterday we finished servicing another two winches and one today (4 done, 5 to go!)