The Marquesas Islands

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	*Land Ho - Hiva Oa Island.* Atuona Bay. The masts are just visible crammed into the tiny anchorage at center in this picture. This was home after 29 1/2 long days at sea.
*Marquesan House* This spectacular house overlooks our anchorage and is backed by a 3000' vertical cliff. This is the old volcano crater wall, and when we arrived in a rain storm, a 1,000' waterfall was cascading down it's face.
	*Village Church* Five miles west from our anchorage we found the tiny village of Taha'a with this beautiful church. The locals gave us huge piles of fruit, and the trees along the road were full of bananas, mangoes, cumquats, oranges, papaya and monster grapefruit called Pamplemouse.
*Lush Vegetation* The Marquesas Islands are covered in thick jungle. Here Pandanus leaves are used for roofing and palm fronds are weaved to make a fence.
	*Daniel's Bay* On the island of Nuka Hiva, we stopped in this almost completely enclosed bay. An old man called Daniel lives there in a shack with his wife and owns the entire bay. This is the view from his garden.
The Lost Valley: Nuka Hiva After a 4 hr hike through thick jungle and wading through rivers with 4 foot eels, we arrived in this gorge. It was the base of the Vaipo waterfall which drops 1,150 ft from the plateau above (the main falls are behind the rock on the left).
	*Tiki Carving* A Marquesan elder inspects his work while carving Tiki statues from Basalt rock. The Tiki is a representation of a god, and is called a Ti'i in Tahiti.
*Tahuata Island* Just a few miles south of Hiva Oa island, we stopped in a beautiful bay called Hana Moe Noe. This was our first palm-fringed beach of the journey, so we spent a week here just relaxing and diving. Coconuts were everywhere and made refreshing drinks and a great snack.