The Varied Landscapes of the Marquesas

*Sailing in towards Hapatoni, just to take a look*

In general, the places we’ve cruised have had fairly homogenous landscapes. This isn’t to say places are interchangeable - far from it. But the Chesapeake has its Bay marsh river vibe, the Bahamas its white sand casuarina tree scrub low landscape, the Eastern Caribbean its lush mountain green lots of boats scene. The only place we’ve been, before now, where there has been a notable array of different types of vistas is in New England, which ranks as one of our favorite places to cruise especially in the US. There, we loved the rocky Thimble Islands and the river views of Connecticut’s Long Island Sound, sailing up along the towering cliffs of Narragansett Bay. The changing scenery is a huge draw.

The South Pacific has its own stereotype of landscape. Jagged green peaks, palm-tree studded mountainsides, lush greenery spilling out everywhere. This is what we expected to find, especially in the Marquesas. The Tuamotus, also part of French Polynesia, will be a different experience entirely, more akin to the Bahamas in terms of water color and low-lying sand and coral beaches.

*South Pacific sterepotype. This is the south coast of Hiva Oa.*

Our first landfall, into the bay next to Atuona, Hiva Oa, fit every bit of that stereotype. Jagged ridges speared into cloud wreaths as swells crashed against the steep-to shoreline. As we got closer, we noticed endless palm trees. Here we were, in the South Pacific. Ahhh.

*Arrival photo into Atuona. Okay, the bay next to Atuona.*

What we did not expect, not in the slightest, was the immense variety in the kinds of landscapes we have found. From island to island, yes. But on the same island. And even in the same bay.

*Sunset, not landscape. Thought you’d appreciate a change.*

Take Hiva Oa, for example, the second largest island in this group, where you have the lush lush green on the south side, and then, just 20 miles away by sailboat but only about 7 by straight line, a desert scape that reminds me of what I imagine the Sea of Cortez to be like. (Confirmed by a couple of friends who have cruised there, though they assure me there is less green in the Sea.) Okay, fine, that’s a difference explained by geography, where the winds move rain clouds up and over the mountain.

Explaining the landscape changes on the west side of Tahuata, in bays just a couple of miles away from each other? Less easy to shoo away under the guise of geography.

*Bay at Vaitahu, along the west coast of Tahuata.*

*Just a few miles north, same coast, same island. Are we in the Caribbean?*

And how about the singular bay of Anaho, on the northeast side of Nuku Hiva, where the east side of the entrance is that dusty, green scrub, desert hillside, and the western section is lush green jagged peaks. Or the entrance to the (marginal at best) anchorage on the southwest tip of the island of Ua Huka, with a looks-like-a-spoil mesa, flat-topped and sandy yellow-brown, home to a solid mass of birds just to port if you risk the passage between that and the mainland (can you call an island that’s just 12 miles across a mainland?), where again those quintessential South Pacific peaks reign supreme.

*Flat sand mesa spill island to port (note all the birds)*

*Appraching the entrance to ONE BAY! Desert to port, green lush to starboard. Mind blown.*

If the joke about weather in Virginia is “if you don’t like it, wait 5 minutes”, the joke about landscape and geography in the Marquesas has to be “if you’re thinking it’s all the same, just turn your head 90 degrees.”