February 12, 2019

Yesterday I had the second cocktail school with Sebastien.  We made the Insignia Colada, the Ker Hawaii and the Mark Sebastien Old Fashioned.  I wrote all over the recipes so I won’t picture them here but here are some shots of the class and of the group. At the last class we were each given a cocktail shaker and at this one, we mentioned that we loved the long handled cocktail spoons, so the bar manager gave us one! In the second picture you see Sebastien smoking the ice.  I have never seen this before.  Not sure I would do this but it was interesting and gave a smoky taste to the old fashioned.

Last night we were invited to dinner with the chief engineer, Nedyalko Tonchev who is from Bulgaria.  We call him Ned!  There was another couple with us and it happened to be Ned’s birthday. We had a nice dinner, lots of wine, and of course a birthday cake and ice cream.

After dinner we saw the movie The Wife.  Glenn Close played a wonderful role.

On February 12, we arrived in Nuku Hiva.  Last time we were here, we had such bad weather in the South Pacific that we didn’t get here until it was almost dark, so we didn’t see much.  This time we got in by 9 AM. Even though this is the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, it is largely inaccessible by car except for the coastal villages. There are no villages at all on the western side. We were tendered into port on the south side of the island.

The island was the site for Survivor: Marquesas, the fourth installment of the CBS show. It is a beautiful place.

We were greeted by local musicians and dancers. The women all had these beautiful flower headdresses.

We first walked through the small town of Taiohae, the main town on the island. It is located on the edge of an ancient volcanic crater that collapsed into the sea, forming Taiohae Bay where our ship is anchored. It was a hot and humid day, but we walked all morning. The local people were all welcoming and friendly.

Next we saw the Notre Dame Cathedral. The remains of the 19th century church is just a portion of the stone wall – Norm is standing in front of it, but the 1977 structure is also interesting.  All of the stations of the cross and other statues are carved in local woods.  Here are just a few of them.

The flowering trees are so beautiful.  Norm is pointing to a breadfruit.

We walked up the hill to the Keilkahanui Nuku Hiva Pearl Lodge.  This lodge is composed of 20 bungalows and has a spectacular view of the sea and the black sand beach. There is only one employee who speaks English and good thing she was there because she helped me buy my turtle bracelet.

We then walked up to the large sculpture, Tiki Tuhiva,  at the top of another hill.  It is the highest contemporary structure in the Pacific. The woman tiki is 40 feet high and the warrior is 26 feet high.

There are also many sculptures (notice the anatomy!) on the path leading up to Tiki Tuhiva.

Local fruits to be sent to the ship.

And here I am with one of the people who will later be in the show on the ship.

After we returned to the ship, the group of local performers did a show on the deck – local folkloric show.  They were terrific.

And they invited guests up to dance with them.  Even Damien got involved although he didn’t take his shirt off!

We always say that when the Captain makes an announcement and it is not noon (his daily announcement time), there is something unusual going on.  Today it was that one of the hoists for the lifeboats (which are used as tenders) was malfunctioning and we wouldn’t be leaving on time.  We did leave by about 10:30 PM and shouldn’t have a problem reaching our next port.

Dinner was in Polo tonight, and I had the lobster.  The waiter removes all the meat from the shells and put mine in a heart as Valentine’s Day is coming!