Huahine- Day 3

I survived the first night pretty fine thanks to dramamine but we were happy to arrive bright and early in Huahine (who-ah-hee-knee). But if we thought Papeete wasn't that big, we were in for a surprise. Literally we tendered off the boat (meaning the water wasn't deep enough to anchor close to shore so we got on a little 100 person life boat to go in) and there were 3 buildings and 1 road. That was it!
We were early for our tour so we stopped at 1 of the 3 building to enjoy fresh squeezed pinapple juice. Yummy!





Very simple and cute. Then we all noticed the floor.

That's not rocks- that's coral. Which of course makes sense that you'd use the materials that are most readily available to you but it just seemed wrong somehow to be walking on it. I snagged a few pieces that were just amazing.

Beautiful even if there's only 3 buildings.

And once the whole family of 23 was there we headed off for what I think was the mostly interesting tour of the whole trip. We went with an archeologist from the US who now lives in Huahine and is studying their ancient cultures. He was fascinating to listen to especially since he was very opinionated about past and current culture in the islands.

Our first stop was to see the foundations of some of their oldest native temples- which of course were torn down because that's what you did if you moved in as a new religion (Catholic/Protestant/even Mormon). You converted the people and then tore down the old structures and built right on top. Actually that's world history too! Ethan and Isaac- not so interested, but to me, fascinating to hear. His whole message was that what we consider paradise to live in, never really was- there were always food shortages because of over population and then wars and bloody times to fight for land and so when the missionaries came to the islands, they may have changed things for the future but it wasn't all bad. Often the wars stopped and the people became more industrious, and really it was their choice to embrace the culture of the Europeans and wasn't really forced upon them.

So how do my kids survive VERY long lectures out in the afternoon Tahitian sun? They find rocks to climb on.

And not ripe mangoes to use as soccer balls.

One of the fascinating things to hear was the why behind some of the local culture. Tahitians really are very poor even though it's a first world country. Our archaeologist explained that really it's because they don't see a need for more. The land and sea literally provide everything they need and it doesn't require much effort from them. You need shelter, the trees and their leaves provide that. You're hungry, just pick fruit from any of the 1000's around you. You need protein, go catch a fish in the ocean which apparently is VERY easy. They really don't need much more than food and shelter and only that occasionally. There are no poisonous animals or predators at all on the islands. Really nothing to harm them and really not even any tropical diseases. So when you easily get most everything you need, why do you need to work more. Interesting to compare that to our European ancestors who needed so much and had to work so hard to get the land to provide for all their needs so they could survive.

It was a little surprising to stop under this mango tree and see just hundreds of the fruits rotting on the ground just because no one needed them so they didn't bother to come pick them. Oh well, they work great as soccer balls for little boys.

Then we headed up the mountain to see more of their temple and some of their fortifications against other tribes invading. Really, not too much to see and sadly our guide pointed out that the local people know almost nothing about their heritage. When he arrived and started exploring, he found these foundations and asked the locals what they were for. They told them they were pig pens, which of course they're not, but once the wars stopped, they were no longer needed. The people moved down closer to the water to live and their old temples crumbled and the foundations were later used to house pigs. Still amazing to see.

After the temples we headed off to see how they catch fish. Hundreds of years ago they built these fish traps. They're actually is disrepair now since only part of the rocks is above water but if they were working they'd look like this but all the rocks would be about a foot above the water. They work by the fish swimming into them and not realizing they're in a trap. Then fishermen with nets with start at one end and just walk to the other end of the zigzag kind of herding the fish the whole way, and at the end there's a ramp so the fish literally have no where to go and they just scoop them into the nets. They only had to do this every few days so there'd be plenty of fish. Ingenius!

When we were there, there really were hundreds of fish just swimming around and in it and if the walls were built back up I'm sure it would function well.

After the fish traps we went to see the native blue eyed eels. Very creepy.

They came out when our guide offered them bits of fish but were pretty fast to go back and hard to get on film. Blue eyes though.

There's our ship anchored out in the bay.