Omoa Village Fatu Hiva

About 3 miles south of the village of Hanavave on the island of Fatu Iva is the larger village of Omoa. The anchorage is supposed to be more open and rolly, so we decided to take the dingy down there and check it out. This gave us a chance to see the rugged coast line we missed when we arrived here just after dark. It is down there by the tall hill behind the next point.

One of the impressive crevasses on the way.

Steep rugged terrain is why there are only the two villages on Fatu Hiva.

The village comes into view with a deep valley behind and larger church.

We tied up at the quay. Our inflatable among the small aluminum boats mostly also from Hanavave.

The Welcome to Omoa sign with Tiki and a 6 man racing va'a.

We noticed many tikis throughout this village, including these by the government offices.

This one was in a fence.

This one is on the road coming from the quay.

There were several by the tourist office too. Me with the orange stone one.

And this one in front of the office on a planter.

Inside the tourist office we found this interesting poster about the many different tikis that have been found throughout the Marquesas.

At the tourist office we picked up a schedule for the festival in December on the island of Tahuata and got she drew us a map to find the ancient stone petroglyphs we had read about. The houses in this village are well groomed.

Flowers line the road.

This man waved at us while working on his Polynesian lawnmower (a weed wacker).

He had a beautiful gardens both flower and vegetable. His raised bed veggie garden reminded me of the ones my Aunt Rhema planted at her house in Virginia.

As we walked up the road we went past the red roofed white church we had seen from the sea.

There are many very nice homes here.

This guy has a nice view of a god made tiki on the mountain behind him.

Many homes had big rock outcroppings behind them.

A neatly kept garage for an offshore fishing boat and utility trailer built from modern materials.

We finally find the green house where we are supposed to turn on the map to find the petroglyphs.

As we arrive in the wooded area we found the pig pens also drawn on our map.

Poor little (big) piggie. Not much room to run around, but mostly raised for food, not as a pet!!

Coming down the path were these men who had just harvested some coconuts to make copra with. They were very friendly and confirmed we were on the correct path.

Continuing up the hill, we see lots and lots of coconut trees.

And the spot where they left the husks to burn.

We had a feeling we were getting close when we spotted this tree with ancient looking stones stacked around it.

We checked this rock, but it was not the one we were looking for, but it was being split in two by the tree!

This rock looks suspiciously like a good one to carve on.

Sure enough we found many petroglifs, some quite worn though the years. Is this tiki eyes or a snail??

Obviously a man, looks similar to the one on the way to the waterfall we found.

A very large person?

Definitely a boat.

And the most famous one, the fish. So since that was my nickname in college, Mike took my photo with him.

A good view of the whole chiseled rock.

On the way back down the hill, it started to sprinkle.

But not enough to put out the fire across from the banana trees.

In among those banana trees we see bee hives. Someone has to pollinate all of those flowers!

There is quite a root ball under these palms and look at the size of that boulder!

Big rock!!

Back down by the green house where we turned is a large copra shed with a roof over it to keep the rain off and it keeps the fire wood dry too!

We walked further up the main road and found more lovely homes well decorated with plants.

I love the big wrap around porch on this one. Great place to sit and hang out, come rain or shine!

The things in their driveway were these banana drying racks under plexiglas to accentuate the suns rays(when it is shining!).

The creek through the village was running strong.

When we got to the bridge where the road goes over the creek, it started dumping down rain!!

To be continued.................