French Polynesia
Hanavave lies in a deep bay on the western coast of Fatu Hiva, the southernmost and most remote island of the Marquesas archipelago in French Polynesia — a place so spectacularly beautiful that Thor Heyerdahl chose it for his first South Pacific sojourn in 1937, and so isolated that the village's 600 residents live essentially as their ancestors did, connected to the outside world by a supply ship that arrives once every three weeks. The Bay of Virgins (Baie des Vierges, originally Baie des Verges before missionaries renamed it) is framed by volcanic spires of such dramatic, phallic verticality that the name change is understandable, and the bay itself — deep, calm, and bordered by jungle-covered mountains — is consistently cited among the most beautiful natural harbors in the world.
Fatu Hiva is the youngest and wettest of the Marquesas, its volcanic peaks wringing moisture from the trade winds and channeling it down steep valleys cloaked in dense tropical forest. The vegetation is extraordinary even by Polynesian standards — breadfruit, coconut, mango, citrus, and the wild hibiscus whose bark provides the material for the island's renowned tapa cloth. Waterfalls cascade from the interior heights after every rain, their streams feeding gardens of taro, banana, and the endemic plants that botanists travel thousands of miles to study. The absence of a reef around Fatu Hiva — unusual in French Polynesia — means that the ocean arrives at the island's shores with full Pacific force, creating dramatic surf on the exposed coasts and contributing to the island's sense of elemental wildness.
The culinary life of Hanavave is Polynesian subsistence at its purest. Breadfruit, the starchy fruit that sustained Pacific islanders for centuries, is prepared in every conceivable way — baked, boiled, fried, fermented into ma (a preserved paste stored in leaf-lined pits), and roasted directly on coals. Fresh fish — tuna, mahi-mahi, and the reef fish caught in the rocky shallows — is served raw as poisson cru or grilled whole over coconut-husk fires. Goat meat, from the feral populations that roam the island's interior, is curried or stewed with local vegetables. The umuhei — bundles of fragrant herbs, flowers, and sandalwood that Marquesan women tuck behind their ears — represent the island's most characteristic cultural expression, their complex fragrances embodying the botanical richness of Fatu Hiva's forests.
The cultural traditions of the Marquesas are among the most vigorous in Polynesia. Marquesan tattooing — intricate geometric patterns that once covered the entire body — is experiencing a revival, and tattoo artists in the archipelago produce work that connects contemporary practice to the pre-contact tradition. Tapa cloth production, in which the inner bark of the banyan tree is beaten into sheets and decorated with natural dyes in traditional patterns, continues on Fatu Hiva with particular intensity — the island is the last in French Polynesia where tapa is still regularly produced, and the cloths are prized by collectors and museums worldwide. Wood and stone carving — tikis, war clubs, ceremonial bowls — maintains the artistic vocabulary of a culture that produced some of the most powerful sculptural art in the Pacific.
Fatu Hiva has no airport — the island is reached by the Aranui 5 passenger-cargo vessel from Tahiti (a journey of approximately four days that is itself one of the great sea voyages of the Pacific), by inter-island supply ship, or by expedition cruise vessels that anchor in the Bay of Virgins and tender passengers to the beach. There is no hotel in the conventional sense — a handful of family-run pensions provide simple accommodation. The driest months are July through October, though Fatu Hiva's lush vegetation depends on regular rainfall, and showers can occur in any season. Visitors should bring insect repellent (the nono — no-see-um flies — are persistent), modest clothing for village visits, and an appetite for one of the most authentic and unspoiled Polynesian experiences remaining in the Pacific.