On the sea

It is so cool here on board, I've met already wonderful people and time flies. We had a complete day on board while heading to the marquesas yesterday. I do mention once the beauty of the colors when waves splashes around the ship, the stunning sunsets and the stars in the night, i can't find any superlatives to describe it. The day wasn't boring at all: I started with a workout in the gym, had a delicious breakfast with Sabrina, a Swiss lawyer who spends three month in the south pacific, Manu, a French who is traveling for almost a year and my New Zealand friends Lynn and Mike. Then we had a lecture from Jörg, the German guide. I decided to stay with the German group since it's the smallest and I think they have the coolest guide. There are 60 French speaking, 80 English speaking and around 25 German speaking and some others. In the afternoon we had a show on how to wear a pareo as well as some coconut leave braiding. We have a pool on board and the ship is moving so much that it is like being in the sea. I spent quite a time in there, playing with the waves, so much fun! Nahau, the animator, joined at some point and asked for some swimming tips. Not easy to swim or show how to do it in a washing machine. Moana, another of the lovely crew and the official tatooer of the ship asked me to take part of the fashion show after the captain presented his crew. Haha. Me and presenting clothes. But then, who cares. So I did it with Lynn, it was so much fun. And since I have no reputation to loose anymore (ahh you're that trouble maker!) we had a Karaoke night ending with me dancing salsa with Nahau. Today we arrived at Huku Niva, our first destination in this magical place on our planet.
The Marquesas are one of five archipelagos of French Polynesia with 6 island. Their names mean all another part of a house.
There used to live 75'000 people in this archipelago before white people came along with diseases, alcool and the catholicism. The number went down to 2000 in the beginning of the 20th century. The catholic church forbid them to wear tattoos, speak their language, dress in their traditional clothes, actually live their culture. Horrendous. A French doctor then started to introduce vaccines and do a lot of prevention so the population grew again.Read more