This week’s dream: a Polynesian island paradise
A dozen small, volcanic outcrops in the middle of the Pacific Ocean – so remote that they have their own time zone – the Marquesas Islands have been used as a “retreat from reality” by countless artists and outsiders over the past couple of centuries, says Emma Thomson in Wanderlust. Herman Melville jumped ship here in 1842; Robert Louis Stevenson visited in 1888; Paul Gauguin spent his last few (absinthe-soaked, syphilis-blighted) years on the main island of Hiva Oa, reportedly fathering numerous children by local women.
The archipelago remains a haven of peace and solitude today. Indeed, its population – at roughly 9,000 – is far lower now than it was in the 18th century, owing largely to the impact of smallpox and other diseases brought by European colonists. First to arrive, in 1595, were the Spanish, who were horrified by the locals’ extensive tattoos, their “lewd dancing” and apparently uninhibited sex lives. The islands now form part of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France, and are ruled from Tahiti, some 900 miles away.
The island of Fatu Hiva has one of the world’s most striking coastlines, especially in the Bay of Virgins, surrounded by tall, “phallic” peaks. Ua Pou is like “a Jurassic Park film set” with its “conical emerald mountains”. The islands have several spectacular ancient cultural sites. On Nuku Hiva, human victims were once sacrificed at Kamuihei, a grassy square ringed by huge stones and giant banyan trees. Rocks in the area are adorned with more than 2,000 ancient petroglyphs, depicting turtles, fish and human faces. And high in the mountains on Hiva Oa is Puama’u, the finest archaeological site of them all, where numerous tikis – huge carved stone characters embodying Polynesian ancestors – stand on the edge of the jungle. Discover the World (01737-214291, www.discoverthe-world.co.uk) has a 14-day Marquesas Islands cruise aboard the Aranui V from £4,666pp, including meals and flights.