Day Three, July 17: Passage to Fare and Ecotour, Huahine
Baie Bourayne
Coming off of the anchorage in Baie d'Avea on the morning of July 17, we cruised up the west coast of Huahine inside the lagoon to pick up a mooring at Fare. On our way there, we moored off the entrance to the beautiful Baie Bourayne. We then took a dingy and spent a lovely morning exploring this bay, which is contiguous with Baie Maroe through a small inlet that cuts the island of Huahine in half, separating Huahine Nui in the north from Huahine Iti in the south.
A bridge over the inlet
This is a small fishing shack in Bourayne Bay. It is an example of a *sustainable *macroeconomy in the Society Islands.
We hope to return on a *mission trip and support this fisherman and his family as they struggle to maintain their way of life in the age of *market globalism. This will also supply many photo opportunities for our upcoming Christmas card.
Unfortunately, *Global Warming threatens their way of life by driving CO2 ocean acidification which kills the bottom of the food chain, eventually depleting the fish population. *Imaginative ways of *investing in *solar energy and *foreign aid will allow this family to have a *sustainable HVAC system placed in their shack as a respite from the torrid tropical heat. This will provide *safe spaces against the *macro and *microaggressions typical of the *cultural imperialsm of western captalist society.
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*This is a portion of an article submitted to National Geographic
National Geographic Key Words
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Sustainable
microeconomy
mission
market globalism
global warming
imaginative
invest
solar energy
foreign aid
safe spaces
micro-aggression
cultural imperialism
If it all fails, they can just continue to rely on the French government $5 billion subsidy - Cathy
Baie Bourayne
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Fare Harbor
By lunch time we were moored just off of the sleepy village of Fare. This is a lovely Polynesian town that does not have the commercialism and resorts of some parts of The Society Islands.
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We ambled through Fare, stopping to eat at a roulet (a food truck) by the side of the main road and sampled the poisson cru (raw tuna sandwich).
{fish brochettes too - yumm - Cathy}
Afterward we met our guide for the afternoon to take us on an excusion around the island......
Marae Paepae Ofata
Human remains in marae
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We were just chillin' on a rocky hillside and our guide was like, "look under that rock at your feet." We were being watched from beneath the rocks..... - Meredith
Our tour guide was Maevi from Island Eco Tours. These guys do an excellent job. The owner, Paul Attala, is a former student of Professor Yisihiko Sinoto who excavated and restored many of the most important archeological remains in the Society Islands. Paul Attala and our guide Maevi are still active in excavating and restoring the Archeological remains of Huahine.
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The Ancient Polynesians were Neoloithic. Organic remains quickly disapear in the tropical envionment, so only those archeological sites made of stone survive, the most prominent being the marae.
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Marea are the worship and sacrificial centers of Polynesia. Sacrifices - plant, animal and human - were performed there. Cannibalism was also common in Polynesia, but not in the Society Islands. A typical marae consists of a stone pavement with verticle upright stones placed throughout for the priests and the gods to sit. The raised platform towards the front of the marae is the Ahu where the the dead were buried. The remains of human sacrifices were buried outside of the marae.
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The sacred distict of Huahine where most of the marae are located is in Maeva on the north side of Huahine Nui which boarders Lake Fauna Nui.This is where our tour was centered.
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Perhaps the most dramatic portion of our tour came when Maevi descibed a special type of human sacrifice: The Ai Mata, The Eating of the Eye.......
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Marae of Maeva
Marae Manunu: The community Marae of Huahine, dedicated to the gods Oro, the god of war, and Tane, the god of fertility.
The grave of the last priest of Huahine, Raiti. Raiti died in 1915, and at the moment of his death the wall of Marae Manunu collapsed. Thus ending the centuries old religion of the Polynesians on Huahine.
For decades, the people of Huahine woud not go near this site for fear of being cursed. The marae has only recently been restored.
Further south along Lake Fauna Nui one approaches the village of Faie, the southernmost limit of the sacred district. Here reside the sacred Blue Eyed Eels of Faie. The villagers apparently believe that the eels contain the souls of their relatives, so they are protected and hand fed by the local residents and tourists like us.
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These eels are fresh water eels for much of their lifetime, but they make a yearly migration into open ocean to spawn and then return to their home stream. No one knows the location of the spawning grounds.