We stayed an extra day on Nuku Hiva. Joel made friends with a middle aged couple upon the catamaran Ile de Grace; Princeton grads, a swank boat, lifetimes of successes impossible to conceal despite their modesty and kindness . They were renting a 4x4 to tour the island and invited us along.
Crammed in to our Suzuki Jimmy we traversed the island's dirty switchback roads. The AC cranked, the wife talking a bit, the husband clearly pleased to be at the helm, Joel silent, me content to listen and look. In 8 hours of slow driving we encountered 5 distinct micro-climates, 6 ancient ruins, 4 small villages, 1 decent lunch spot and 1 million roosters.
The scenery was out of a movie. By the first vista I knew I could neither photograph nor write of the beauty adequately. By the 20th vista the thrill was gone, and looking at my pictures I adequately captured my boredom and desire for a cold drink. I settled for a cigarette. Puffing away in the heat I hiked up through the jungle. At the top were ruins. Marquesas tiki makers love the badonkadonk. I took lots of pictures of tiki butts which surrounded a platform used in cannibalistic sacrifice.
The ruins were interesting for 5 minutes. But,finding no evidence of cannibalistic ritual, a vending machine, or girls I walked back to the Suzuki. That was my jungle excursion. In the remainder of the day I walked through a high desert, a forest, an evergreen forest, and a tropical palm tree forest. No girls or cold drink in any of these micro-climates either. Just, lots of horses, chickens, lizards, no-nos, goats, and cows accompanied by the equivalent amount of shit (which I began to take pictures of as well).
We set sail to Ua Pou the following morning. It was only a day trip south. The island is smaller, hotter and without tourists. Above our mast rises 2 massive cone-like peaks shrouded in clouds. The landscape has the quintessential stranded on an uninhabited island look. One is met with a certain ominous feeling-- particularly as one gazes up the elevation towards a quite unreachable summit. 
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