January 9, 2026
This is a part of the world I had seldom heard or seen photos documenting. The Marquesas were named after the 16th century Spanish Viceroy of Peru, the Marquis of Canete, by navigator Alvaro de Mendana who visited them in 1595. Nuku Hiva meaning "the land of men" is a group of volcanic islands. The highest point is the peak on Mount Oave, on Ua Pou Island at 4,035 feet above sea level.
The community of Taiohae, the town we tendered into on Ua Pou Island had a cultural event for us in the most gorgeous setting - twighlit along the harbor. The performance was very engaging, complete with getting volunteers from our group, up for dance lessons.
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The town itself was quite charming with tons of statues and gorgeous vistas wherever you look!
Day 1 @ Eco Cove Resort we met this lovely young couple, Camille and Timothe from France. At the 6:30 pm nightly briefing, we found out we were randomly paired with them for the next day's excursion to the famed Melissa's Garden in the Fam Islands, which is about a 35 minutes boat ride from resort. We sat with them at dinner and instantly connected.
Getting to Cove Eco Resort on Yeben Island in Raja Ampat , Indonesia took us three plane rides, a ferry and finally a private boat ride to the resort. We left Perth, Australia on Easter Sunday Morning and we arrived at Cove Eco Resort at sunset on Tuesday night. It is a beautiful spot, but like alot of places in Raja Ampat remote and your biggest cost is fuel / transport to get there and back. We got hit especially hard for having to change our flights on Easter due to the weather we hit in Australia, delaying our departure by a day. But all is good and we are excited to be here!
Monday April 6th is another travel day for us on our destination to remote Raja Ampat . We started the day at 5am to make our 7am flight from Denpasar, Bali to Sultan Hasanuddin Airport in South Sulawesi for our brief layover to connect with our flight onto Sorong, Indonesia.