REFLECTIONS
Alexandre, owner of the valley where I just came from, also owns a house in Taiohae, the main village on Nuku Hiva. He offered me a place to sleep at his house so I could pack my gear up to get ready for the flight the next day. Again I happily accepted the true kindness of the Marquesian people. This is also what I take away from this expedition. While I sat in the 2-propeller plane back to Tahiti I had time to reflect. Yes, even one of the remotest places in the world has changed a little, more modern with cell phones and French bread, but what hasn’t changed were the people. It was good to see that you don’t need much to be happy; that the people around you and the place you live in makes you happy. Here people help one another and have a lot of time for each other. Something the modern world can learn from. The last 13 days flew by, the Marquesas and especially its people made a deep impression on me.
To make this story complete I visited the Thor Heyerdahl museum in Oslo. A great exhibition of all the journeys he made and things he achieved. The original Kon-Tiki and RA I and II rafts are both on display. I was lucky enough to meet Thor Heyerdahl Jr. there, now 80 years old but in many ways a son of his father, a nice man overflowing with knowledge and enjoyment of life. He has worked on many projects together with his dad and is still very involved with the museum. I think of Thor as an explorer but Thor Jr. explained to me he wanted to be seen as a scientist rather than the explorer. His wife Liz who joined him to Fatu Hiva was the adventurer and explorer.
This world is so special and there is so much more to explore.