Travel with Indigo

Though we were anchored in this island’s immense lagoon for just two days it was one of my and the crews’ favorites. Entering the lagoon from the ocean was no easy task. The reef break at the pass is not a whole lot wider than Indigo. Midway through it’s necessary to make a hard turn to starboard, this while being pushed along from behind by the gentle swell welling up from the sea. But the captain managed a flawless entry employing the great skill he has acquired over many years at sea.

Once inside, the lagoon the waters turn from the deep blue of the Pacific to opalescent shades of blues and greens that are among the most beautiful anywhere in the world. Maupiti is famous for these waters, so we lowered the tender and went buzzing around the lagoon just marveling at the place. Through the gin clear water it was easy to see spotted leopard rays and eagle rays soaring along and the litter of sea cucumbers and assorted other creatures on the bottom. The fluffy white sand beaches lining this fabulous lagoon are themselves lined with coconut palms whose leaves rustle in the gentle sea breezes. Presiding over all this is the island’s ancient volcanic mountain, Teura Faatui, covered over in dense jungle.

For lunch we took a folding table, camp chairs, plenty of cold beer, food, a barbecue grill, portable speakers and my iPod and set up camp on a gorgeous spit of white sand beach under the shade of some exotic trees. There we ate wonderful grilled fish, drank beer, swam and snoozed and admired our surroundings. It was about as fine a way to have lunch as there is.

Just as we were settling in an enterprising islander came by in his outrigger canoe to offer us any of a variety of entertainment drugs, a kind of water borne pharmacy. Drug use is a problem in the islands, as elsewhere in the world, but it’s not overwhelming. The greatest social devastation comes from booze, generally in the form of the homemade and mildly hallucinogenic stuff made from the fruit of the kava tree. It’s easy to find the trees, pick the fruit and make up a batch or two, so the people, mostly men naturally, use a lot of it.

Maupiti’s population is just 1,192 and these have resolutely declined to permit any hotel or resort development so there are few tourists. As a result of so little human traffic, it is the most unspoiled and lovely place imaginable. With regret, we set off the next morning for the thirty mile trip to the tourist haven of Bora Bora whose soaring peaks are visible to the east.