Farther from a continental landfall than any other group of islands on earth, the twelve Marquesas jut out of the open Pacific just south of the equator, shrouded in a constant cloud cover. Brooding volcanic pinnacles pierce the landscape, while the lush vegetation overflows with sweet-smelling plumeria, bougainvillea, orchids, spider lilies, flamboyant, ginger, ylang-ygland, jasmine and tiare flowers.

Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana arrived at this Eden in 1595 and stayed long enough to name the islands Las Marquesas de Mendoza for the wife of his patron. Later, whalers, missionaries, and explorers wreaked havoc upon the population of 50,000 with rifles and diseases. Today, some 7,000 people inhabit six of the islands, while six remain uninhabited.

France helps support the Marquesas, providing the basics of modernization, from schools to rustic roads. The beneath these civilized trappings, a wild pulse still leaps in the streams and the fierceness of the old religion remains alive in the ruins and tikis half devoured by jungle.

The Marquesas Islands, named by its people ìTe Henau Enanaî (Land of the Men), consist of six inhabited islands and six smaller unpopulated islands.

They are divided into two distinct groups about 60 miles apart. Nuku-Hiva, the administrative and economic center of the Marquesas, lies 932 miles northeast of Tahiti, in the northern group. Ua Huka and Ua Pou are also in this group, with the southern Marquesas including Hiva Oa, Tahuata and Fatu Hiva.

Accommodations are available in small pensions and family homes on each island, and activities include Landrover excursions, horseback riding, hiking over mountain trails and to inland cascades, picnics on the beach or mountains, deep-sea fishing, sailing, motorboat rides, visits to archaeological sites, visits to artisansí workshops to buy wood carvings, tapa hangings and monoi perfumed oils.

How to get there: AIR TAHITI has 5 flights a week from Tahiti to Nuku Hiva (3 1/2 hour flight).

By boat: the mixed-freighter ARANUI takes up to 100 passenger in air-conditionned cabins for a 16 day cruise from Tahiti to the Marquesas through the Tuamotu archipelago and back. It offers deluxe accomodation and meals as well as land excursions in the various islands.

Nuku Hiva, with 127 sq. miles of surface area, is the largest island in the Marquesas archipelago. Its beauty from the sea or from high above the islands is truly breathtaking.

The 2,100 inhabitants live in Taiohae, Taipivai, Hatiheu, Aakapa, Pua, Houmi, Anaho and Hakaui, where they work for the government, the community, Catholic church or school system, or for themselves -- chopping copra high in the mountains, fishing, raising cattle and other livestock, or sculpting bowls and platters or making Marquesan ceremonial clubs, tikiís and ukuleles.

Taiohae is a pleasant village bordering the sea. It is the administrative, economic, educational and health center of the Marquesas Islands.

Here are the French and Territorial administrators, the government buildings, gendarmerie, post office, general hospital, town hall, Air Tahiti office, banks, schools, well-stocked stores and shops.

Sundays and holidays are just as busy as any work day, when the villagers drive back and forth along the sea front road in their 4-wheel drive vehicles, calling out to their friends, and stopping to join the on-going game of petanque or French bowls, played under the flowering flamboyant tree in the front of the town hall. Nearby, the women sit under a shelter and win money playing bingo.

ACCOMMODATION: KEIKAHANUI PEARL LODGE Located on Nuku Hiva, a 5 minutes ride from the capital town of Taiohae, it overlooks the magnificent Bay of Taiohae. The hotel offers 12 deluxe and 8 premium deluxe bungalows, all with views over the bay. The bungalows are built with local materials and each of them have carvings by a different artist. The bungalows mix comfort and aesthetic beauty, providing mini-bar, air conditioning, telephone, television, video, and bathroom with views over the bay and a panoramic terrace.

Above the steady rumble of the Pacific surge, the sharply sculpted mountains of Hiva Oa hide their summits in the mists of rain-filled clouds. The largest and most fertile island in the southern group of the Marquesas, Hiva Oa has deep valleys, lush plateaus and thickly wooded forests.

Located 740 miles northeast of Tahiti, the town of Atuona is the administrative center for the southern Marquesas. Frames in a theater of mountains with the Bay of Traitors providing safe anchorage, Atuona is a favorite port of call for yachts and copra ships.

Atuona village has a gendarmerie, small hospital, post office, banks, weather station, Ait Tahiti office, pensions, restaurants and snack bars, stores and chops, telephones and TV.
There is a Catholic mission with a boarding school and a Protestant church. A path up the cliffs behind the village leads to Calvary Cemetery.

Here are the simple graves of two men who chose the Marquesas as their final home and resting place, the French painter Paul Gauguin and Belgian singer Jacques Brel.

Ua Huka

A crescent shaped island situated 22 miles east of Nuku Hiva and 35 miles northeast of Ua Pou, Ua Huka is the smallest of the northern Marquesan group and home to 539 inhabitants.
A vast plateau spreads out at the base of Mount Hitikau, with an arid, desert like topo scrub brush.

Wild horses roam the tablelands and herds of goats graze around and on the small airstrip. Wild cotton and fragrant herbs cover the hills of the southern coast and offshore islets are home to thousands of sea birds. The coast off Haavei is rich in sea life, filled with sharks, dolphins, manta ray, big turtles, lobster and a variety of fish.

The oldest archaeological site so far discovered in the Marquesas is at Haíatuatua in Hane, which was settled between 254-300 A.D.

A second archeological site of Vaikki permits each visitor to admire ancient petroglyphs. A small museum of Marquesan artifacts is found in Vaipaee, a second museum in Hane and the fern-covered valleys conceal ruins from the seven tribes who formerly inhabited Ua Huka. Near Hane are three tiki sculpted from red rock. These and other sites may be visited by foot, horseback or by all-purpose terrain vehicles.

Tahuata

Tahuata, with only 19 sq. miles of land, is the smallest populated island in the Marquesas.

Separated from Hiva Oa by a channel one-mile wide, Tahuataís history has been varied and often grim. It was in Vaitahu Bay that Mendana anchored in 1595 and named the island group Las Marquesas. Following Capt. James Cookís visit in 1774, Vaitahuís harbor was named Resolution Bay.

This village also received the first Protestant and Catholic missionaries, and the first Marquesan church was built here. And it was at Vaitahu that the French took possession of the Marquesas, establishing a garrison in 1842.

Tahuataís inhabitants live a quiet life today, working peacefully in their verdant valleys, raising agricultural products; bananas or sweet potatoes, making copra and fishing in the rich waters surrounding the island. There is no airport and boat day in Tahuata is a main event, when the copra ship arrives with food and supplies. Vaitahu is the main village, with a town hall, post office, dispensary, big cathedral and primary school. The population of the entire island was only 633 in the 1988 Census.

Fatu Hiva

Fatu Hiva is the southernmost island of the Marquesas archipelago, 35 miles southeast of Tahuata.
The island is wild and spectacularly beautiful. The jungle greenery begins at the waterís edge, with narrow ravines, deep gorges and luxuriant valleys briefly open to view as the boat glides past, close to the sheer cliffs that plunge straight down into the splashing surf.
The Bay of Virgins was sculpted by Nature in her most generous mood. Rock curtains, which Catholic missionaries said were formed as veiled virgins, enclose Hanavava Bay. White patches of goats and sheep look down from their green mansions above the quiet harbor.
Blessed with abundant rain and rich, fertile soil, sweet and juicy citrus fruits fill the gardens. Large, tasty shrimp live in the rivers that rush through each valley and rock lobsters are plentiful. Dried bananas are a specialty of Fatu Hiva, as is the Umu Hei Monoi -- a delightful blend of coconut oil, sandalwood, spearmint, jasmine, ginger root, pineapple, sweet basil, gardenia, pandanus fruit, ylang-ylang and other mysterious herbs.

These flowers and herbs are used as perfumes for massages to seduce a boyfriend or to ward off mosquitoes. Sculptors carve miro (rosewood), tou and sandalwood, plus coconuts and basaltic stones. They produce bowls, platters, small canoes, turtles, tiki and other designs. The artisans of Fatu Hiva still produce tapa cloth, made from the bark of trees and painted with the same designs their ancestors formerly wore as tattoos.

The 497 inhabitants live in the villages of Omoa and Hanavave, which are separated by 3 miles of sea. A narrow path winds over the mountains between the two villages offering a challenging hike and panoramic views. The Catholic church in Omoa is one of the most picturesque scenes in any Marquesan village. Facilities include food stores, a post office, direct dial international communications, a town hall and primary schools.