Clearing in and checking out Hiva Oa Town
10 April 2024 | Hiva Oa
Kirk Groehnert | Mostly Sunny, a few showers

This morning, being well rested, we got up around 6:30, had coffee and then promptly got ready to go to town and check in.
We were a little worried because there are Zoom meetings with Facebook groups for people making the journey to French Polynesia. During those meetings (plus all the online resources) there is a talk of the need for health insurance of a particular type, a return air ticket, bonds that need to be purchased for repatriation, and other things. Basically, things that make sure you will not be a burden to their society here and that you will indeed leave when you are supposed to.
There was none of that, well except the need for a "dummy" airline ticket to leave the country at some point which is easy enough - just buy an airline ticket and don't pay for it. You have 48 hours to pay and then it gets cancelled on certain airlines. This was the easiest check-in we ever did! What a pleasant surprise! And free!
With that out of the way, we desperately needed something to eat. We found a street side vendor barbecuing chicken. It was delicious and of course we had to get the obligatory French pastries too.
Now that our bellies were full and we feel like we are allowed here, we walked around. It was very cool, almost like if Hawaii didn't have a bajillion tourists and resorts - what would it be like? Still beautiful and much more local flavor. Also very simple. That's pretty much the way Hiva Oa is.
Most everyone is Polynesian speaking French or a native tongue. They don't speak much English but they are very friendly. One of them stopped and gave us ride back to the harbor.
Crystal was trying to talk to a lady who had stopped by the chicken place and she happened to have the most cute little girl with her. Crystal asked to take a picture so she did.
Shopping for items is a little expensive depending on the item. They still use Francs here and it's like 1000 Francs = 9.00 USD which can be difficult to calculate sometimes. Bread is cheap tho, after all they French.
After our adventure in town, we came back to the boat and got a better anchor spot then relaxed with French bread sandwiches.