Papeete(Tahiti) to Valparaiso - E1231027023 Silver Explorer departing 27 Oct 2023

Formed by two ancient volcanoes and joined at the isthmus of Taravao, Tahiti is the largest island of the Society Archipelago and the economic heart of French Polynesia. Ever since the famous French impressionist painter Paul Gauguin immortalized Tahitian maidens in vibrant colors on his canvasses, Tahiti has had a mysterious allure and still summons up all the romance of the South Pacific as a tropical paradise.
Rising in the center, Mount Orohena and Mount Aorai are the highest points; deep valleys radiate in all directions from these central peaks. Steep slopes drop abruptly from the high plateaus to coastal plains. The northeast coast is rugged and rocky without a barrier reef, and thus exposed to intense, pounding surf. Villages lie on a narrow strip between mountains and ocean. The south coast is broad and gentle with large gardens and coconut groves; a barrier reef shields it from the sea.

Motu Vaiamanu is one of the reef islets found on Raivavae’s southeastern side. Covered mainly in coconut palm trees, beach heliotropes, pandanus and casuarina, this motu and its neighboring islets are typical South Sea gems. White sandy beaches, crystal-clear waters, seabirds circling above and reef fish next to the coral heads in the lagoon make for perfect relaxation.

The island of Rapa (or Rapa Iti) is the southernmost inhabited island of French Polynesia. It has a protected central bay and is surrounded by a ring of mountains; the island appears to be a sinking volcano with the bay as the caldera. There are with two villages located on the island: the main village of Ahurei and the smaller village of ‘Area. Within Ahurei there are 28 ridgetop fortresses, the best example of which is the fortress of Morunga Uta. View less

Excavated in 1956 by William Mulloy from Wyoming and local helpers, this fort -as all the others too- would indicate local warfare by the 16th to 17th century. The two villages today have a combined population of 515 inhabitants and are famous throughout French Polynesia for their religious singing. Experience a traditional presentation in Ahurei.

Some 75 kilometres southeast of Rapa are the four uninhabited rocks that make up the Bass Group, known as Marotiri to the Polynesians. According to stories from Rapa, these rocks were used on occasions to exile unwanted Rapans. The rocks are an important breeding site for seabirds and fish are abundant. Pending permission by the French Polynesian authorities we will take our Zodiacs to cruise around the four rocks and look for the seabird colonies on French Polynesia’s most remote possession.

In the Gambier Islands of French Polynesia, Mangareva is the largest island with a population of over 1,200 people. Most live in Rikitea, the largest village on the island. A high central ridge runs the length of Mangareva peaking with Mt. Duff, which rises over 440 meters from the sea on the island’s south coast. The island has a large lagoon sprinkled with coral reefs whose tropical fish and the black-lip oysters have helped islanders survive much more successfully than on other nearby islands. View less

Small ships are able to enter the lagoon of Mangareva. Ashore visitors can walk through the town, see the remains of the massive stone and coral buildings dating back to the 19th century or climb up Mt. Duff. The highlights in town include the cathedral with its mother-of-pearl shell altar and objects designed and built in the 1830s and 1840s and partially restored by the students of Rikitea’s school just a few years ago.

Named after whaling ship Oeno, Oeno Island is a small (0.5 square kilometer) islet part of the coral atoll by the same name and the westernmost of the Pitcairn Islands. This beautiful island is low-lying and rarely visited, with the exception of nearby Pitcairners formerly arriving on their annual holidays. The little island is surrounded by white sandy beaches inside a stunning blue lagoon studded with vegetation. A sand bar, which is constantly undergoing change, is currently unattached to the island. View less

Oeno has been designated as an Important Bird Area by Birdlife International, as it is home to a number of seabirds such as Murphy’s Petrels (with one of the largest colonies of this bird in the world), Sooty Terns and Brown Noddies. The island is as storied as it is tiny, with a history of at least four separate shipwrecks and the eradication of Polynesian rats some twenty years ago (the eradication of the rats allowed for the birds to have a higher chance of survival). Access to the island is quite limited, as the currents close to the channel leading to the island can be quite strong and one has to carefully navigate around the many coral heads.

Home to the original mutineers of the Bounty, Adamstown’s is today the capital of all four Pitcairn Islands. The islands – the last British Overseas Territory in the Pacific – include the namesake Pitcairn Island itself, plus the uninhabited Oeno, Henderson and Ducie. Pitcairn is the archipelago’s only inhabited island, with the population of just 50 centred in Adamstown.

It is no surprise that the nine mutineers along with six Tahitian men, 12 Tahitian women and one child stopped on Pitcairn in 1790; with its sloped and varied landscape, lush tropical promise and equidistant location between Peru and New Zealand, Pitcairn would have seemed an ideal hiding spot for the mutineers to settle. The ship was burnt to avoid detection (the ballast stone remains of the wreck in Bounty Bay). However, the ideal bucolic life that mutineer leader Fletcher Christian had envisaged was not to be. Poor treatment of the Tahitian men led to alcoholism, chaos and carnage and by 1800 only John Adams – who had recently discovered Christianity – remained. Adams taught the women and children to read and write from the bible. The capital is named after him. Not only had the island been misplaced on early maps of the region, but it can also be very difficult to come ashore as large breakers tend to build up just in front of the small harbour of Bounty Bay. The local museum houses the HMS Bounty Bible, the same bible that Adams taught the women and children to read and write from in the early 19th century.

Henderson Island is a raised coral atoll comprising 86% of the land area of the British Overseas Territory of the Pitcairn Islands. In 1820, a sperm whale rammed and sank the whale ship Essex, shipwrecking the crew on Henderson, the inspiration for Moby Dick. Locals from Pitcairn Island use Henderson as a source of valuable miro wood, and tantalising archaeological discoveries have been made indicating habitation by Polynesian settlers in the past. The area was under the sway of the Polynesian society based around the Gambier Islands. View less

When these islands saw environmental and economic decline, it seems Henderson Island was abandoned. It was formally annexed to the British Empire in 1902 by Captain G. F. Jones, along with his crew of Pitcairn Islanders. Henderson is one of the two raised coral atolls in the world which have been relatively untouched by humans, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. Due to its splendid isolation, many species here are found nowhere else in the world, including ten flowering plants, all four of its land birds (such as the Henderson Lorikeet), and many of its invertebrates, along with many species found across the Pacific, such as the giant coconut crab.

Discovered in 1606 by Pedro Fernandez de Quiros on his way to the Solomon Islands, Ducie is a small isolated atoll and is the easternmost of the Pitcairn Islands. The island’s most prominent bit of history is the 1881 wreckage of the ship Acadia, which ran aground on the island when the lookout mistook the island for a cloud due to its white beaches.

Ducie is a mere speck in the surrounding expanse of ocean, uninhabited except for the estimated 500,000 nesting seabirds that reside among the two plant species (Beach Heliotrope and at least one specimen of Pemphis) that grow over seventy percent of the island. Bird species that visitors may be able to see include Murphy’s Petrels, White Terns, Great Frigatebirds and Masked Boobies. Under good conditions the wreck of the Acadia or the atoll’s lagoon waters offer interesting snorkel opportunities.

Easter Island, the easternmost settled island of Polynesia, received its European name in 1722 when the island was seen by a Dutch expedition under Roggeveen on Easter Sunday. The triangular-shaped island of 163 square kilometers is famous for the hundreds of statues known locally as moai. Rolling hills covered in grassland, eucalyptus forest and a rocky shore surround Hangaroa, the island’s only village on the southwestern coast.

This is where Captain Cook landed in 1774, where missionaries built the first church and where ships find the best protection from winds and swells. Small beaches and transparent waters invite swimmers and snorkelers, but it is the cultural aspect which attracts visitors. Since 1935 the island has been a National Historic Monument and today 43.5% of the island is a national park administered by the Chilean National Forest Corporation and Mau Henua, a local community group. The island’s national park has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. Found slightly more than 3,500 kilometers west of Chile, the island was annexed in 1888. Used as a sheep ranch for many decades, the island was opened in 1965 and an airstrip was built. The US Air Force set up a base to record the behavior of the earth’s outer atmosphere and by 1987 NASA had the runway extended as an emergency runway for the space shuttle. This never happened, but tourism benefitted from this improvement and today the island receives more than 100,000 visitors a year.

Easter Island, the easternmost settled island of Polynesia, received its European name in 1722 when the island was seen by a Dutch expedition under Roggeveen on Easter Sunday. The triangular-shaped island of 163 square kilometers is famous for the hundreds of statues known locally as moai. Rolling hills covered in grassland, eucalyptus forest and a rocky shore surround Hangaroa, the island’s only village on the southwestern coast.

This is where Captain Cook landed in 1774, where missionaries built the first church and where ships find the best protection from winds and swells. Small beaches and transparent waters invite swimmers and snorkelers, but it is the cultural aspect which attracts visitors. Since 1935 the island has been a National Historic Monument and today 43.5% of the island is a national park administered by the Chilean National Forest Corporation and Mau Henua, a local community group. The island’s national park has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. Found slightly more than 3,500 kilometers west of Chile, the island was annexed in 1888. Used as a sheep ranch for many decades, the island was opened in 1965 and an airstrip was built. The US Air Force set up a base to record the behavior of the earth’s outer atmosphere and by 1987 NASA had the runway extended as an emergency runway for the space shuttle. This never happened, but tourism benefitted from this improvement and today the island receives more than 100,000 visitors a year.

Think of Daniel Defoe’s classic novel Robinson Crusoe and you will be picturing an intrepid castaway, marooned on a paradisiacal island. That image might be ideal for movie lovers, but the actual inspiration for Robinson Crusoe was a salty Scottish seadog who went by the name of Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk was marooned in Chile’s Juan Fernandez archipelago for four years and four months, rescued by a British private warship. Despite Selkirk’s slightly chequered past, he was greeted as a celebrity upon his return to England.

His adventures were given a gloss and immortalised in the much loved 18th century classic. Alejandro Selkirk Island is located 165 kilometres west of the other islands in the archipelago, for a surface area of just under 50 m2. The island was renamed from its Spanish name Isla Más Afuera in 1966 by the Chilean government in homage to the sailor. The topography is very different form the Caribbean dream that Defoe writes about, think dense woodland, rugged coast and peaks, shrouded (more often than not) in cloud. Sandy beaches can be found to the north of the island. Throughout much of its history, the island has been uninhabited, although there is a former penal settlement on the middle of the east coast, which operated from 1909 to 1930. During the summer months, Selkirk welcomes a small community of lobster fishermen and their families who come from Robinson Crusoe. As part of the Chilean National Park, it also holds the UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve title.

The friendly English-speaking population offers a unique blend of African, Spanish, Paya Indian and British cultures. British and Spanish settlers invaded the Paya as their respective countries fought over possession of Roatan in the 16th century. Soon after, pirates numbering nearly 5,000, including Henry Morgan, claimed Roatan as their stronghold. During the height of the slave trade, Roatan became a dumping ground for rebellious slaves that the British could no longer control. These marooned slaves, now called Maroons or Garifuna, form a present day ethnic group near the town of Punta Gorda. This unique mix of people and cultures, presently controlled by Honduras, has created a population that is rich in tradition yet welcoming to visitors.

Since time immemorial Valparaiso has inspired writers, poets, musicians and artists alike. If the city is still a little rough around the edges, this only adds to its bohemian ambience; the architecture, style, street art, nightlife, and live music scenes of Valparaiso are some of the best in the world. Add colourful clifftop homes to the mix and you’ll soon see why Valpariaso is many people’s favourite Chilean city. The city was founded in 1536 by Spanish conquistador Juan de Saavedra, who named the city after his birthplace. View less

Many of the colonial buildings he implemented are still standing today, despite the rain, wind, fire and several earthquakes (one of which almost levelled the city in 1906). Quirky architecture also abounds; poetry lovers and amateur architects will no doubt want to make the 45 km trip south to Chilean poet laureate (and Nobel Prize winner) Pablo Neruda’s ship-shaped house and museum for a taste of the extraordinary. The city and region are also extremely well known for their love of good food and wine. The vineyards of the nearby Casablanca Valley – first planted in the early 1980s – have earned worldwide recognition in a relatively short space of time. However, Chile’s viticulture history does date back much farther than that. De Saavedra brought grape vines on his voyage to South America in order to make his own wine and this led to a new grape brandy being created, Pisco. Today give any Chilean a Pisco and wherever they are in the world, they will be home.