Yesterday (10/7) we rented a car and toured Isle of Pines with friends Jan & Dave. It was the best island tour that we've had since the Marquesas last year. The island has paved roads - something that we didn't see much of in Fiji or Vanuatu, and they drive on the right side of the road like we do in the U.S.
We started off by visiting the small town of Vao, stopping at the beautiful Catholic church and the grocery store. It's amazing but there are only 3 grocery stores on the entire island, so we couldn't pass up a chance to see if they had anything at the store in Vao that the other store we had been in didn't have.

We picked up a few things for our picnic lunch then stopped at St. Maurice Bay. This was, I think, the highlight of the trip for me. Above the beach a fence of carved totem poles encloses a statue of Jesus. The monument commemorates the arrival of the first missionaries to the island and is also a war memorial. The carvings are wonderful on the silvered totems and with the backdrop of the bay, stunning.

Next stop was Oro Bay. We waded across a stream bed in knee-high water then hiked on a forested trail to the piscine naturelle, a clear blue pool cut off from the sea by a high reef. There are lots of beautiful tropical fish in the pool and you can snorkel there, but we just enjoyed the view from knee-high water before returning to the park to enjoy our picnic lunch followed by a bowl of ice cream procured from a small snack shop.

The Grotte de la Reine Hortense was amazing. It's an immense cave in a limestone cliff nestled in a lush tropical forest and is said to have been where Queen Hortense took refuge for several months in 1855 during an inter-tribal conflict. The cave is filled with stalactites and stalagmites. Just inside the entrance is an alter to the Virgin Mary (pictured below) and at the very back of the cave is a flat rock ledge where the queen is said to have slept. Light floods the back of the cavern through an opening in the roof from where the roots of a banyan tree descend into the cave. We came prepared with flashlights as it's black as night inside once you walk away from the cave opening and the floor of the cave is muddy and uneven, but the muddy feet were well worth the effort.

After a short stop at Gadji Bay we visited a graveyard (Cimetiere des Deportes). After the Paris uprising in 1871, 3000 Communards were deported/exiled to Isle of Pines. Most of them were buried in this cemetery. We also visited the ruins of the prison where the exiled were taken when they arrived on the island.

All in all it was a fabulous day. I'll upload pictures once we're back in the land of internet connections.
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