It was our whole day spent driving off-road different mountain roads in Taipivai Valley in search of a waterfall. After passing Taipivai village, we noticed an amazing waterfall in the distance. Why not to get to its bottom and see it closely? It sounded quite easy, but this part of Nuku Hiva Island in the Marquesas receives absolutely no visitors. Nobody comes here except the locals. Small groups of tourist visit Hakaui Valley to see Vaipo waterfall in another part of the island, but nobody comes here. It sounded like a real adventure. In my non-existing French, I tried to ask the locals for directions, pointing my finger at the white horsetail far away in the distance. This was weird, but different people we asked were giving us conflicting directions. We literally drove back and forth the same back roads in the rainforest. A local man we met even told us that we are on the wrong road and that we had to turn back, an hour later it turned out that it was the only right road. Now it seems to me that I understand why. Either this must be a source of drinking water for the valley with limited access, or this is an ancient sacred place, kind of taboo to visit, where no one can go.
Absolutely no one goes this trail. The only path to the waterfall is overgrown with vegetation taller than me. It is hard to walk in shorts, but I was not worried too much about it. The only big mammals in the Marquesas are wild pigs, not so dangerous. Sometimes you can encounter wild chickens, and they quickly run away. I was not worried about snakes because there is none in this area of the Pacific. Passing through dense bushes, I was not even bothered by spines, or prickles. It was worth a little trouble. I reached an amazing and unexplored place with wild nature, roaring falls, and a forest so dense that you cannot see the sky. Slippery rocks, broken braches, fallen tree trunks were like the guardians of this place. The biggest surprise was for me to discover that there was not one, but two separate amazing waterfalls close to each other.
