The Marquesas Islands lie 1,400kms northeast of Tahiti and comprise twelve volcanic islands, the smaller six are uninhabited, the other six are home to 7,000 people.

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.