If you’re coming from Hiva Oa, you’ll see them right away: the pointed towers, over a thousand meters high, wrapped in clouds. It’s another scene without equal, the kind that makes the Marquesas the fascinating place they are.

It’s no wonder that the striking spires of Ua Pou evidently inspired Jacques Brel to write a song or two.

First, we head for the little village of Hakahetau to see whether we can get some dinner there. It’s quiet and rainy. The supermarket is closed, and the restaurant only takes preorders. With so few inhabitants, anything else would be asking too much. The church, on the other hand, is open and can be visited. It’s said to be the first stone church ever built in the Marquesas. The French missionaries did a thorough job on these islands.

So we cook ourselves and plan a hike for the next day – to a waterfall and to Manfred, the German chocolate man. After his sauna business in Germany fell victim to a fire, he first washed up in Tahiti, where he trained as a helicopter pilot and put up telegraph poles all across Polynesia. In the end he landed on Ua Pou, where he built himself and his wife a small, self-sufficient farm in the mountains. He began growing cacao and making chocolate. These days nearly 2,000 people a year visit him there. Hard to imagine what goes on here, in the middle of nowhere.

The way there is fun: so much green, so much fruit, so much birdsong and such an intense fragrance. Arriving at the farm, Manfred greets us straight away with his notoriously bawdy stories and feeds us chocolate. There’s hardly anything that doesn’t thrive here. Even coffee and strawberries grow on the grounds. Shortly after us the next hiking group arrives. While we wait out a rain shower, we notice that Manfred delivers the stories in the very same order. At least that way we remember them better. On the way down we make a little detour to the waterfall. We’re rewarded with glorious water for a swim. On plunging in, only the missing ocean-salt throws us off for a moment. Rarely enough do we get the pleasure of swimming in fresh water.

After three nights we’ve had enough of the rolling in the bay. What was quite pleasant at first turns slowly but surely into a rollercoaster ride. We know we’re outside our comfort zone when we have to latch the lockers, cupboards, and drawers so nothing flies off. Since there are no reefs around the islands to hold back the waves, the bays lie unprotected, exposed to the swell. That doesn’t always make it easy for sailors to find a pleasant spot and a quiet sleep. The next morning the captain gets to hike the basalt towers on his own, and then we move on.

Around the corner in Hakahau, behind the harbor mole, we try our next bit of luck. The best thing is simply to spend plenty of time ashore. Then the rolling doesn’t bother you in the first place. Ua Pou’s main town is bustling – fifteen hundred people do live here, after all. It’s the weekend and people play boule under the palms and listen to music. There’s a busy but peaceful evening mood. The next morning we’re up early and snag baguette and pain au chocolat as provisions for the onward trip to Nuku Hiva.