Sorry, I’m so sorry. Photos won’t be in this one – even though I have really good ones for this. ARG!

Ah.

Ua Pou. Home to the Choco-man. Manfred.

When we arrived after the short day trip to Ua Pou we noticed instantly how vibrant it was; streamers, games and music. Kids were leaping off the docks and sports were going on all around us. We had to jump to avoid being hit by bocce balls many times. We made our way to Perrier, the local one-man restaurant, where we had a nice cool drink and asked about this allusive chocolate man.

“Ah! Oui oui. Manfred, mon ami. ‘E’s a leetle bit cahrazy oui oui.” Perrier said, making funny french noises in between his words.

“You need to walkeh veeery far oui oui vous need eau.”

So we headed back to Aggie for a rest and to discuss our next course of action. We decided that tomorrow we would attack this hike to reach the mysterious Macgyver of Ua Pou.

The next day, we prepped and got ready, taking plenty of water. As we hiked, I seriously contemplated ditching my parents and running back to the boat. But the promise of chocolate kept me going.

We finally reached the sign that read Villa d’Manfred, I was relieved. Chocolate!

The next thing we saw were the chickens. Hundreds just milling around the place, squawking and pecking all over the home. Then the vicious dog. Then the cats! At first there was one, then there were two, then three and so fourth. Then we met Manfred’s sweet wife, who talked to us and showed us her cats. When Manfred arrived, the first thing he said was:

“Vous aimé la glace? Ice cream, oui?” I almost screamed a yes.

He disappeared behind a peculiar door, waited a couple minutes and emerged with three FRESH COCONUT ICE CREAMS. THE COCONUTS HE USED WERE VISIBLE.

Manfred truly was magical. He showed us all around his ranch and gave us chocolate to try. We bought a lot of his chocolate and it was beautiful. We even tried the coco bean, right from the tree itself. It was absolutely incredible, tasting like guava, mango, pineapple, banana and chocolate all at once. I could have eaten the whole tree! We also met Clint Eastwood, a cat with a funny sneer that said Eastwood all over it.

We left feeling sad and sorry that we couldn’t move in with him. We braved the hike back and ate some chocolate before starting on our passage to the Tuamotus, the famous atolls of the pacific.