Fatumaru Lodge Port Vila

... their efforts all the same.

As we were driven towards our hotel we were given the guided tour of the main street of Port Vila enroute, all 700 metres of it! On first impressions, the capital and commercial centre of Vanuatu wasn’t very pretty. To the left and right we passed little cafes, some mini-supermarkets, a post office, duty free shops and the main market which consisted of two adjoining halls overflowing with ladies selling mostly vegetables, de ...

... Never mind, this is where life is relaxing to the max. Big afros, Bob Marley rhythms and a heart melting smiles are the norm. After cruising thought the "city" in 5 minutes and witnessing a black Santa throwing candies from a pickup it was time to soak into a big couch having a local beer Tusker at hand. Not much time for such though as the trip was going to be activities based and with hectic pace, contradictory to the life here. Anyway ...

... But we hadn't even bought our tickets for the previous flight yet so it was a bit tight. I did manage to find someone to sell me the tickets by walking backstage through the luggage loading area and then convincing him to sell me some tickets. It took ages and I just hope the guys behind me in the queue managed to get theirs too - I didn't see them on our flight. Flying in Vanuatu is great fun because Osamen apparently doesn't want to blow up any of their planes ...

... group chased their chickens for a workout) we gathered together and one of the trainers showed us different ways to kill a chicken. During the wait I decided to go back to my hut and put on my swimming short because I was all hot and sweaty from chasing the chicken. By the time I came back to the group the 3 chickens were already killed. I missed the cruel part of the exercise! I was told that one guy try to ...

... canoe & feel the current against their testicles. By doing this they would know which direction to travel. On the islands the people would live in small clans, separated by deep ravines, impenetrable jungle & broad stretches of sea. The people were very spiritual. All good & bad was blamed on the spirits which they believed roamed the islands. A mans status was earned through grade taking ceremonies. Each grade took a man closer to becoming a chief ...

... went on for a bit longer and I asked "Did anyone feel the deck move?" but it appeared as though I was alone in the earth moving thing... but we later discovered that Vanuatu had been shaken by TWO BIG EARTHQUAKES!! Holy moly... that's exciting. Day Three My stomach is still a little upset but not enough to hold me back from exploring the mainland. The markets were open and were huge! Food & vege markets are open 24hrs (except Sundays of course) and ...

... 2 are taught by the headmistress who normally does not take any classes but this year will be teaching Years 1 and 2 unless they can find another teacher to fill the post. They don't have any money (as a school or as a government) so the salaries are very low. At school the children are taught Maths, English, News, General, Environment and recently have started French. My responsibility has been to teach English to Years 3-6. This is children ranging from 8-12 ...

Dear all, I am here in hot and sweaty Santo, my god it is incredibly hot, very humid and the flies and mozzies will do your head in. Despite my lack of Visa they let me into the country and I've been staying at the DecoStop Lodge for the past couple of nights. Did some diving on the Coolidge the first couple of days but have now come down with a stinking cold and so cannot dive. I was down at 30m yesterday and got a reverse squeeze and man that was ...

... to do a series of decompression stops - quite scary to think that you can't just go to the surface. Apart from the fact that you obviously can't when you're deep inside the ship, if you went straight to the surface as you came out you'd seriously risk getting the bends. So instead you hang out at a variety of depths waiting for the nitrogen in your blood to come off. The last stop was ...

... seeing a lion fish producing its glorious fan and spotting a two metre eage wray 'flying' across the ocean floor are memories that will last a while as well as reminding us why we learned to dive in the first place. Vanuatu's diving riches attract career divers and when you hear stories of three legged turtles swimming round and round in cirlcles and a crab which lost its shell but requiring something for protection, replaced it with apoisonous anenome, you understand why.