Laguna Vista Port Vila

... and wooden staircases. In the distance we could hear the roar of a larger waterfall but for the first ten minutes it was a nice stroll along a river making its way down a hill, through a series of little stepped waterfalls.

The approach to the main cascades required us to cross sections of the river and climb up two to three metre high sections of the waterfalls. But the view of the main cascades was ample reward ...

... my 'ruined' steak as the others called it (whats wrong with well done??) :) One night we went out to dinner at a steak house there were some guys there from NZ who were over in Vanuatu fishing. One guy was totally drunk and starting singing to everyone. Very funny. We got a van to get back to the hotel and the guys wanted to tag along - 8 people squashed into a van and not a ...

... and every single thing is owned, down to the reefs in the sea. The way you become a chief is by collecting enough pig tusks. The local pigs, when looked after properly, grow tusks in a curl, it takes about seven years for a tusk to curl in a complete circle, and they need to curl twice to be really valuable. When he has his ceremony, it sounded like he would need about fifty curled tusks to wear, and then even more to slaughter for the feast that night. So ...

... about coconuts. In the afternoon our training continued with water safety. We had a guy who runs boats explain to the group how to simply fix some small outboard motor problems. (a lot of us will travel in those boats for short interisland travel) the biggest culture shock for me occurred when the boat guy asked the group if they didn't know what a spark plug ...

... staff at the hotel is ultra gentle and accommodating and always smiling but it does not deter from being one of only a handful of guests and I eat alone at dinner time. Saturday starts with a swim in the hotel pool and later a walk into town via all the back streets. A couple of them are truly furnished with local colours and as I walk through, literally in the midday sun, I see the Vanuatais gathering in a field between shacks which pass as housing ...

... 50 meters from the shore at the Hideaway Bay resort, there is an official Vanuatu mailbox and post office. The post office is actually only manned when cruise-ship tours come en masse to visit. At those times there is actually a post office official in scuba gear inside the little fiberglass structure, ready to collect the special postcards sold in town for underwater use. The postcards cost 300 vatu and resist saltwater for a day or so (though its best to use ...

... French territory of New Caledonia to its west. Jeff Caudle, the pastor who cares for the South Pacific region had ask us to consider making this trip, which we were quite happy to try to do. Vanuatu has a rather interesting history. It was co-ruled by France and Britain during the colonial period in a strange arrangement officially called the "condominium", which meant it was co-ruled by both powers. But they didn't have zones of control, both government ...

... with Alan Powers Dive Tours. The diving is wonderful. 28 degree C water every day no matter what depth and generally very little current as the wreck they dive on is sheltered in a cove/bay. The SS President Coolidge sank in October 1942 and lies between 17 and 65 metres of water. Most dives are fairly deep ones and we spend a lot of time in decompression between 12 and 3 metres. They have these standard operating procedures which everyone dives to and since their ...

... plains and down through a dry riverbed where a lake used to exist until just a few years ago when an earthquake broke apart the earth and the water all rushed to the sea. We pass the volcano and enter another super-lush-ultra-rainforest right out of Jurassic Park and finally pass a few steam vents before parking at the base of the volcano. The driver stays with the truck, gives us two flashlights, tells us to come back in two hours, and we hike up the remaining few hundred ...

... around their ankles, it was very noisy and dusty, but what a show! The children were all too eager to give thumbs up and pose for pictures! The following morning there was an hour and half walk through the jungle to swim and shower in a spectacular waterfall before motor sailing to Ambrym Island. (See picturesof 2002 visit here ) Sunday the 24th of August, early call at 0500 hrs this morning so that we could eat and be ashore to begin our ascent ...