Vanuatu Holiday Hotel Port Vila

... buildings, sumptuous odors wafting from local restaurants, and local vendors hawking their wares greeted me at every turn. Drivers have the right of way here, so vigilance when crossing the street kept me alert behind my camera lens.<br><br>Craving more than the city sights, I wandered through a local artists' market and talked with the locals. One lovely grandma asked me how my day was. I told her I enjoyed my time so ...

Hello from Vila- I am still passing time slowly at Jess and Sam's. Though yesterday we were finally able to make contact with Natalie, though I missed it by about ten seconds. Apparently the plan now is to have me continue waiting in Vila for the arrival of a sailboat called Fifth Season, which is currently on its way here from I think New Zealand. When it arrives in Vila, I will join it as it travels further north to meet up with Natalie. Hopefully they get ...

Today we had lunch and dinner with the fine sailors of the Australian Navy. It was a good time because we got a tour of their boat anchored in the harbor. Later we did as the Australians do and watched cricket and car racing. Both not too appealing, to bad Rugby season is over.

... skirts with leis and the chefs had put on the most magnificent fruit and dessert buffet. The display was magnificent but I couldn't have eaten even one single strawberry. Only those who had had early sitting for dinner would have had enough room left to consume more food. I'm not much of a joiner when it comes to these types of events and I gave the Western Night with line dancing a very wide berth - I only have to survive one more formal night on the last night of the cruise.

... amp; made our ascend dodging big lumps of Lava Rock as we went. ''Just for the record'' I asked our driver Jack, ''these big pieces of rock we are dodging, came from where exactly?''. Jack replied with ''out the top of Yassur''. And were going to the top I thought, we must be f#%ing mad. Jack told me that it was fairly safe &amp; in the past 10yrs only 5 people have died from Lava Rock fall out from the explosions. We stopped about halfway up, Jack turned ...

... cover up myself exactly as the ladies do there in order to be safe otherwise I would put my life in danger! I was especially angry when I thought about the school where I taught which in trying to be so politically correct would tell our students that these countries' values were just as good as ours (from a female point of view, it is so not the case!) Anyway, my overall impression of Australian ladies was that they are very similar in outlook and ...

... and had stayed on. "I'm just getting to know the place" he explained with a smile as we chatted. While I filled out a very cursory form, he took Tatiana around a corner to the chair for the examination. He continued to converse with me around the separating wall as he had a look. While he worked I was engrossed in the postors on the wall of the waiting room. Among the encouragements to have children inoculated early, and to have regular dental checkups, there was a poster ...

Quick Update people! I know its been ages since I last updated the log! With my neighbour leaving for the other islands I've not had the luxury of using her internet for free and I've been too cheap to spend my vatu at the internet place in town! But I'm borrowing Tim's computer today and spending some time writing up my experience at Banban school. Its been an experience for sure, some days I don't know what I am trying to achieve as the kids don't want to listen, learn ...

... poison tablet) and threw it over the little cliff. Went snorkeling again... leif and steve had huge lobsters... I think I had eggrolls again. Afterwards, watched the stars, went back to the room and there was the world's largest spider... about the size of a tarantula but slightly less furry and much much scarier... I trap it in a bag after much hestitation and one hilarious prank on Leif and he takes it out to release it. Man the thing was scary.

... a bit more than desired. In Vanihe Bay there was a dense green rainforest set on a black sand beach, voyage crew took the opportunity to swim and walk along the beach before the evening meal. September 17: We motor sailed towards Maewo Island, upon arrival there were several other yahts arriving at the same time, from what appeared to be a daysail with locals. One of the yachts had the ringing of Ni-Vanuatu voices and the strumming of guitars, it was an awesome welcoming to the ...