Paradise again?!

Trip Start Jun 12, 2007

Trip End Jul 05, 2007

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Flag of Solomon Islands Gizo, Solomon Islands
Friday, June 15, 2007

Arriving in the islands, the approach was beautiful, beat this navy pilots...

01 airport

I usually arrive with just a general idea of what I will do, where I will stay, but nothing firm. When I stepped off the plane in Gizo I thought this might backfire on me. The airport is not on the main island. You have to balance on all that remains of a pier to get to the boats that take you to the main island.

02 airport

Of course I had nothing pre-arranged and was beginning to feel a bit stranded. Luckily there was a boat for people like me. When I arrived on the main island and started my quest for a cheap room, Danny, the owner of Dive Gizo, caught me looking lost, asked what I was looking for and told me to hop in, he would give me a ride to a decent cheap room and a tour of the town along the way--brilliant!! The earthquake and tsunami had hit just 2 months before I arrived. The main part of town had recovered, but just outside the damage was devastating.

03 tsunami

One day I went to a beach on the north end of the island called Sageragi with some other travelers. On the way driving through the hills on the center of the island we got to see refugee camps with tsunami survivors. They had lost almost everything in the tsunami, there few belongings and families living under tarps. Yet they were making do, had already set up normal life including schools in the camps. We got to see a fire truck delivering fresh water to the survivors. Unfortunately the truck was stuck in the mud (the roads were barely passable), but the people got their water! The beach was one of many secluded white sandy beaches I visited here.

04 Sageragi Beach

The crystal clear blue water here is beyond gorgeous!! There was some damage at the village near this beach, but they had already begun to rebuild, here is a new house.

05 local house

One evening I managed to take in show at the hotel featuring local dance and music. After the official show we all ended up dancing with the locals, loads of fun!!

06 local dancing

Gizo is a popular place for yachts to anchor so the town is an interesting mix of backpackers and yachties--worlds collide.

I spent several days diving around the area. There was plenty of wildlife to see--manta rays, eagle rays, black/white/silver tip reef sharks being the highlights. Also some WWII remains. I got to dive on the wreckage of a hellcat. Story goes that the pilot, Richard Moore, ditched the plane in the sea and kept the plane it tact. He stepped onto the wing and before his boots even got wet the locals rescued him in a canoe, brought him on shore and he was drinking tea within an hour of crashing. He was even back flying the next day. All this history was researched by Danny (Dive Gizo owner) who got the serial number off the plane and wrote the department of defense to learn the background. I also got to see an old Japanese cargo ship, the Tao Maru, that had sunk in the area.

Each day between dives we would go to yet another beautiful secluded island and enjoy a gourmet meal cooked while we lounged in the beautiful blue water. Here's me and my dive buddies Mark and Richard (yachties).