Vanuatu

During my 'working holiday' here in Australia, I just recently took a mini vacation to the lovely islands of Vanuatu. I'm sure many of you remember Vanuatu as being the location for one of the many "Survivor" seasons. If your unsure of where these groups of islands are located, google it. Their located in the south pacific and about a 3 hour plane ride north east of Brisbane, Australia.

After having a slight deja vu of being back in the airport since my arrival, my first task was to explore the possibilities of the duty free shop. I never understood this whole duty free thing until I arrived in Australia and found that the prices of things were so much higher. Yet in the duty free shops in the airport, I'm able to purchase things as a much cheaper price.

We loaded up on goodies for the trip and sailed over New Caledonia and couple other land masses that could be seen from my window, to Port Villa, Vanuatu. After literally stepping out of the plane while still on the runway, I imminently realized just how underdeveloped this country was. The airport itself was only as big as small rec center, with a very simple design and a poster that read "Vanuatu...voted the most happiest country."

We were met by a 10 man string bad of locals with brilliantly flowered shirts that radiated a jolliness only these people could pull off. Their lifestyle was very much influenced by Jamaica and their music showed it. I must be honest, I loved the sounds that were created from, what appeared to be, homemade instruments and untrained high pitch vocal accompaniment.

After declaring our bags and going through a brief eye check in customs we made our way to our resort. This place was much better than what I was expecting. We stayed on a small island a couple of football fields away from the mainland. We were taxied over via a small, half sinking vessel of sorts through the crystal clear blue water.

Charmaine and I spent our first couple days snorkeling and checking out the local markets. Right across the bay from us was the local markets where all sorts of food were sold. These foods didn't resemble the foods the same ones you'd find at your home Winn-Dixie, these were hand grown, 'organic', fruits and vegetables. They didn't look as pretty as we're use too because of the lack of pesticides and Miracle Grow that doesn't seem to make it on the shipping barge. There even some different looking foods that we gave a try anyway. We even made a friend at the market who cooks home Vanuatu dish's and ate her food for a couple meals. We even convinced her to cook us a gigantic coconut crab meal on our last night (Yes, coconut crabs may be close to extinction, that's why we felt the need to eat one while we still could).

The country, like other third world countries, relies completely on tourism to keep their economy alive. Tourist drive the surrounding prices up, but outside the 'tourism district' prices fall to normal levels to keep locals from bankruptcy. I was surprised that we didn't see more tourists than we did, it must have been their low season. Maybe it was the complete lack sovereignty that I felt while walking through the streets. Yet at the same time, I couldn't have felt more at home. Every one we passed, whether it was in a village or through the main streets was very friendly, helpful, and was always seen with a smile on their face. They weren't lying when they said this was the happiest country on earth.

The snorkeling was amazing, I know with my experience that I don't have much to compare it too, but the amount of fish I saw was astounding. I really felt like I was in an aquarium. The fish were colorful like the ones in the Great Barrier Reef, only some new ones I hadn't seen before. Occasionally I found a boring single color fish, and boy did he look ugly. Times like these I had wished I invested in the underwater version of my camera. One major difference about this snorkeling than that of Australian snorkeling is the existence of deadly marine creatures. We were told by many that the waters had no sharks or jelly fish in them. We took their word for it, and as far as we could tell, there were none. I did get the chance to post a postcard from the worlds first underwater post office. That's right, one of the snorkeling places we visit had a little drop box about 3 metres down were you could deposit a waterproof post card. Yet I'm still unsure if my mail has been delivered, the idea of it is very cool.

Vanuatu in general was lacking completely in dangerous animals. Everyone we asked told us the same thing, there isn't a single creature in these jungles and waters that are capable of killing you. No poisonous snakes, spiders, sharks, tigers...maybe the random wild hog that's looks to jab you with his tusks, but no carnivorous animals looking for its next meal.

On one of our last days, we hired a Vanuatu 'bus' (a guy driving a van) with another couple to take us around the entire island we were on. The trip took all day and covered about 300km. We saw some very neat and original Vanuatu sights, including some old WW2 tanks that were rusted in the ocean. Along with an old American airstrip that was used in Vanuatu. I believe I heard that up to 10,000 troops had been stationed there at one point. When we were there during the war, the soldiers had built up a massive mounds of dirt and grass that spelt out USA when flown over by aircraft. Only the U and parts of the S were still standing today, but to see these iconic war articles were very rewarding to me. We even stopped in a little hut that a native had built that was dedicated to old war scraps and parts he has found over the years. He had a quite big stash, considering all he was doing was sifting through the beach. He had airplane wings, bullet casing, helmets, meal trays, etc. But one cool thing he has was old Coca-Cola bottles. On the bottom of these bottles were the location of origin date manufactured, and surprisingly one of the bottles I found had "Charleston, SC" stamped on the bottom of it.

The 'round the island tour' also took us to a place called Blue Lagoon. A brackish water lagoon that fed into the ocean. The lagoon definitely lived up to its name. It was crystal clear, blue, crisp water. Including an awesome rope swing. We splashed around that watering hole for an hour or so and then jetted to the ocean where there was large coral out of the water where the ocean ran free around them. It created perfect little pools of clear water where we were able to spot a large, colorful, intact shell that we snagged as a souvenir.

We also visit what is called Mele Cascade waterfalls. If you look at the pictures you'll see its a very high water fall that drops off into tiny rock pools at the bottom. The water was clear and the rock was silky smooth. The vegetation surrounding the place made it feel like we we're truly living out something you only see in a movie.


Vanuatu is a very 'Homey' place in my opinion. But the people is what made the visit. There everlasting smiles and generosity to help in any way they could really made our visit there spectacular.


Take a look at the pictures from Vanuatu and the rest of my Aussie adventures so far here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/joshhorton12

I'm constanly updating and adding so keep checking back to see more!