We wanted to go abseiling (rappelling), so we were in town right when the businesses opened in hopes of booking a trip for today. It turned out that they were full, so we wound up taking a tour of the island that was leaving right then, instead.

There were four other people on the tour who sat and waited patiently in the minivan for us to ask all our questions about the trip, debate a minute, decide to go, and pay. Christi went in the minivan to apologize for the holdup while Jaime and Eric were paying inside. One of the couples said they had been up late partying with their friends on a yacht. They said the yacht name and Christi knew it was the group that had kept us up last night. She mentioned that we were moored next to them, but said nothing about the party.

On our way out of town we got a quick narration of all the buildings we were passing. The guide pointed out assorted government buildings, schools, and the University and jail, among other things. The van was flying along at high speed, making it hard to take any photos. We can’t complain, though they were way behind schedule waiting on us.

There is one road that circles the island of Efate. We were heading south out of town. The first 20 miles the road cuts through the inland before getting to the water, then parallels the water for most of the way around the rest of the island. Just north of Vila it goes back inland. The road is only paved through Vila. Beyond Vila, it is a bumpy crushed coral road full of potholes. Outside of town there was a seemingly endless expanse of gently rolling hills of green grass dotted with trees. It reminds us of rural New Zealand. These turned out to be cattle farms. Here and there we would see small herds of large cattle lazing around in the fields. The cattle here is almost all organically grown, all green grass fed.

Eventually the cattle ranches ended and the landscape suddenly went from green grass to jungle, which is also like New Zealand. From time to time we passed farmland, including quite a few large coconut plantations, with coconut trees lined in perfect rows. Once the road met the coast the views got even better. On the right was endless expanses of oceans dotted with the occasional island, and to the left the view was lush rolling hills.

Our first stop was at a beach area on the southeast side of the island. It had a beautiful looking swimming area. There were people from another tour already in swimming. It was cool outside and looked like it may rain, so no one in our group opted to take a swim.

Our guide put out cookies and juice for us to snack on as we wandered the beach taking photos. There was quite a bit of plant life around the beach. We also found a lot of pumice stone lying around. Eric chatted with the couple from the other boat, exchanging yawns, and then complained about the obnoxious people who kept us up late. The couple sheepishly admitted to Eric that it was them who had kept us up.

As we drove down the road, we passed this building. It has a tree growing through the middle of it.

The next stop was at Epule village on the northeast side of the island. We turned off the main road onto an even rougher dirt road. We drove past a number of small structures. Some were made of modern materials like cinder block and metal, some were made of traditional materials like coconut fronds, and most were a mix of the two.

The road narrowed at a small quad area. The minivan stopped and the guide ushered us out of the van and handed us all headbands made of woven leaves. He pointed to us to walk down the narrow road. Halfway down the road they told us to stop and wait. A man appeared at the opposite end of the road. He was wearing a woven mat wrapped around his waist as a skirt. The skirt had lots of fringes hanging off the edges. He had several different kinds of leaves and flowers adorning the rest of his body. His face and chest were painted with black lines. He held a large seashell. He began blowing into the seashell.

Our guide nudged us forward and we began walking towards him, sensing something ominous about this trek. As we got closer to the chief, several male villagers of all ages, in similar attire, jumped out at us out of nowhere, brandishing spears. We were completely surrounded by the villagers, each of us having several weapons pointed at our necks and chests.

To be continued”¦”¦