Active Volcanoes and the John Frum Sing Along

Continuation from yesterday”¦.

“¦we could see the red sparks shooting up through a huge hole in the ground. The sparks landed on a ledge around the hole, glowing brightly. In the first photo you can see the edge of the peak we are standing, the ledge the molten rock lands on, and the hole the lava and smoke comes from. The second photo is dark, but gives you perspective on distance, although this is just the ambient lava flow, not one of the many big eruptions we will see later. Hopefully, you can get a sense that we are not standing all that much higher than the lava fallout ledge.

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From the scattered rocks around, it seems that once in a while they make it beyond the ledge up to where we were standing. What amazed us is Continue reading

Ceremonies, Plane Rides and Active Volcanoes

We had heard that there was going to be a big parade at 0800. Today was going to be an exceptionally busy day, but we didn’t want to miss out on the public celebration of a big holiday, the 27th anniversary of the country’s independence. We were in town right at 0800. It turned out to be a ceremony, not a parade. Across from the produce market, in front of one of the government buildings, there was a small podium set up. There were a dozen official looking people seated behind the podium. In the street was a small squad of soldiers. The whole area was surrounded by police. The spectators mostly stayed on the sidewalk by the market. The ceremony began with the usual formalities flag salute, reading of a portion of the constitution, etc. Everything was in French, English and Bislama, so it took a while with the three translations. Then the president of Vanuatu gave a long speech. Not long after he started, it began to pour down rain. We feel sorry for those poor soldiers that had to stand in the rain. Here is a photo of the president greeting the soldiers before walking up to the podium.

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We listened to the speech for a while, but we realized we were running out of time and Continue reading

Tour of Efate, Vanuatu Part 2

Continuation from yesterday”¦..

“¦We were completely surrounded by the villagers, each of us having several weapons pointed at our necks and chests.

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After a very long minute, the villagers spontaneously ran off down the road. We were told to have a seat on a bench. The villagers reappeared and danced several dances for us. The dances were different from anything we had seen before. Most of the group was in neat rows and danced in place, using their weapon as a prop. They all wore ankle bracelets of toasted nuts in the shell, which made a maracas-like rattling sound in time to the music as they moved their feet with the rhythm. There were a few lead dancers who danced all around and through the group mimicking animal movements. Each dance was for a particular animal. In this photo you can see the man mimicking a bird to the right. The music was rhythmical percussion instruments, with the dancers all singing along in a deep bass. The music was powerful.

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After the dancing we were led Continue reading

Checking into Port Vila, Vanuatu

We were up again at 07:00. The information we had downloaded said Yacht World would help us with the check in process, and they opened at 07:30. We got them on the radio a little before 08:00. They told us to sit tight and they would bring the quarantine officer to our boat around 09:30.

Port Vila bay has two small islands in the center of it. This is a scan from a postcard

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The quarantine anchorage is located Continue reading