Tour of Efate, Vanuatu Part 2

Posted on by
Reply

Continuation from yesterday”¦..

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

fijivanuatu1-072-large.jpg

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.

dsc00625-large.JPG

After the dancing we were led Continue reading →

Checking into Port Vila, Vanuatu

Posted on by
2

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

portvila.JPG

The quarantine anchorage is located Continue reading →

Working on Some Blog Upgrades

Posted on by
1

We are pleased to report that we were someplace with a fast wi-fi connection for a few days, so we were able to start working on a project that we have been wanting to do for a long time. A few months ago we added the “where we have been” page. Over the last few days, we have added coordinates to each of the locations, along with dates of the blog posts so you can easily go back and read about a certain location. We have started working on linking the coordinates to a map on Google Earth. And, last but not least, we have gone through a lot of the old postings and updated the “categories” sections, so now when you click on a category there will be lots of posts. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to complete any of the projects, but we will work on them some more when we get to another good internet connection. We would love some feedback to let us know what you think of the additions. We are pleased to announce we just recieved our 500th comment!

Welcome to Port Vila, Efate, Vanuatu

Posted on by
1

Lat 17.44S, Long 168.18E. Vanuatu is made up of 83 islands over an area of 450,000 square kilometers. Like Fiji, some of the islands are volcanic and some are raised coral islands. Like Tonga, Vanuatu lies on the squarely on the Pacific Ring of Fire. There are nine active volcanoes and earthquakes are commonplace.

The vast majority of the population are native Vanuatu (called ni-vans), and most live in traditional rural villages that are much the same as they were before the arrival of Europeans. Both culture and language vary greatly from village to village. Vanuatu has the highest concentration in the world of Continue reading →