Today I went on a fun excursion to a blue lagoon, acultural village, and a chocolate factory/store. There were 3 vans in my group and each van held about 10 people. The vans were very comfortable and had air conditioning.
There are 83 islands that make up Vanuatu and there are around 125 dialects with 3 main ones in use- Bislama(a Melanesian pidgin/creole used throughout Vanuatu), English and French plus each local village indigenous language. Their main sport is soccer.
We have been driving on the left side for a number of different countries/days but today we were cautioned that we were driving on the right and to be careful when exiting the bus.
There were very few dogs here, no scooters and no speed limit. The roads have potholes and speed bumps which effectively reduces vehicle speed.
They get 3-5 cruise ships a month and were happy to see them return after a 7.4 earthquake in December 2024 stopped them for a few months. I didn’t notice much damage but the road to/from the main dock was damaged and not passable so we anchored off shore and tendered into port. They had a 4.8 earthquake a few days after we left.
Many countries now have agricultural inspections even for cruise ship passengers. They are realizing how much damage imported pests can be. Here imported beetles are destroying their coconut trees.
Our first stop was a blue hole/lagoon. It was pretty fun swimming in the bright blue, clear water.. They had a platform 15 or so feet up that folks were jumping off. I didn’t but it reminded me of the kids jumping off the rocks in Hawaii years ago.
After swimming, we drove to a cultural village. We were dropped off at the entrance to the cultural village and were wandering around trying to find the right path to the main section when our guide directed us to an entrance that was blocked with a rail across the path. We were milling around trying to figure out what to do when warriors with spears ran yelling into the clearing. They hit a fence pole with their spear and it made a huge cracking sound- we were surprised and scared and all jumped back. But very quickly many had their phones out and were videotaping.
Our last stop was a chocolate store/factory. We were given one-inch squares of about 10 different kinds of chocolate they make. I started making notes of the ones I liked but really I liked them all except one or two.
