Vanuatu: Paradise Found

VANUATU--Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Today's tour was a reunion of many of the passengers from Cruise Critic. Fourteen of us tried to find the white van with Atmosphere on the side in the Port of Vila, which is under construction or renovation (it isn't much of a port)--MaryAnn and John (who arranged the tour), Mary and Ed, Adele and Ed, Lu and Mike, Perla and Joe, Carol and Harvey, and Sara and Ken.

When we finally caught up to our tour guide Gilbert, he gave us fragpani flowers for our hair and took us to an overlook for a gorgeous view of the harbor and our ship. One of the northern islands of Vanuatu was the site of the ninth season of Survivor. The natives also claim that Vanuatu was the inspiration for Bali Hai in James Michener's book, Tales of the South Pacific. (That's the natives' story and they are sticking to it.) One thing that Vanuatu could use is some road construction because most of the roads we traveled were very bumpy, dirt roads.

We then went to the waterfront, open-air home of Alio Polioko, the Artist of the Pacific, who paints every day and everything--trees, stones, tires, wells and walls. His male totem poles are anatomically correct for the average endowment fund. The totem poles are used for communication because each one has a different tone and sends a different message. The setting was extremely peaceful with the sound of waves lapping the shore and tropical music emanating from the artist's sound system. We all loved the hot shower.

Then we stopped at Bamboo Nakamal, which boasted itself as the best quality kava bar, the local drink to relax. We were told that kava first numbs your tongue and lips, and then makes you lethargic. A native was chopping up the roots of the plant that could be purchased for 250 vt (about $3) and mixed with water. Harvey volunteered to be our guinea pig to taste the kava, which he said was bitter but then he couldn't talk any more!

We saw a nakamal, which is a meeting place for the tribes on the island. Each nakamal is a different shape. The tribal chief gives speeches there, and disagreements are settled there. However, only men can talk during a trial, ladies are not allowed to speak. Gilbert told us that now Vanuatu has two women members of Parliament.

Some interesting sites were a store with a sign proclaiming "Trade Tools--Serious Tools, Seriously Discounted," red star fish that look like flowers in the water and that Gilbert had us hold in our hands, and the cemetery with its full-length stone coffins.

Next we drove through Mela Village, the biggest village in Vanuatu with 4,000 people. All the houses have thatched roofs. The pig is the all-important animal. If a family has a pig, it has status, wealth and power, and can have a ceremony. So we were on a "pig-spotting" mission and saw three pigs in one spot. Every family has a chicken for the eggs. The chickens run free during the day and are called home at night by the family's individual call. One quarter of the children do not attend school because their families can not pay the fees, and the unemployment rate is 90 percent. However, the Vanuatuans are the happiest people on earth, not the Fijians as we incorrectly reported. Well, they do live in a watery paradise!

Before we arrived at the Tara Beach Restaurant, where we were served a typical native lunch, we passed by the diving-off point for the world's only underwater post office. We also fed the fish, which Ken stated was way too cool and spotted a blue star fish. At Tara, we greeted Lauren and Craig from Cruise Critic, who were finishing an ATV tour. After lunch, which included intermittent showers, we were entertained by a singer playing a guitar and singing Elvis songs. Is this place paradise or what?

Before driving us through the city of Vila and back to our ship, Gilbert presented MaryAnn with the national flag of Vanuatu. The red represents the unity through blood, the green stands for the agricultural economy of the island, the yellow is a symbol of Christianity through the light of Christ, the black is for the Melanisian people, the Mela palm represents peace and the Y is the shape of the island.

For most of us on this tour, our souvenirs were bottles of Tusker beer, the beer of Vanuatu.

CORRECTION and ADDITION: We received an email from Sara's cousin Judy who wrote that her father Walter was not in the Army because he had been exempted from the draft because he was an employee of a critical industry, coal mining. However, he served as an air raid warden and an emergency first aid responder during WWII. He also was named "Man of the Year" in Sykesville so he deserved considerable credit. We also failed to mention that once a person is allowed to cross the equator after the ceremony, that person is known as a "shell back." One passenger of the Pacific Princess has the card that he received for crossing the equator 50 years ago.