Playing on the bridge -

Or maybe walking the plank -

Independence Celebration -

So yesterday was Vanuatu's 30th year of Independence!  Everyone gathered at the large park. There were about 5 groups of troops, one was a marching band, one had guns, one had white pants, and the other looked like suits!

It was a windy day, with occasional showers. There was this huge red arrow staked out on the ground where the French were going to parachute in. Finally the plane flew overhead and four jumpers jumped and started parachuting down. All went well for the first 3 parachutes but the forth managed to land in the crowd.

Later in the evening they had fire dancing, which was one of the best fire dancer shows that I have seen. In one part of the fire dance they take some jelled gasoline soaked into a rag that they spin as fast as they can. As it spins faster little globs of napalm shoot off it in a beautiful arc! And to make it even more spectacular they let it hit the ground as it is spinning, making even a greater arc.

The only issue that I saw was that one of the dancers hair caught on fire for a short while from some flying gasoline! He got it out quickly and continued as if that was quite normal.

Courage

Back to Port Vila -

Made it to port Vila, now launching the motorcycle! 

Planting a Garden

Shannon is planting tangerine and grapefruit. The rest of the family is "helping".

Courage

Teggy cleared his own garden and planted two rows of tangerines. He's quite pleased!

Shannon

Our Island

We really love our island. We made a nice trail to this giant Banyan tree. You can easily climb about 40 feet. Even Valiant has to try. There is even a great spot for a swing! This is like a paradise island for us. I can't believe that nobody has started living out here yet.

So the wind is scheduled to increase into the low 30-knot range here at our island. We survived gusts into the low to mid 20 knot range, but tonight we are starting to get the stronger gusts, and as can be expected when anchoring where there is very poor holding we started dragging. We ended up re anchoring 4 times so far. It is a dark, windy, and rainy night with no moon. So re anchoring is no a pleasant prospect. The island has many fringing reefs, and only a small spot to anchor. The bottom slopes from about 13 feet to 170 feet at about a 45-degree angle. Which makes it nearly impossible to anchor on, as no matter how much chain you let out, as soon as you pull the anchor pops right out. Your only hope is to "hooker" a large chunk of coral and hope it holds you.

Tomorrow I will dive on the anchor to make sure we do not repeat tonight's adventure!

Courage 

Namuka Island

Sunrise on our island

Where we land the dinghy

We climbed the banyan tree, explored the interior, made a fire, now flying our kites.  Having a great morning!

Shannon

A Teenager's Adventure -

I can't believe it's already been a month, living on the Lil' Explorers Catamaran!  We finally made it to Ambrym, an island with 2 active volcanos. Shannon, Cassidy, 2 of the kids and I had a guide take us on a very rigorous 6 hour hike up to the mouth of Marym, with level 3 activity (out of 5). We left in the morning and didn't reach the top until after sunset, when the glow of the volcano seemed unreal. After quite some time just staring into fog and orange glow, the clouds finally blew away and we saw the most amazing display of lava bubbling and bursting deep into the mouth. Unfortunately with the wind it was becoming too dangerous to stay too long and we had to begin our 1 hour hike, in the dark, straight down the side of the volcano back to our camp where we stayed the night. We were all exhausted for a few days but it was every bit worth it! 

Since my last update we've just about done everything: hiking with beautiful views, snorkeling, exploring caves, playing some beach volleyball, paddle boarding with Sea Turtles, spotting dolphins, finding new islands, and even picking up a few island boyfriends along the way ;-)   

We are currently anchored at a tiny uninhabited island that a local chief is convincing Courage to buy and call home, so for the time being, it's ours!  We're used to drawing in crowds of local villagers so it's nice to have a private island for a few days. The phosphorescence in the water is spectacular at night so Cass and I took advantage of the privacy and went for a late night skinny dip in the glow of the beautiful 80 degree water!!  

With only a week left I'm trying to enjoy every second I spend out here!!

Miranda

Rhom Festival

At the Rhom Festival with the Chiefs

Local Native Emersion

Playing the Tam Tam

Tree carvings at the Rhom festival 

This is the sacred dance here.  The festival was to bring in new young men to the group.  They each brought a pig for sacrifice.  Those with the smaller pigs also had to pay a cash donation.  This buys them the right to dance, receive the mask from the more senior members, and be allowed to carve the traditional wood carvings.  We thought maybe 4 men joined, but they clubbed 6 pigs in front of us, so we aren't sure, we were still a little shell shocked when they handed out the masks.  They will eat all the meat, but in western society we are certainly a few steps removed from the clubbing our meat stage.

Ambrym Volcano

We took local transportation (hiking) to the top of the Ambrym volcano last night at sunset and got to see the boiling molten lava in the caldera. It was really cool!! If you look at a map, its just about in the center of the island, so we've effectively hiked completely across this island in 24 hours. Unfortunately, the only way to get there is walking uphill for 4.5 hours to a camp sight, then we hiked about 1.5 hours up to the rim of the volcano, enjoyed the fruits of our labors, then hiked down a steep ridge with drop offs on each side under flashlight ( fortunately a guide had each of the children by hand), and 1.5 hour hike back to camp. We cooked dinner on the fire, then we slept like champions (5 of us in a 4 man tent). This morning we mustered up all of our energy and walked back, about 3.5 hours since it was finally downhill. Innocence and integrity are champions!! They, really hung in there! We are all spent now. Tomorrow is a Rhom festival (native dancing) in a village about 30 minutes away. I hope my legs can get me there!

Shannon