Vanuatu - Part 2- Santo

And welcome to part 2 of our Vanuatu trip!  I loved Santo!  It was breathtakingly beautiful in so many different ways!  The beaches, the blue holes, the jungle- everything!  We arrived late and everything was dark but when we woke up we realized we were on the most gorgeous beach I've ever seen.  The large trees entwined the rooms and restaurant of where we stayed and gave a perfect amount of shade on the beach!  LOVE!

There are sooo many things to do on Santo besides just laying on the beaches so we got started straightaway!  We took off on some mountain bikes and biked 8 k (5 miles) to our first blue hole :)  The blue hole is amazing! It is freshwater (coming from a spring I believe) and the color is just the most spectacular shade of blue-- I've never seen anything like it!  The local village put up a rope swing and we had so much fun!  We swung like kids for hours :)

Here are a few videos of our fun :)  It was hard for me to choose!

After having loads of fun we biked back to the hotel/b&b.  It was a great morning and the rest of the afternoon we laid on the beach with our Tusker beers!  Ahhhh so relaxing!  I even saw a Dugong-- sea cow.  They said if you see one you can go out there and swim with them but there is just no way I was going out there and Brian was in our room for that minute and by time I went and grabbed him and he got all decked out in snorkel gear and with our new underwater camera-- it was too far :(  oh well.  You win some, you lose some!

The next day we had a rental car so we did lots of touring of the island.  They drive on the right side of the road- same as USA so it was a nice change!  Our first stop:  During WWII the US used Espiritu Santo as a military base, naval harbor and airfield.  When they left the island they dumped all their equipment into the ocean at what is now known as Million Dollar Point.  The ocean was a bit choppy the day we were there but Brian trooped through and got some amazing pictures of lots of WWII "stuff"  not sure what it all is but it looks cool!  I only snorkeled 5 minutes saw a small amount of things and swam back to shore to explore the debris on the beach-- which was also neat, old Coke bottles, engines etc laying on the rocks.

Next we drove all the way north to a little village and stopped at the most incredible beach.  Then we drove back south to another beautiful beach, had lunch, then drove further south to another beautiful beach, then drove further south to another amazing blue hole, then drove until we were back at our hotel, just in time to get ready for a delicious dinner!

  

What a great day!  I really loved getting to tour and see the sights on our own time, not with a guide.  Although, there are times when a guide is extremely important..... like the following day!

We decided to do the Millennium Cave Tour, an all day tour consisting of caving, canyoning, hiking and floating which was pretty intense (minus the floating, that was peaceful!)  I found it to be a truly unforgettable experience, sometimes scary and challenging, but definitely unforgettable!  We started on an hour hike through the jungle to a village where we got our equipment, then we walked further into the jungle to a small opening.  This is where we got our faces painted by the villagers.  I enjoyed it more than Brian-- the look on his face in the picture makes me laugh!  Once that was done we got to the opening of the cave!  The cave was really quite massive (50 meters high - over 150 ft) and even getting into it was tricky!  People advised us that you have to be pretty physically fit to even do this tour and I can see why!  Luckily, the guides were very aware of the dangers and kept a close eye on us (or held our hands for a majority of the time if need be-- yeah that was me!)  The cave was pitch black but we carried a small water proof flashlight.  While in there we walked through a fairly fast moving river and stumbled over the slippery river rocks.  I was so concerned about not falling and slipping that I had little to no concern for the bats flying over head!  We walked for about 30-45 minutes (which felt like an eternity when youre slowly contemplating each little step)


   
 

  

me and my new boyfriend :)

What an adventure!  And we arent finished yet!  After a lunch with a gorgeous jungle view, we start our canyoning part of the trek.  This is definitely not up to American/Australian safety codes but the guides really help you along.  The scenery was so amazing it was worth it!  Climbing up and down these boulders into the canyon was a bit scary, the rocks can be slippery and walking through rapids is no doubt tough.  But to tell you the truth, Brian and I had so much fun!  We were so thankful to have a water proof camera to take a few good pictures but they really do no justice to the beauty of this untouched jungle!  We were just in awe but at the same time had so much adrenaline pumping, it was a strange combo :)

 After the canyoning portion come the highlight-- the swim/float down the river.  It is so breathtaking.  The waterfalls falling from the canyon above all around us were spectacular.  I have never seen anything like it :)  It was about a 30-45 minute float ... I could have done it all day....  then afterward we climbed straight up and out of the canyon to the village where we started.    There they had some fresh fruit and drinks then drove us back to Luganville, the town in Santo.
   

Sorry there are so many pictures of me but I was incapable of holding the camera and not falling for the majority of this tour :)

Part of the drive back we were driving on an old WWII airstrip.  The US military built it up (this was very dense jungle at the time) in 40 days... pretty impressive!  It is really neat to see how the US came in a country and transformed it in a short amount of time.  They still use a lot of the buildings the army put up as the shops in the town.  

This was our last night in Vanuatu and so we had a delicious dinner (the food there is a lot of fish, beef, rice, curries, veggies, really yummy and natural food, just if you were wondering)  The next morning we had to fly back to Port Vila... on the tiniest plane!!!  It was a little scary and loud but kind of cool at the same time!  

We had a few hours to kill in Port Vila before we went to Australia so had a perfect lunch with a perfect view, it was also the perfect ending to a perfect trip :)  Thats a whole lotta perfect!  But seriously it was great and I feel so lucky to have seen such a wonderfully untouched part of the world!  We are truly blessed to be able to do so much travelling and see so many places we never imagined being able to see!

Vanuatu - part 1- Port Vila and Tanna

HELLO!  So we got back from our wonderful trip to Vanuatu last week and I have been laying low and getting back into my normal routine, and am now FINALLY getting to writing about our 1 year anniversary, happy 30th birthday Brian vacay!  It was so amazing, so eye-opening, so adventurous :)  Dont feel bad if you have never heard of this beautiful country in the South Pacifc, we had not either until some friends of ours (Lauren and Tim!) went early this year.  It is not too far from Australia--a 5 hour flight and pretty close to Fiji (yet not near as developed).

We flew into Port Vila and went straight to the "Cascades" waterfalls which you walk up.  It was beautiful and a great start to our trip. All of the locals we encountered were so friendly and nice.  Our "bus driver" stayed at the bottom of the falls the whole time so he could drive us back to the hotel afterward.  It was about an hour and half.  Here are some pictures from DAY 1--PORT VILA.

The rest of the evening we sat at our hotel bar with a fabulous view and had many Tusker (vanuatu beer)  It was already so beautiful and we were not even at one of the islands we planned on spending time on!!!  The next morning we went to our next island (of the 83 in Vanuatu)  TANNA.  We were pretty excited to see the main attraction-- an active volcano!

Tanna is VERY primitive.  In an amazing way.  It was so refreshing and eye opening and spectacular!  I felt like if we got ship wrecked on a deserted island it would look just like Tanna.  :)  There were no paved roads so going anywhere took ages--  Driving slowly over the million potholes!  We passed villages and jungle on the way to our hotel, Tanna Lodge!  We decided to get settled in and then take the trek to the Volcano!!  Our room was GREAT!  We even had an outdoor shower (which looked and felt amazing but I never was quite as clean as I would have hoped)

SHOWER!

Tusker and fresh mango juice= happy BK

our bungalow

Ok so now we did the most incredible thing, the volcano.  Seriously, the most incredible experience.  We drove about an hour and a half thru the jungle, we got near the volcano and everything was black ash covered plains, then we kept driving thru a dry river bed, and finally we got to the volcano.  We parked and still had to walk a 10 minute hike straight up to the rim of the volcano!   Did I mention it was raining.  The volcano didnt care.  It was so loud I jumped every time it went off.  So insanely loud that you could visually see the shock wave, the sound made me think I could lose my hearing-- I felt like I was in a thunder cloud while it was thundering.  It was scary.  That is just the sound.  I haven't even mentioned yet the fact that the lava rocks were flying up about 1000 feet in the air around us.  (the rocks were on the ground near where we were standing- a clear indication that they could easily make it as far as we were)  It was frightening but we couldnt stop staring.  We were there for over 2 hours watching!  And when the sun went down that is when the show really started!  Here are some pictures, plus the video-- I would watch (it takes a minute until the eruption but still, just watch!!)

the mountain's getting steamy :)

The next day we woke up to a serious tropical storm!  We decided to still try and get out so we saw a near by "custom village" a village where the residents still live as they did for forever.  We rode 4 wheelers there and with all the mud it was so fun-- mudding through the jungle!  This was quite the experience.  The kids were beautiful and lovely and I wanted to take them home :)  I cannot imagine that in 2012 people still live like this but they seemed very happy.

I loved being there and the people were so great and so special.  We hung out there for awhile and rain kept us even longer.  They let us hang out in their home/huts until the rain died down a bit which was so nice.

Back at the hotel it was a mess, palm leaves were everywhere coconuts were all over the ground and the rain was still pouring.  We hung out on the balcony and watched the monster waves and drank coconut water from some coconuts which we cracked



The next day we went to the local supermarket-- or the fresh fruit and veggie mart. These were the only stores, only open on market days. The people there mostly just live off the land. They speak pigeon english- Bislama- so we can read it.... ie: the fish mart= i gat fis...but I couldnt speak it! They talk too fast! After the market we went to the GIANT BANYAN tree! Unfortunately, our camera ran out of battery so didnt get any pictures but it was HUGE. And the vines hanging from it were very fun to swing from. Me Tarzan You Jane :) haha   

Our final adventure in Tanna was another 4 wheeler trek to a water fall.  Along the way we stopped for some yummy berries and also got a follower.  This sweet little boy (who was carrying a machete-- kind of creepy but still...)  By the time we got to the waterfall we had a whole crew of little ones!  

The waterfall was actually really scary.  We had to jump off a really high cliff with a waterfall on the other side!  I took so long to jump and all the little kiddies were laughing at me!  I have a video of Brian, but I had the camera side-ways and cant seem the change it!  We also stopped by on the way to the hotel for some Mangos!  Our tour guide (the son of the hotel owners) climbed up so high in the tree to knock some down and I am telling you they were the best thing I have ever had!  

We went to the airport afterward to head to Santo, our next island destination!  

All in all Tanna was an amazing place to be.  I loved getting so see a place so natural and beautiful.  The people were great and we had a nice stay at our hotel .  Our stay at Vanuatu was half way over and we had already experience so much with so many more adventures to look forward to!

Ill try and get part2 up soon :)