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!