.jpg)
This has been a pretty soggy trip so far…not much sunshine and no good sunrise or sunset opportunities. We’ve had a lot of rain, which is good if you like to be hot, humid and wet. Unfortunately, we don’t.
Today we are in Port Vila the capital of Vanuata, which is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. Yes, another South Pacific archipelago. And yes, it has a volcanic origin!
Vanuata is inhabited primarily by the Melanesian people. Melanesia is a sub-region of the Oceania area extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia. The Vanuatu group of islands was discovered by Europeans in 1606 and again in 1774 by Captain Cook.
We had high hopes of going for an “independent” tour on Vanuata. So we “got up, got out of bed, and dragged a comb across our head”. It was raining off and on so we decided to go ashore when the rain was “off”. Dale brought his computer to the Horizon lounge, which has a view off the front of the ship, where he worked on editing pictures (I offered my opinion when asked), and we waited. As soon as the rain broke, we’d gather our things, dropped some stuff off at our stateroom, and then discovered it was raining again. This went on for hours.
We did speak to some folks, who had taken an off-road jeep tour, who told us about their adventure. They said they got covered from head to toe in mud! They weren’t even sure the ship would let them back on without hosing them off first!
While that sounded like fun, it’s not really my kind of fun, so we waited some more. Evidently, we waited too long as we noticed the ship had pulled away from shore! Oh well. There is malaria in this region and we haven’t started our malaria medication yet…so we figured it was wise to stay on-board.
The seas were pretty rough tonight so we opted to eat dinner in our suite. One of the nice features of staying in a “penthouse” suite is that you not only have a butler, who “buttles” us regularly, but we can also dine in our room from any of the restaurant menus. Tonight we had a 3 course dinner from the Polo Grill. I had brought some no-flame candles from home (battery operated) and I set them up around the room so we’d have some nice ambiance! We borrowed a DVD from the on-board library and watched it while we dined. It was a wonderful evening.
Trip Summary » Travel with Dale & Margaret - […] Port Vila, Vanuatu […]