8 August - Aneityum, Vanuatu
Here we are in Vanuatu, or, as it was originally named, New Hebrides. We arrived at the southernmost island yesterday at 12:30pm, although since the time changed, it was actually 11:30am. We gained an hour.
This island is named Aneityum, which appears on some of our maps in the French translation as Anatom. Even if they are illiterate, most people in Vanuatu speak at least 4 languages: English, Bislama, French, & their own local dialect. The people we met when we went ashore to check in yesterday look quite different from Fijians; lots of lighter-colored hair, for one thing. And our reception here was surprising. Usually in Fiji we were met by a bunch of kids as we pulled up to the beach, but here, all the kids were busy playing soccer or other ball games & virtually ignored us. They usually responded if we said hello, but they weren't interested in talking to us.This island only became a check-in/check-out point for Vanuatu last year. Before that, very few boats came here, so we're especially surprised at the blasé reception of the kids. The adults were friendly though, giving directions, talking for a while, then walking with us along the beach to the police station where Richard, the policeman, did our paperwork, then asked us for rope to tie up his bull. I thought he said boat! He walked us to his house to show us the rope he had which he feels is inadequate, but we assured him it would hold. Clearly he's been asking every yacht for rope, since he had an array of choices.
The houses here are also quite different from the usual corrugated tin construction of Fiji. There are woven houses, & even houses built of split logs, which was quite a surprise.After every passage, no matter how short, I feel the need for some exercise, so I proposed a walk on Inyeug, also known as Mystery Island. We packed only the camera & went over to the nearby island in Plover. There were a couple of docks to choose from since cruise ships come here to visit. 
We hadn't realized the full meaning of the cruise ship visits until we walked around a bit & saw all the buildings, picnic tables, long sets of stalls for selling things (now empty, of course), a silly cannibal pot & other photo ops, fancy toilets, signs touting various tours etc. It all felt so fake & touristy. The most startling realization was how much money this place must rake in when a cruise ship comes to visit once a month. And speaking of raking, they rake the coral bits up off the beach! That was a shock. It felt like a fabricated environment made to mimic some of the perfect islands we've actually visited. But admittedly, the walking paths were very nice & picturesque - we didn't wear shoes at all. Pretty plantings, rock walls, benches, even toilets all along the path. It took us less than an hour to walk the perimeter of the island, & we were sorry we hadn't brought our snorkeling gear, as the water was very enticing, so we zipped back to the boat, donned our wetsuits & went back for a swim. The water was pretty cold & the coral wasn't spectacular - it seemed to suffer from algae contamination & no doubt gets beat up by novice snorkelers when the cruise ship comes with its thousands of guests. But there were lots of nice fish, including a new type of brown-colored anemone fish. Conveniently, the current drift carried us all the way around to the other side of the island where Plover was. Felt really good to get in the water. We haven't been snorkeling since we went to those two sea mounts in Fiji with David & Janet aboard. That seems ages ago.
says ADR
