Search on Santo

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Well, I'm in Vanuatu now and it is hot, a Darwin-type heat. Earlier, after I landed in Port Vila having flown in from Brisbane, I found my way from the international terminal to the domestic terminal. I plopped myself on the ground. Immediately, I was face to face with two curious Vanuatu kids with dark skin and the biggest of wide grins. A minute later I heard, "pssst, pssst" and there were two teenage Vanuatu girls who wanted to know all about me, my name, where I was from, and where I was going. After this I checked in for my flight from the capital city to the island of Espiritu Santo. After this I finally got some Vanuatu money, but only after having a session of amused confusion at the bank counter.

It still hasn't hit me that I'm in Vanuatu. I'm really stoked about seeing my friend, who is a Peace Corps volunteer here in Vanuatu. He works as a teacher in a local school. I'll be staying with him for a while here on Santo and also doing some traveling to some other islands. Should be a blast. I'm beginning to feel better b/c of the closure that I think Vanuatu brings.

Well things took an interesting twist when I got to Santo. My friend was a no-show at the airport, so I hired a taxi to the school. Along the way I was befriended by the taxi cab driver, Uri. We got to the school, guess what, no friend. After talking to a guy at the college Uri said that there were two spots in town that my friend might be at. At the first spot we were told that he had been there, but that he had left. The second spot was not a winner either. By that time the sky had turned to black. So Uri helped fix me up with a room in a hotel in town. Then with nothing else to do I took him and his wife, Josephine, out to dinner. Together we ate a Chinese restaurant, having prawns, chicken, rice, and beers. Definitely not the average night. Uri is coming tomorrow morning to take me back to my friend's school to see what's up.





Note: My Vanuatu trip directly follows The Aussie Diaries. The entries come directly unabridged from the journal I carried around with me on my first post-university adventure to the southern hemisphere. They are a bit on the rough side. Also, I will reorganize and add more photos when I finished putting in all the other Vanuatu entries.


added December 17, 2005

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Photos

The Road To Matevulu
I was finally in the South Pacific.