Holiday snaps... Part 3

Days 4 & 5 of our Cruise was spent exploring 2 tropical islands. We spent half a day on a tour of Lifou which took us to a Vanilla plantation and a Chief's Hut. It was really interesting driving along and seeing how the people lived on Lifou. Often a block of land would have a brick or besser block house as well as a traditional round hut. It was on Lifou that I began to feel as though I was a "superior" white person coming to see how the "natives" lived. It was awful. The people were so beautiful and friendly but I felt like I was coming to observe them in their natrual way of life. (I don't think I am a superior white person. Every person, no matter what their skin colour, gender or religion, is of equal value and worthy of respect and love.)

This is a Chief's Hut. We got to meet the Chief, he was quite young. The guide told us that during a cyclone everyone in the village comes and shelters in this hut to be protected from the storm. 

We walked down a hill through rain forest to see a bay where the local people swim and fish. The water was so clear and beautiful.

On day 5 the ship docked at Port Vila, Vanuatu. We had a Kayaking tour booked so we headed off the ship to find our tour guide. We were among the first people off the ship and the first to walk through the markets and past all the taxi drivers and their vans waiting to try and get tourist to hire them to take them somewhere. It was a bit nerve-wracking walking along and having groups of men surrounding you and asking to take you somewhere. I figured that if we kept walking and said that we had someone meeting us we would be ok and we were. Almost all of them we nice but there were a couple that were a bit sly. 

The Kayaking trip was awsome. It rained but that didn't matter. The river and scenery was beautiful.

We had lovely fresh tropical fruit for morning tea when the trip ended, in the gardens that the tour guide owned on the bank of the river.

We had lunch back on the ship and then decided to explore the markets that we had walked through in the morning.  It was a great day, I have to say that Vanuatu was my favorite part of the cruise.