3 Weeks at Tanna, Vanuatu
07 October 2011 | Tanna, Vanuatu
Katie
Sailing into Port Resolution is like sailing back in time to when the earth was young and volatile and the lives of the native people were inextricably intertwined with nature. Villages with huts made of woven pandanus leaves are nestled beneath the lush canopy. Men paddle their hand hewn outrigger canoes to fish and bats fly over the anchorage every night at dusk . Every person has a garden and they eat what is available. Their lives are simple but the people are rich with culture, family and natural resources. We can learn a lot from them.
Jim and I were invited to a circumcision ceremony on the far side of the island by a friend that lives in that village. She and her daughter dressed us up and painted our faces in the traditional fashion. We were welcomed and accepted into the village.
In the black of night we stood on the rim of Mt. Yasur as his belly roared sending clouds of gas and ash mushrooming up from deep in his bowels and blowing fantastic explosions of incandescent red and orange bits and streamers high into the sky.
We were led by a new friend back into the bush behind her village to see natural hot springs that have recently emerged and learned much about that corner of the island.
I spent one morning with another new friend visiting her garden and those of her family while learning about new foods. We spent time together and later she gave me two very special feathers that are worn in ceremonies. I will treasure them.
We spent three days in a remote village a two hour walk from the anchorage where we slept in a tree house, drank kava with the chief, the roots having been chewed by boys, and lived among the villagers. Jim helped gather, shell and prepare the coconuts to make milk for the laplap while I grated manioc on a spiky branch and learned by helping to make the laplap inside a communal kitchen while a curious and very vocal baby chick hopped about my shoulders. We witnessed kastom dancing where the ladies put a skirt on me and Robin rubbed her painted face against mine to color it. They taught me two dances. The red glow emerging from the summit of Mt. Yasur in the otherwise black night was framed by coconut palms outside the window of our tree house.
Tanna is a magical place. We were anchored in Port Resolution for three weeks and left only because my finger became badly infected. Now we are in Vila waiting for it to heal and the side effects to abate. We feel a bit cheated to have our time cut short there and be tied to a mooring ball at the edge of a seaside resort.
Jim took some amazing photos and I've been working on pages for our website about our time on Tanna. See www.tenayatravels.com for stories and photo galleries. Additions are being made almost daily.