Tanna, Vanuatu Vanuatu is a chain of 83 islands, spread between the equator and the tropic of Capricorn. It's nearest neighbors are the Solomon Islands to the north and New Caledonia to the southwest. Most islands are the summits of mountain ranges rising from the deep ocean floor. Vanuatu lies on squarely on top of the Pacific Ring of Fire. In fact, it is on the edge of the Pacific tectonic plate which is being forced up and over the Indo-Australian plate. This action causes frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Vanuatu has nine active volcanos, seven on land and two under the sea. There are also numerous thermal springs which are often used for cooking. Apart from disease- carrying mosquitoes, Vanuatu is free of dangerous land creatures ( no matter what they said on Survivor). The Melanesian people here lead simple lives living in small villages, fishing and growing crops in the rich fertile volcanic soil. Cannibalism was wiped out by the Presbyterian missionaries who arrived in the mid 1800's but not before several of them were eaten. Our trip to Vanuatu was a bumpy one with confused seas and the wind forward of a beam. Which makes for an uncomfortable bashing trip with waves over the bow and one that I seem to always stay queasy on. The good news is that we sailed most of the way and we were rewarded by seeing the brightest rainbow that we have ever scene in our lives. The passage only took three days but seemed longer. The last night out, while I was on watch, I saw a faint glow in the distant horizon. The closer we got the brighter it got. It turned out to be the volcano of Mt Yasur which is on the island of Tanna. Capt. Cook saw the light of Mt Yasur in the distance and turned his ship toward the island to investigate. The bay we are headed for is called Port Resolution and was named by Cook after his ship the HMS Resolution. The sun soon came up and we could see the volcano in the distance spewing smoke and ash high into the air. And we are heading towards it. As we enter the bay, the wind changes the wrong direction and the boat is soon covered in a black sand ash. We are wondering if we should turn and go, but we are tired and the bay looks very protected. Upon entering the bay, the wind changes directions again and the ash storm is over at least for now. We are soon greeted by a local fishermen named Joe in his outrigger canoe. We ask Joe who we are to talk to in the village about checking into the country. We are told that Stanley is the man. After cleaning the salt and volcanic ash off of the boat, we get into the dingy and steer our way through the reefs to the beach. We are told that he is working in the garden and to come back later. Later in the day we go back in and set up our trip into town for the next morning. We enjoy our first evening in Tanna by watching the thousands of flying foxes fly across the bay at dusk all the while listening to the rumble of the volcano. Then it's early to bed. It feels so good to be on a still boat. We get up early the next morning as it's a two hour ride one way to town in the back of a pickup truck on a bumpy dirt road. Definitely 4 WD in places. Our bottoms got sore from the bouncing. They would stay that way for quite a few days. We luck out and get to sit part of the way up front. The trip is very scenic, lot's of huge Banyon trees, in fact we see the largest one in the world. It's as large as a soccer field. We also drove through the ash planes of the volcano, Mt Yasur. It felt like being on the moon or a black Sahara desert. Our driver took us to the bank (to exchange money), immigration, quarantine and customs and waited at each place while we filled out our necessary paperwork. What service. Then after lunch it was back in the truck for the long trip home. The roads here are not that great so it's a slow and bumpy crawl home. Our driver had a cell phone and it made us nervous with him talking quite a bit while he drove the dangerous roads. Later we noticed some of the fishermen in their outrigger canoe's had cell phones. We found out that it is not that easy for them to keep them charged up and we were asked if we would trade fruit or fish for charging their cell phones. Isn't technology great? They also wanted to trade for batteries and fish hooks We make arrangements for a trip up to Mt Yasur for tomorrow night. Hopefully it's not for some kind of sacrifice.