Our final stop in Vanuatu was at Port Vila, the largest city in Vanuatu and its capital. We were surprised at how modern this city was compared to the very rural and subsistence living that we had encountered in the earlier two outer islands. After a windless night of motoring we entered Mele Bay and picked up one of the moorings. We then quickly completed rather informal customs and quarantine inspections. Immigration was taken care of the next day in town as there had not been any immigration officers on Tanna Island.

The staff at Yachting World were very nice and extremely helpful in Port Vila, and we were soon settled in. Ashore we really enjoyed the French Restaurant L’Houstalet. The profiteroles there were especially good. And the Stone Grill had excellent steaks that we cooked ourselves on extremely hot black slabs of stone.

I was lucky to encounter several pool tables at the War Horse Bar and was able to practice pool several times while in Port Vila. I also found my way on the electric bicycle to the new Vanuatu Tennis Club and enjoyed hitting against the backboard there. But the pro was too busy teaching groups of kids how to play to have any time to hit with me.

One morning we took a trip to see a Custom Village. This is a village where the government encourages the people to live in traditional ways and to give dance and other cultural presentations to visitors. We walked through dense jungle to enter the village, being followed along the way by warriors stalking us through the jungle. We were greeted by the chief who accepted us into the village. Our guide then taught us about how villagers live in thatched huts, have arranged marriages, hide from cyclones in the roots of banyon trees, catch fish with bows and arrows, catch more fish using a soporific sap from tree vines, catch wild pigs and chickens with traps made of sticks and branches, and treat medical problems with the natural plants of the jungle. The village men also played music and sang several songs for us. The had a remarkably good string band with guitars, ukulele, xylophone like bamboo shoots, water bottles, a washtub base, and numerous types of drums. But throughout the tour a little girl wandered along with us and stole the show by being so cute.

Our last night in Port Vila we went to the Fire Dance Show at the Beach Bar along with Julie and Carl from Sky Blue Eyes and Jeff and Miriam from Enough with their two sons. The show was quite impressive with about ten performers twirling and juggling flaming batons, traditional as well as impressive break dancing, and acrobatics. It was the best of the Fire Dance shows we have seen between Fiji and Vanuatu.

Please see the Vanuatu photo gallery until I have time to incorporate the photos from Vanuatu into the above blog.