What only up to day 3!?!?!

Day 3

These two days have sorted of melded into one as we basically did the same thing on both days, nothing much  🙂

We were up early on day 3 and I power walked djd along the golf course and then up over the hill….we will be back to this spot before we leave to get a sunset piccie as it looks over the island and out to sea!! and there is a wonderful big old tree at the top of the hill that just begs to be photogaphed.
 

Fish are just sleeping beside the sea wall in the early morning shade until the tide goes out and they start to be chased about by the bigger fish.

There is a cruise ship in town today and we have already been warned that it gets busy, but we wanted to go in as we saw some cheap snorkeling gear in one of the shop windows and we wanted to buy it so we have our own goggles and masks to go into the lagoon with. So off we go, waiting for a bus to turn up, a taxi arrives, no we say I only have 200 for the bus…off he goes, one of those taxi talks happened again, another taxi turns up and I say we only have the 200 and he  says ok, so in we get and off we go. He’s starts to tell us that the hotel should have told us that with the cruise ship in town most of the buses are being used for tours!! Doh!! Well that was good of him to take us for only 200 then.

Town is busy, we wonder around the market and then get us a lovely drink called “bush lime” which we have taken a bit of a fancy too…..lime juice and ice….yummmm….

 

Can you see the crafted boats at the bottom right hand corner of the picture. We brought one of these and got it cheaper than it was being sold for. When they realised we were not off the boat they gave us a better price!! So lesson to be learnt don’t go on a cruise and think your buying things cheaply cause they see those suckers coming!! Mind you they do rather stick out like sore thumbs all wearing their cruise passes around their necks.

We get the snorkels, and I keep getting asked questions from the people off the cruise ship, like do you know where the toilets are? How much for the snorkel?? I’m sorry do I look like a native to this island???? Anyway I knew the answers.

We have a bit of a wonder up the waterfront, back thru the food market and catch a bus back to the resort.

One of the more enchanting things about the buses/vans is that they only put sufficient petrol in to get them from one place to another and wait until they are its getting empty and put just a little bit more in to cover the next few rides. We had to stop at a petrol station and get gas a few times, and not once Tae did they turn their engines off!!! But they didn’t have to get out to pump the gas either they had woman running all around the gas station filling the vans up. Whats in your job description again Tae 🙂

Its snorkeling time….and how we regret that we don’t have water proof camera’s as the sea life around the small coral reefs just outside our door is just fantastic and the snorkel paid for themselves the first bright blue starfish djd and I saw!!! I’ve never been snorkeling before and have never seen such wonderful sights, sea horses, and brightly coloured fish…..Nemo lives in these waters and he is just beautiful, this is just wonderful. The only down side was I have to take my glasses off to snorkel and it means I don’t get absolute clarity as without them I can only see 2inches in front of my face, but ok to get by on with the snorkel mask as it offers a smidgen of magnification, however I hooked my glasses into the top I was wearing thinking they would be ok, I should have known better…..I lost them…..and we swam and swam and we swam all over that lagoon but never found them…..thank goodness I have a second pair otherwise that would have been it for me for the rest of the holiday.

Across the lagoon which is called Erakor Lagoon, there is Erakor Island, a separate small island in the lagoon. Last time we came we walked around this island and saw wonderful lizards, darting about on the ground, poking their heads out to watch us and then darting back under cover. There is a ferry that goes back and forth just beside the resort to the island about every 15 minutes. The island has changed since the last time we were there and from what we could see not for the better. They have created more bungelows painted bright yellow and they have cleared the bush area down the other end of the island where the lizards had been and created a platform over looking the sea for wedding ceremonies to take place, as this is one of the attractions of coming to Vanuatu for some couples is to have their whole wedding take place here and bring along family and friends to witness and have a holiday at the same time. There was one happening at our resort as we visited Erakor island. Anyway, there were no lizards to be seen, we were so disappointed and so saddened to see the destruction of this beautiful island for so called progress.

However the perks of working here is the parking!!

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The perks of being a guest

However there were some resident crabs that we did stumble across. You could never spot them from being any different from any of the other shells lying on the beach if it was not for the fact that they move!!

Saw you!!

Come out come out where ever you are!

 

and your little friends too

Wedding canoe

Back to the resort for dinner and the nights entertainment. A local group of young people who have learnt the art of polynesian dancing.

I never knew djd was so interesting in dancing perhaps I will have to try this myself!!

Big group and were very interesting to watch really, it certainly kept djds attention 🙂

A night cap outside the bungalow and early to bed as we have a 5am wake up call for tomorrow as we fly to Pentecost island to see the land dives the original bungy jumpers, who tie vines around their feet and jump to the ground below from a platform. Should be a great day!!!!