Hideaway Island and Pele Island

Again, snow at home did you say? Or, the worst storm in decades continues in Brisbane? Fantastic..

Thursday we went to Hideaway by bus. All the buses in Port Vila look like normal cars, but they have a B in front of the number on their number plates. T is for Taxi, H for Hire and PT for public transport. Apparently, bus is not reckoned public transport in Vanuatu. PT is for those going to the market carrying all their goods.

Anyways, we got on a bus, got on another bus, then a ferry (room for ten at the most, including the ferry man), and then we finally arrived at Hideaway. We paid the entrance fee, found very comfy sun chairs and headed out to sea. If you ever think you've seen a beach made out of dead corals before, think again, you haven't been to Hideaway.. It held good promises of what were to be found in the waters before us. We spent the day snorkeling and tanning (sometimes under the umbrella, sometimes not), experienced the occasional rain shower, but it was just nice having the salt washed away for us.

We both started getting sick this day (swallowing too much salt water I guess..), but we had a nice day and looked forward to Pele Island the next day.

Pele Island? Didn't that get canceled? Well, on Wednesday it did, on Friday it didn't. But, they forgot about us. We had that fixed as well and after chasing the bus in a scary small car without seat belts, we catched up and headed for the boat.

Rain clouds came and passed over all the island, including ours, but it didn't start raining yet. We embarked on a small beach, left our stuff and headed out to sea again. Our guide took us out to the reefs and provided us with bread in case we wanted the sharks (I mean, fish..) to eat something other than ourselves. I played around with my underwater camera and met many cute (and some huge) fishies out there on the reef. It started raining on the way out and while we were snorkeling, but it cleared by the time we headed back. Everyone was hungry and we had food (glorious food!) accompanied by.... yes, a string band.. Not that they drive me nuts or anything (they do.) but however cute the guys were, it did not make up for them being guys wearing skirts and with white flowers in their hair.. :S

After lunch we had a guided tour of the village (800 people lived there). The day that we were there they were preparing a wedding, the groom was just over at another island buying the bride. We saw the food being prepared (a cow's head here, a pig's leg there) and we are not thoroughly convinced that it was all too hygienic. Our guide climbed a coconut tree and fetched coconuts for later. On the way back we walked past the local church: A shed.

Kids sang to us (we're goin tu mis ju, we wis we cud kis ju, we hate that ju'r goin aaaaaweeeeeeeeee). You can hear it can't you? After this fantastic musical experience, we had some free time to swim around and enjoy ourselves and it was thoroughly enjoyed:)