28.05. -
11.06. 2006
The celebrations for this local wedding start in
the afternoon with the fetching of the bride. Since
she lives two villages away half our village sets
out from the Asanvari Bay - either on foot or by
canoe. Even we're allowed to solve some transportation
issues.
The atmosphere is very relaxed and informal. Everybody
who doesn't get away fast enough gets covered in
mashed bananas by the bride. And even though it's
a serious tradition, the "walking round the
gifts" is great fun for everyone.
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It only gets really serious in the afternoon:
everybody is dressed very formally; the sermon lasts
for 3 hours and, if the children playing outside get
too loud, the elderly ladys inside start to mutter.
How some things stay the same all round the planet
...
But after that things ease up again. A string-band
starts playing, everybody gets a woven palm-leave
basked containing a piece of veal and yucca from the
ground oven and the kava starts flowing liberally.
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Obviously we leave the celebrations rather early.
Butwe do meet some of the last guest taking their
canoes home als we leave this beautiful place the
next morning, heading towards Espiritu Santo.
After travellling 60 miles we reach our new anchoring
spot close to the 'capital' Luganville in the evening.
Luganvilles center is a nice broad road - left behind
by Americans after world war II. Apart from that
the place look rather droopy.
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Business life here, as well as the
supermarkets, are fully under chinease control. In
other words, no more french Camenbert or other delicious
foods. Instead, supermarkets with a very limited offer
and lots of fresh foods way past their sell-by-date.
Winner of that lot was a Mozarella from New Zealand
with the sell-by-date 06/2005. Quite different from
Port Vila.
After buying some necessities, including some no-shape-nappys,
we set our for Espiritu Santo`s eastern coast. We
find a beautiful anchoring spot in Petterson Bay -
behind a reef, where we decide to stay for a few days.
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One of the bays most striking features are the
two rivers that have so-called Blue Holes at their
starting points. Those are up to 30m deep springs
that supply the rivers with amazingly blue water.
And one can go for fantastic swims here. During
high tide you can even reach the Blue Holes with
the dhingy. Absolutely great!
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But even the beautiful days here come
to an end and we return to Luganville to run a few
errands.
And on our way there we finally catch a fish again
- and what a great one. This fabolous specimen - a
wahoo - will feed us quite some time. Even its head
was turned into fish soup a`la Miha.
More from us, soon, right here ....
Until then, take care!
Tom, Nela & Antoine
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