After collecting my mother, we made our way back to the Peace Corps office. We did some introductions and sorted out our stuff. Due to jet-lag, we took it slow the rest of Sunday and Monday. There were a few errands to run, flights to pay for, etc. There was also plenty of hand shaking. Any time family comes to visit, the staff is very keen to meet them.

Tuesday morning we got up bright and early to head down to Tanna. Check-in started at 6 but there wasn’t anyone in the terminal at all when we got there. This is typical of Vanuatu. We ended up standing outside and chatting with an Aussie couple until they opened up the check-in. Morning flights to Tanna are generally on the ATR (big plane- its got 65 seats). Air Vanuatu puts quite a bit of effort into making this a “real” flight experience. There are two stewardesses and a drink service. Did I mention that the flight is 35 minutes? Not worth it if you ask me but they like to show off for tourists, I guess. After landing, we waited in “baggage claim” which was WAY too small for the number of people in there. After finding our bags and the truck to the bungalow we made a quick stop to pick up another PCV before heading across the island to the volcano side.

The west side of Tanna has pretty good roads for Vanuatu. As soon as you get to the top of the mountain range crossing the island, however, that changes. They’re doing a massive project to improve the crossing but the first half won’t be finished until June and I’m not sure how quickly the second half will get done after that. My mother got to experience just how bouncy island roads can be. She was not impressed. More impressive, however, was the view which included Mt Yasur. We stopped for pictures.

Volcanoes in the tropics offer a sharp contrast. As you’re driving along, you pass lush jungle, lush jungle, lush jungle, desolation, lush jungle, lush jungle… It is one of the most interesting things about them. The driver was dropping a relation of his off at a village, so we got out and wandered around part of the ash plain for a bit. Smaller than Mordor but I definitely got a feeling for what that would be like.

Once we finally got to the bungalow, we dropped our stuff off and promptly turned around to walk to another PCV’s village. I had never been there and was unaware of just how far it was. It was not a ridiculously strenuous hike but it was definitely not a walk in the park. We got there while Jake was in a meeting so we waited at his house and storied with each other as well as a few ni-Vans who wandered by. Jake came home and we met the litter of puppies living under his house. The puppies are adorable, if a little mangy. Eventually we found a couple youngfala to chew us kava so that we could drink a shell before walking back to the bungalow ahead of night fall. Yes, on Tanna, the kava is chewed, generally by young men. It doesn’t taste too bad but is not the most hygienic.

Wednesday morning, we went to a kastom womens’ dance. It was a half-hour walk out to the village where they were doing the dance. When we got there, they apologized for having few people but apparently a number had already gone to the garden when they hit the tam tam drum. It seemed a perfectly fine dance to us. Afterwards we gave the kids lollies and got the language word for thank you to tell them. Then it was back to the bungalow. I chatted with our guide (who was the daughter of the bungalow’s owner) along the way. It’s always fun to surprise people by being able to speak Bislama. They’re so eager to story with us.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out around the bungalow, reading our respective books. It works out well that my mom and I both really enjoy relaxing with a book. It also worked out very well throughout the trip that she eats small portions. Most of the places we stayed served a basic plate of rice, veggies, and meat. Not much choice but tasty. My mother would eat about half of her plate and I’d get a plate and a half!

After a relaxing day, we went up to the volcano that evening. We decided to walk up rather than trying to get a truck. It took about an hour which was fortunately up a fairly gradual slope. Walking up let us really examine the transition in the ground as we got closer to the volcano. It was very cool. We started finding more ash, then a few places where the ground was smoking, then finally the end of green as we got right up to the rim. We arrived with plenty of daylight left and not many people there. It is possible to walk around most of the rim of the volcano, depending on how strong and in what direction the wind is blowing. One side is a bit steeper and had more ash being blown towards it. We spent some time trying to get good pictures of the explosions and I went around to both sides. As it got darker, more tourists arrived and the explosions got more impressive. We managed to get the obligatory explosion-in-the-background-portrait photograph. Eventually, we decided to start walking down. After a while, the trucks started to catch up and one was nice enough to give us a lift to the bottom.

Thursday morning we made the trip back to the west side and checked into a guest house just outside of Lenekal. There are three “towns” in Vanuatu. Port Vila is the capitol and the biggest. Luganville is the main town on Santo. It is much quieter but still very well built up and stocked with things. Lenekal is referred to as “black man town”. It’s A LOT more rural. Plenty of people but no big concrete buildings and very few stores (all small shops.) Ship captains refuse to dock at their wharf because it is poorly positioned and two ships have sunk while docked. The ships bring in, or in this case don’t bring in, supplies, which leads to small and poorly stocked shops.

We were originally scheduled to fly out Friday afternoon but decided to switch to the morning flight. There wasn’t much we wanted to do in Lenekal and I had found out about an Information and Communication Technology day back in Vila. Switching flights here is incredibly easy, you can do it over the phone in 5 minutes and there is no fee. It’s a good thing we ended up checking in early because there were plane issues and we ended up on an 8-seater. Not everyone who was booked on the flight was able to actually get on. We were joined by a group of New Caledonians who were very nervous about the plane (but in a laughing, upbeat way) and a ni-Van who joined me in laughing at/with them for it.