Santo: Utter Paradise :0)

Well, I can’t show you photos but Santo has been too awesome not to blog about before I leave for Malekula. The first few days were spent with the other Gappers chilling out at the markets with the local kids, enjoying the plumbing, eating ice cream, steak and chips, and having a few drinks with the Ex-pats.
I can’t stress to you enough how fantastic fresh veggies, dairy, chocolate and juicy steak tastes after a month of rice and bread (although your stomach isn’t happy for a few days). The first thing I ate was a golden gay time and biting through the peanut encrusted chocolate shell to the soft, gooey caramel and vanilla ice cream truly was a golden and gay moment of my life. I’m gonna love the taste of those ice creams forever!
Our new hotel (we stayed in a hostel while the other Gappers were here), the Unity Park Motel, has the best showers and toilets in town, hot water, air conditioning, a huge kitchen, a TV, pagoda, garden, balcony and its roomy and beautiful!
Luganville is huge, quiet and full of the remnants of WWII. Houses are made with old steal from bunkers, there’s rusty boats, cars, planes and junk everywhere, and random propellers, anchors and engines decorating the tourist resort and cafes.
The vegetation here is unbelievable! Flowers and vivid, twisted, variegated leaves everywhere. The trees are like nothing you’d ever see at home and, Mum, there are frangipani trees everywhere! And they’re massive!
Bec, Hugh and I (team Adelaide) are the only Gappers left in Santo (the others have all left for Pentecost). So we went on a tour today! Like, what else would a tourist do? :0)
Keneth, our guide, took us to Lonnoc Beach and Matevula Blue Hole in his new, shiny bus. He was very proud of it and kept telling us how comfy it was, making sure we dusted off the sand and shining it while he waited for us to swim. It was quite cute.
When I met him though he was not so cute. He had his finger shoved up one nostril and, after a good dig, he held out his hand for a shake. Repulsed I looked at the hand and then thought, ‘Eh! It’s Vanuatu!’ – I shook the man’s hand.
The ride to the beach was 1 ½ hours through unbelievable scenery. When you do see my photos you’ll think I look like a dork because I was just so overwhelmed trying to take everything in. We drove over stunningly clear blue and green streams, past champagne beaches and huge canopies of forest that had vines draping like mats over the edge. I can’t describe it – I’ll just muddle up my words.
Lonnoc beach was crystal clear blue, with fine white sand and visibility for up to 50m (on a clearer day than ours apparently). It was so incredibly beautiful and the water was warm! No waves, just calm blue ocean. It was so relaxing, so incredibly touristy and looking around at Elephant Island and the coconut trees I really felt like I was in paradise.
The Matevula Blue Hole was beyond words. It was soooo amazing! Picture the bluest blue you’ve ever seen and now imagine that water ten times bluer! And it was clear. I couldn’t get over the fact that swimming around I could look down and see my feet as blue as blue can be. Keneth said it’s 65m deep!!!! Wow!!! It was so hard swimming in it though because you literally just sink and really have to work to keep yourself afloat. There were mangroves growing over and into the water and… ah… it was surreal
However… once I’d gone for a few dips and decided to swim over to the other side I noticed something moving in the water… fish… and not just one! I whole school of black and yellow fish! Pretty, sure, but not when you have a chronic phobia of the little buggers. And they weren’t just little buggers. A little further down there were silver and white fish the size of my arm. I dread to think what other monstrous fish were swimming even further down (gulp!)
I was so scared that swimming to the other side of the shore I strained my arm muscles and my chest seized up. I am so completely and utterly pathetic! I’m so determined to get over my fear of fish while I’m here. It is the most stupid phobia of all time! It didn’t help that as I was desperately splashing to the other side Bec and Hugh were yelling “swim, Jess, swim!!!” “Faster! It’s right behind you!” “Look out! Here comes a big one!” Hugh says he regrets nothing… monsters… :0) It was funny once I got my breath back though.
The next day (today coincidently) Hugh and I went on a WWII tour, again with Keneth. Bec wasn’t too interested so she stayed behind. But it was pretty cool!
We started off by going to Million Dollar Point – or as Hugh called it, ‘Tetnus City’. There is WWII crap everywhere! (excuse the French, but it’s the only fitting word). There is so much junk that all the coral’s dead, and even the rocks, trees and shells are covered in glass and metal. There was a tree growing over a big rusty vehicle. It was pretty disgusting, but at the same time interesting. The Americans just dumped it all there apparently because the Ni-Vans refused to pay them good money for the scrap. It was really windy and too rough to go snorkeling but apparently when you do you can see old cars and stuff under the water. I was pretty annoyed at the weather… although Kenneth said there were really big fish…
Then we went to a wreck of an old B29 plane which crashed coming in to land. It must have been some crash because there was stuff spread out everywhere! You could pick out the wing and the tail and stuff but it literally exploded into a hundred pieces.
After the plane we moved forward through time to the 1980s and went to an old Tuna Fishing Building Thingy (where the Taiwan used to store the Tuna) which was soooo massive! It had to be abandoned after Independence and the Taiwan Fishing companies just pack everything up and left – without paying the fisherman. The fisherman took out their wrath by burning the place down.
It was massive! It was as big as a plane hanger and we were allowed to just walk through it. Most of the machinery was left behind and while it’s not good now it was so cool to look at. As we were walking we heard a creaking sound, looked up, and saw part of the roof was ready to fall down on us. Real safe Kenneth! :0)
There was also an old rusty fishing boat out in the harbor. It was the highlight of the WWII trip… and it wasn’t even WWII… oh well!
After that we had lunch in a bay where all the rich tourist come in their fancy sailing boats. It was really really pretty!
Then we saw an old bunker… nothing to get excited about, just a metal thing sticking out of vegetation in the middle of nowhere. Before heading back we also stopped off at the biggest WWII runway in Santo. And it was really big! You couldn’t even see the end of it from where we were. But it’s no good now because the clouds are always so low planes can’t see where they’re coming in to land.
I was a little naughty and picked up a few souvenirs for Tom East, Dad and James (whoever wants them really). An old metal plate from one of the WWII packing crates I think. It’s got writing on it – Philadelphia marine corp shipping company or something, an old brandy bottle, an old spoon with coral on it (junk) and… James, you’re really gonna want this, an old gear from that crashed B29 plane. It’s heavy so if you don’t want let me know, okay! :0)
Anyway! We leave for Malekula tomorrow and after the internet café I’m gonna go to the Western food place and get a banana split… mmmm… :0) My last true western binge before heading out of civilization.
Miss you all and I post back some photos for Sarah to put up on the blog! :0)
Jess :0) xox