Week 51 - Port Vila, Vanuatu

After an uncomfortable night on a wooden bench at Auckland Airport, our flight to Port Vila, Vanuatu finally took off on Monday morning.

After 4 hours of flying time, we arrived. Immigration was a breeze for us. We then set out to find a public bus to take us to the hotel. As in many countries, there are no fixed routes or departure schedules here. You simply stand by the road, flag down any bus, and ask if they're going your way and how much it costs. The first bus is usually the most expensive, so we let that one go and waited 1 minute for the next.

Upon arriving at the hotel, we first dropped off our luggage and began the search for an ATM. Cash is King in Vanuatu. After finding the ATM with the lowest fees, we were finally able to check in and pay for the hotel.

We should actually be at the end of the rainy season, and it rarely rains the whole day, but we are incredibly lucky ;-) it has rained almost continuously from Monday to Friday. At least it is warm, but we hadn't seen the sun even once by then....

We take it with humor since we can't change it anyway. We make use of the dry hours to explore the city.

For 3 days, we have taken the next step in our diving education: Advanced Open Water

This allows us to dive up to 30 meters (instead of 18 meters) deep. The course includes 2 mandatory dives (deep dive and navigation) and 3 elective dives (we chose wreck diving, buoyancy control, and night diving). Our diving instructor was excellent and we learned a lot. Diving by compass was harder than expected but in the end, we passed all dives and received our certificate.

On Friday evening, we went to the ultimate tourist attraction: a fire show. Unlike all the other tourists, we naturally took the public bus there. The show is performed on the beach of a bar and thus we had a very expensive dinner at the bar until the show started. The show was really great and we enjoyed it very much. Of course, we took the public bus back.

The people here are incredibly friendly, and when we walk by the road, we are constantly asked if everything is okay or if we need help. Most tourists take excursions and rides only by taxi, so we stand out a bit.

Mainly, tourists from Australia are around here. You can clearly see that in the prices. Here are a few examples for your orientation:

⁠Bus ride in the city: 150 Vatu (about 1.10 Euro)

Food at the market: 800 Vatu (about 5.70 Euro)

Food at a restaurant: 1500 Vatu (about 10.80 Euro)

Food at a local restaurant: 250 Vatu (about 1.80 Euro)

On the weekend, the sun finally came out. With another couple from our hotel, we made our way to the surfer beach. Crystal clear water, sun, and lots of surfers. We ended Saturday with a game night.

Today we went to the airport as we are flying to the next island: Santo

The departure hall is very minimalist with no shops and no air conditioning.

The small plane took off on time and after 50 minutes we landed in Santo.

What we hadn't considered is that fewer buses run on Sundays. So we took a taxi into town to buy groceries for the next few days. We have booked a self-catering beach bungalow in Turtle Bay.

For the ride there, we found a bus. The bus driver and his wife were incredibly nice. They told us they are teachers and only drive the bus on weekends, and they talked about their 4 children. We asked for some tips and information and received additional information about the area and the island. They mentioned that almost all people in Vanuatu are Christians. There are hardly any other religions.

The people here are incredibly friendly and always help us with questions or problems. We will show you our dream accommodation next week in daylight.