Pete in Vanuatu - Santo

After arriving on Santo after a 20 minute plane ride and successfully snaking away from our new friend Flow, Pete and I made our way out of the airport and past the heckling cab drivers and out onto the road like bonafide locals. Before heading to our hotel we planned to stop in at my Uncle Peter's house and say hello to my host family on Santo. They live right by the airport and since I had been there all of one time before I was confident that I could get us to our destination successfully. We followed the main road for a few minutes and veered off into a bush path that I believed would take us in the correct direction. However, after limbo-ing through some barbed wire and stumbling onto another road I quickly realized I had over assessed my ability to find this house and we were a little lost. Luckily, being lost in Vanuatu isn't the worst thing in the world because we quickly found a nice woman who offered to walk us to where we were trying to go. It also helps that everyone knows everyone so finding my uncle's house wasn't too difficult.

We arrived at my uncle's house to find that he wasn't home but was actally stuck in New Caledonia because of strikes at the airport. There were lots of other family around though so we spelled and storied for a bit while drinking fresh lemonade. Not. too. shabby. It was getting close to lunch time and with dreams of my favorite french fries in Vanuatu and a strong aversion towards being forced to eat any tinned meats/fish we said goodbye and thank you and were off to town.

If you remember from a few posts back Santo is the largest island of Vanuatu and it's town center, Luganville, is comparable to Port Vila in many aspects - access to internet, cheese and cold beer - but also so, so much better than Vila in others. Its smaller, less crowded and the roads are really wide so you don't feel like you're always going to get hit by a kranke bus. They also have lots of little tiny taxis that are funny to see zooming everywhere. We stayed at a backpackers motel called Tropicana which was surprisingly a perfect spot. It was right in town, had hot water and most impressive was the big communal kitchen for guests to use. Although we weren't really pinching pennies, it was nice to be able to cook our own meals like back in the States (or I cook the meals and Pete enjoys them and does the dishes).

The first day we got to Santo was Christmas Eve so we met up with Kate and Bryan for lunch at Allan (or, Attar, home of the numbabest french fries/dipping sauce in Vanuatu). After lunch and a little internet usage we did some grocery shopping and then went out for Christmas Eve kava. After kava, feeling too lazy to cook, we grabbed some Chinese take out and went back to the hotel.

The time different between the States and Vanuatu makes communicating with family on holidays much easier because on Christmas in Vanuatu it was only Christmas Eve on the east coast USA. Pete and I were very fortunate to be able to facetime with both of our large families during Christmas Eve parties and throughout the rest of the week.

So now it was Christmas and what a weird Christmas it was! Firstly it was odd being so sweaty on Christmas after going 23 years with seeing snow at least on most Christmases, but it was also sad being so far away. I can't express how thankful I am that I got to spend Christmas with Pete and be a little less homesick because of it. We started Christmas off with a big breakfast before heading out to try to go to a resort for the day with Kate, Bryan and David. When we got to the dock to take a small boat over to the resort we learned that they were only taking people with reservations, which we did not possess. We quickly adjusted the game plan to going to the Beachfront Resort for pizza and swimming and then grilling at David's later in the night. We  went and bought our various meats for grilling and then headed over to the Beachfront which is just a short walk along the beach from David's.

I've been to the Beachfront before but just for pizza, not for the pool, so I was unpleasantly surprised at how hot the water was. I've never been in a pool before that actually makes you hotter being in the water than out (except for hot tubs obviously...). Regardless, it was refreshing until Pete encountered the mysterious disintegrating floating object - better known as a POOP. Yup, someone literally pooped in the pool. I don't think it was anyone we were with but...who knows? We all jumped out of the pool at the same time and indulged heavily in the shampoo and body was Kate was smart enough to bring with her. After lathering up and rinsing off we decided we were done with the pool for now. See time laps poop edition -------------------

After cleaning off all the feces water we went back to David's to play risk, drink some cold beers, grill some meats and watch Gone Girl. It sure was a different kind of Christmas but one that I'll surely never forget.

off to give the gopro its first swim

The next day was our big adventure over to the Matevulu Blue Hole. We hopped in a taxi and about 20 minutes later arrived at the blue hole. It's impossible to describe how beautiful a blue hole is so I'm extra thankful to my parents and the sweet GoPro they gave me for Christmas because I can show you photo evidence of the beauty of this "hole." The water is freezing but with various rope swings to choose from getting in is a lot easier.



You can either drive/bike to the blue hole or you can visit a resort nearby and enter the blue hole by canoe. Here is the beauty! The day we went it was actually pretty crowded because in Vanuatu, December 26th is also a public holiday called Family Day. Families just spend the day together, go on picnics and apparently go to the blue hole too! There were lots of people over at the rope swing too, one kid who would literally swing, jump, swim back and do it all again over and over! The initial jump is always a little scary but also good fun.

   

After about an hour we were ready to go - lucky for us since it started to rain as soon as we were back in the taxi. When we got back to the hotel we took some much needed spel time and then embarked on a significant culinary journey. We marinated some certified fresh Santo beef steak in lime juice, harissa and garlic, sauteed some veggies, made a homemade alfredo sauce and pasta and grilled the steak to juice perfection. My mouth is watering just thinking back to how good it was. Of course we had way too much food so I offered some to the owner of the hotel who was hanging around but he told me no thanks, he is "scared" of whiteman food. No worries, just good leftovers. 

The next morning we we're up early to get to the airport for our flight to Ambae and the next stage of our adventures!