Vanuatu is a tiny island country on the western edge of the south pacific. Until it was featured on the Survivor TV series a couple years ago, probably not one in a hundred people had ever heard of it. We landed in Port Vila, the bustling capital—quite a difference from the primitive out islands where Survivor was filmed.

The capital is a mixture of Melanesian, Polynesian, and Australian—it's a popular package holiday site for Australians. In one of our more extended death marches of the cruise, we walked the capital from end to end, with several backtracks. It was a long, hot, and very interesting day.

We started out, of all places, at the local drugstore. In most third world countries, you can buy prescription drugs without a prescription. We buy drugs (as long as we're assured they are first quality) if they're significantly cheaper than at home. And here they were, in Vanuatu, at reasonable prices. Who knew?

Yu Savvy Tok Bislama?

The official language of Vanuatu is Bislama, a pidgin English. Other official languages are English and French, which are used in the schools. It was fun figuring out the various signs in Bislama. After a while, we figured out the various signs indicating Nambawan Store, Namabawan Café, etc – “Number One”. Blong=belong, i.e. “of”. We stopped at a tourist market and chatted with some ladies having lunch. One of them spoke slowly in Bislama about Port Vila, you can listen to it here. (Had she spoken at normal speed, it would be indecipherable).

Colorful, flowery clothes are worn throughout the south pacific, and are big tourist items at well. One of the handicraft markets we went to had the women hard at work on their inventory between customers.

Killin' time, Vanuatu Style

One of our favorite spots in Port Vila was the previously mentioned Nambawan Café, where we killed a couple hours drinking the local beer, while waiting for the duty-free liquor store to open.

Kathy wandered off for a bit (this is where she discovered the "Bislama Lady" mentioned above) -- while Scott watched life go by (these cute kids, for example) and chatted with "Ian", who runs the cafe. Seems Ian was a System Engineer for IBM back in Australia; he'd set up a wireless internet site (it was a "sight" too) -- because, according to him, "he could". It was kind of a kick to encounter this guy and his menagerie of laptops and wiring -- in back of basically the middle of nowhere.

Booze Cruise

Vanuatu has inexpensive duty-free liquor, and it was perfect timing for us to stock up for the long journey home (we figure our trip is a bit over half done). Of course, the store was located at the far end of town, so we loaded our backpacks with four liters each and started the long, hot, heavy, slightly inebriated march back to the ship. We decided to take a detour up the hill and visit the small but nicely done Vanuatu national museum It was directly across from the Parliament Building (donated by the Chinese, a friendly taxi driver told us).

Exhausted and soaked from the sweat of 90+ degrees (and about the same humidity), we surrendered and paid the two bucks it cost to get a taxi back to the ship. We knew we weren't going to walk back; it was a long walk on a cool day, and a ridiculous one on an oppressive day while carrying 10 pounds (each) of alcohol in our backpacks.