Vanuatu

I was told this one held 7,000 passengers and 3,000 crew. It was here for 3 days, and was too large to dock, unlike the previous one.  It was anchored in the bay, and had some shuttle boats that constantly ferried passengers to/from the wharf. It will be some time before the tourism sector recovers, but the recovery has started.

What has it been? Two years?  Three?   Here's a view of wharf road from this afternoon, lined with vendors awaiting cruise-ship passengers hungry for souvenirs.

I had the opportunity to go up a very high tower today.  25m?  30m?  I took a couple selfies and a shot of my ant-like peers below.  I didn't know the "beauty" filter was on, so please excuse my perfect skin. I've been bothered by heights before but that was a long time ago, and thought I'd give this a try.   I was instructed by a couple guys who have done a lot of climbing, so I was well prepared.  I was never nervous and enjoyed it.

On Thursday, 29-Sep, at just after 5pm, I received a notice that the government of Vanuatu declared the following day, 30-Sep, from 12pm onward, to be a holiday. Yes, less than 24 hours notice of a new, ad-hoc holiday! Later I found out it was because the Vanuatu soccer team reached the semifinals or something of a soccer tournament.  And don't blame me for the photo-of-a-screen format; I'm just the messenger.

Hellen read about a photo contest with a theme of agriculture on Facebook.  She took some photos, submitted one, and though she didn't win a prize, her photo was accepted and displayed in the Alliance Francaise gallery on 6-Sep!  How exciting is that?!  Here is Hellen, pictured with her sister and the photo.  That's her sister in the photo too, with a pineapple plant.   We brought her sister and mother with us to the showing (her father was working), but didn't tell them why we were even going to town.  It was a fun surprise.  

My passport was due to expire in 2023, so I decided I'd better start early on the renewal process.   Renewing a passport while abroad is a bit different. Only one place in Vanuatu takes passport-quality photos.  Quite a few Chinese shops in Port Vila will take them, but they're low quality, like you'd find in a fun photo booth at an arcade.  Unfortunately the passport-quality place's lighting system wasn't working properly.  The umbrella-shrouded flashes weren't firing, resulting in their photos having heavy shadows.  The dept. of state guidelines specifically state 'no shadows'.  They also state no uniform shirts, by the way, among other rules. So I had someone in the office take my picture with my phone, without a flash, as I stood up against a plain white wall.  Shadow problem solved, though it took a few tries to get a crisp photo.  I monkeyed with trying to crop it correctly, but was never quite happy with it. The old dept. of state we...

I pass by this sign all the time.  It indicates there is an 'island' in the middle of the road where pedestrians may cross more safely and easily. I took this photo two years ago, when Covid was in full-swing nearly everywhere else in the world, save Vanuatu and a few other places.  It made me think that we on Vanuatu are on a Refuge Island, protected from Covid-19. That ended about a month ago, as we all knew it inevitably would.  Up until the last month, my experience with Covid-19, like that of most of the people here, has been from reading about it on the Internet, or talking to people in other countries.  We've experienced it like we experience watching a movie.  There's no right or wrong to it, we've just experienced Covid-19 through communication, until now. And yesterday (08-Apr-2022), the government announced that the borders are opening back up for tourists on July 1.  Refuge no more. Masks are mandatory now, whenever you go outside.  I don't...