VANUATU: Gaua and Vanua Lava

BOOM!!

Boom chuka boom chuka boom boom BOOM!!

We came to Gaua for the water music, an extraordinary tradition practiced here and only here. Women stand in the surf slapping, scooping and pounding the sea, creating almost unbelievable tones. We feel music as much as hear it, and this felt magical.

I only took two photos (and some video clips, but they can’t be included here) and I already used one in the Vanuatu Snapshots blog entry, but I’ll repeat that photo here—along with the encouragement for readers to search online for Gaua water music and see the phenomenon for yourselves. Online footage might have several “dancers” and flashy costumes, but seeing these three strong women come down from their day’s work in the garden and change into their traditional mat clothing, then walking with them to and from the surf site, was a lovely bond that we treasure.

I wish I had photos of the industrious Gaua residents carrying large loads on their backs: women with huge bags of produce slung on poles over one shoulder, sometimes with a baby slung over the other; men with long heavy stacks of wood balanced on their backs. I didn’t want to interrupt them and I never take photos without asking permission, so those will have to be memory pictures (and for you, imagination pictures!).

I did get photos of their houses, which are of a slightly different style. It’s hotter in that latitude, so they have more open spaces in the walls then use long draping leaves to keep the rain out of the openings.

Once again, we played for the local school;
this one had the biggest "clanger"
we'd seen anywhere!

Art checking a defective solar regulator

As a special treat, we arranged to have lunch
the village’s “bungalow” (guest house)--
quite a spread of fruit, vegetables and chicken stew

All chicken here is “free range”, meaning they go get one that’s out wandering around. Unfortunately the meat is so tough as to be inedible, but the broth was delicious! (Want to take bets on whether or not we ate the foot?)

VANUA LAVA

Strong winds drove us from Gaua sooner than we wanted, and we hid at Waterfall Bay (yes, another Waterfall Bay) on Vanua Lava for several days. It was an ideal location and became another one of our very favorite places—this time for the lovely family that lives close to the anchorage. We found Nemo (the snorkeling was fantastic), enjoyed the gorgeous twin waterfall, and had fun playing music for the tiny villages.

By far the best part, though, was being welcomed by the “one big happy family”--their words, and completely accurate. John Star was especially generous with his time, proudly showing us their copra (coconut palm) plantation high in the hills, their prolific gardens below, and the bat caves nearby. He helped us climb to the top of the waterfall, where he caught a river prawn in his hand and showed us how to break open a small husk on a rock to eat the nut inside.



Our long sturdy ropes are valuable to us, even the older ones, but when John Star said he needed a rope to keep track of his cow and he spent an afternoon spearing river prawns for us, we were happy to trade one of our long lines for his catch. 

 

Free range chickens everywhere
(free range until they meet up with a slingshot, anyway)

Laundry is done in freshwater streams

"Bush toilet" (outhouse) on the far left

Kids playing with Art's ukulele case
(I had my eyes on the children, and later noticed I caught part of Chief Peterson playing Art's ukulele in the background)

And two closing images:

Gaua and Vanua Lava are part of the Banks Islands, in the far north of the Vanuatu archipelago. We had made our way gradually north up the eastern islands, and now it was time to turn around and head south, this time down along the western islands. Because of the long distances and stronger weather in the Banks, they are off the route for most cruising boats. How fortunate we were to have had the time to visit these unique places!