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| Ivan looking a little surprised by the volcano's fireworks |
Tanna is much more densely populated than Aneytium. There is a road linking Port Resolution with Lenakel, the main town of the island. All along the road there are small villages of 10-20 houses, and, like Aneytium, there are children everywhere in Billabong t-shirts. From Port Resolution to Lenakel it is only about 30km, but it’s about a 2 hour trip over a bumpy road, that includes crossing a desert of ash near the volcano. Ivan spent a long day getting to and from Lenakel, just to get some cash from the bank as there is no bank at Port Resolution. While he was tired at the end of the day, he was also exhilarated by the adventure claiming “What a day, what a day I’ve had!”
Anchored in Port Resolution, it is really relaxing just to sit and watch the local men in their dugout outrigger canoes fish each day. They work as a team, including having some scouts high on the hill on shore. On seeing a school of fish the scouts call out to the men in their boats to direct them to where the school is. They use a kind of “cooee” sound that is quite unlike any I have heard anywhere else. The men then paddle furiously across to the area and lay a net in a large circle to surround the fish. Sometimes someone will suddenly leap from their canoe and swim and thrash in the water, presumably to force the school back toward the net, rather than them escaping through a gap. It was great entertainment and we admired their persistence and skill. We even benefited a couple of times through gifts of very tasty fresh fish. Although the fish was offered to us with no expectation of money, we always insisted on giving the person a couple of Vatu in return. It made us feel better at least! Often a man would come over to our boat in his canoe and ask us if we could charge his mobile phone. Fortunately we had some good winds and sun for most of the time we were at anchor so our batteries were well charged and we were happy to oblige. It wasn’t unusual for us to have a couple of phones on charge at any one time.
We became friendly with Patrick and Nellie who lived in a nearby village with their children and extended family. Ivan tried to fix Patrick’s generator for him, but was unable to for lack of a functional fuel switch. It is typical of what these people face: because there are no shops or services nearby and they have little money to pay for replacement parts even if they could easily get hold of them, equipment lies unable to be used. Patrick and Nellie, like most of the islanders, have an extensive veggie garden which they rely on for their food needs. They also had a collection of pigs. Pigs are usually slaughtered only on very special occasions, so I guess we were lucky when we attended a feast in another village and they fed us pig-on-a-stick.
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| Ivan and Patrick in Patrick's veggie garden |
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| The results of pig on a stick |
We were really pleased to see the yacht Mystic anchored in the harbour one day. We had first met Archie and Jo in Bocas del Toro in March and hadn’t seen them since Shelter Bay, Panama. They had two friends aboard and they were all going to visit a ‘custom village’, Yakel, the next day. At Yakel the villagers live a traditional lifestyle eschewing western ways. It’s all bare breasts, grass skirts and penis gourds in these places. Archie and Jo’s friends were particularly interested to go to this village as a filmmaker friend of theirs had make a documentary come reality series on the villagers. After a long drive across to Lenakel and beyond to Yakel, we finally came to the village, where as custom dictates all the men from our vehicle were introduced to the village chief while we women stayed in the truck. Ewan explained how it was his friend who had made the documentary and was told that Jimmy Joseph (JJ) the documentary’s narrator was in another village practising for the Toka festival. The Toka festival is a once a year event where there is much traditional dancing and feasting as part of a ceremony for men to find a wife. We eventually found the village JJ was in and he came back to Yakel with us and gave us a really interesting guided tour of the village, explaining the traditional way of life there.
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| JJ in Yakel's version of jeans and t-shirt |
The boys were invited to drink cava with the local men and then we were all treated to a dance about planting taro. We felt really lucky to have been able to visit Yakel and get a better understanding of life there without it being an organised tourist event. The day was not over yet though……JJ then invited the boys only again to go and watch the men’s Toka dance in the neighbouring village. Once again we women waited in the truck, entertained by young boys nearby who were practising bow and arrow shooting and listening to distant singing and stomping of the men’s dance practise. The 2 hour drive back to Port Resolution was interrupted by a flat tyre. The wheel nuts were completely and utterly frozen on and no matter how many men tried and how many methods were tried, that wheel was not coming off. At one stage it was looking like we would be staying the night on the floor of a village hut, but then the decision was made that we would drive back on the flat tyre. And so we did, wincing all the way at the horrible sound the flat tyre was making.
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| Taro planting dance at Yakel |
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