Trip to Vanuatu: Day 5 & 6

We woke early to our last day in Santo with a dull feeling of not wanting to leave but being immensely satisfied with everything we had seen and experienced in all our time here. As our flight was at six in the evening, Julie and Calvin were kind enough to let us check out late. It was a cloudy morning and we decided to take a longer walk on the beach and go beyond what we had explored.

Sunrise

Sunrise on beach

We saw the usual crowd of crabs greeting us by scurrying away from us. The sea looked as lovely and tempting as ever. We looked at everything long enough to imprint them on our memories. The sunrise today was even prettier than it had been before. We walked a long time before we turned back only to welcome our first rain in Santo. We took shelter and took in the view again.

Flowers on the beach

The breakfast provided was amazing as always. As we had no plans, we decided to spend most of the day on our recliner chairs with our books. While reading we were visited by crabs of different sizes, who not sensing any movement above, came out of the sand to explore. We passed a long time playing with them. When I walked to the waters again, every dark patch of water felt like corals or turtles. There was one bit of seaweed floating close to the beach. Upon closer look we discovered that it was a school of fishes, maybe just hatched ones, clinging to each other. When we got closer, they went their separate ways and regrouped again. It was the most beautiful sight.

Crab on the beach

Fishes clumped together

After lunch, we decided to pack. Despite having stayed for just four days, it took us a while to track down everything and pack up. Before coming, Julie had mailed us to bring old clothes and something for the kids. It had been fun selecting story books, activity books, colouring books, colours and balloons for the kids. We went to the office to hand over everything to Julie who was full of praises for our generosity. People in Vanuatu had very little and there were other islands where people didn't even have clothes. But they were always happy and helpful, we felt honoured to help these people in what little way we could.

At four Calvin drove us to the Santo airport. It had been such a lovely vacation but it wasn't over just yet. We were off to Port Vila for a night and then off to Sydney the next evening. We had to pay a small fee at the airport just to enter it as it was a rule. We boarded the plane soon and bid farewell to Santo from the skies.

It was a short flight and we were in Port Vila in no time. Hubby dear hadn't booked a taxi for this time and so we didn't know whom to ask for directions. The night stay was to be at Nasama resort, which was about half hour drive from the airport. The locals got into vehicles which looked like a minivan and we weren't sure if we could find a taxi just for us. While we were debating, one of these drivers called to us and we told him where we needed to go. He asked us to climb on along with few other passengers. To be honest, this was an extremely scary time for me. We were in a country where we didn't speak the language and the vehicle was moving fast through forests. It was then that I realised this was a share taxi- people got off where they wanted to go and rest would stay on.

Dropping all the passengers and getting to our resort took over forty minutes. When we reached the resort, the night sky was absolutely stunning as we saw thousands of stars. We were shown to our room which was spacious and opened to a balcony leading to the beach. We were too tired to admire the room and went to the restaurant to get some dinner; we had rice with vegetable curry which was extremely delicious but a little too heavy. We got back to room and slept soundly as the tiredness crept over us.

We woke at five and took a walk around our new resort. There were a lot more rooms here and in day time, the place would be full of people. It was i total contrast to the quiet we experienced at Santo. The beach was calm and the sand harboured a lot of sea creatures like black sea cucumbers and a long worm(no idea what this was). We saw the sunrise from an elevated platform and it was beautiful.

Sunrise at Port Vila

After a heavy breakfast of toast and fruit-salad, we went to the office as it had been too late to check in the previous night. Our flight was at three and we hoped to have a late checkout again instead of ten. We were asked to vacate at ten and so we ordered a taxi at the office. We had three hours to kill and we did so sitting on the beach. There were a lot more crabs on the beach here and they were of all sizes. We troubled a couple of them to get some pictures and then let them go.

Tiny crab

White crab

We started to the airport and were facing a four hour wait before boarding. Thankfully, we still had to finish our books to finish. We took turns to walk to the shops and got ourselves a nice wood canoe boat as a souvenir. As the time to board approached, the airport suddenly got extremely crowded as the flights to Sydney and Brisbane would leave within minutes of each other. After waiting in the queue for over half hour, we were in the departing lounge which was also crowded. We boarded the flight first and said our goodbyes to Vanuatu.

It had been most incredible five days. We got to experience so many new things and I would definitely recommend anyone planning a vacation to consider Vanuatu. The country consists of eighty-three islands, each one offering something unique and beautiful. Take a trip to this country and you won't regret it.