GPS: 16 11.615S 168 01.927E
Run: 21.9nm (39.6km)
We visited Liro Village on Paama this morning. Paama is only 7miles long. You can only see a couple of structures from the boat but when we went ashore we were delighted to find a great village of people. We came across people from world vision who were coordinating a team of civil engineers from Otago University, helping the villagers with their freshwater systems, installing guttering and helping with piping to their freshwater tanks, along with demonstration to the villagers on how to keep the water tanks clean. The children were in school. There is a primary school and a secondary school in the village. As we were next to the primary school Wolfgang heard the little kids counting to 10 in English.
We wandered around the village, talked to some wonderful people, saw lots of chickens with little chicks and lots of dogs. Also beautiful flowers on the island. The houses are divided by hedge lined laneways. It was a real taste of village life in Vanuatu, off the beaten track (not many boats stop at Paama). As the children were in school we gave out the lollies we had bought to the island to the adults who really enjoyed them! Andrew also went back to the boat and gave them 7 lifejackets that we had brought from NZ that we had kept to give away. We all really loved this island (in Cindy’s words f$%&^*# amazing!), but we decided we want to see as much of Vanuatu as we can before heading to Australia.
We left Paama this afternoon for Ambrym. We saw a school of dolphins enjoying swimming around the bow of the boat. Late this afternoon we arrived at Bouama Hot Springs on Ambrym. Cindy had done her daily mast climb to look for reefs and bommies. (Pole dancing has taken on a totally new meaning). It was about 5pm when we arrived so once we had anchored we went to find the hot springs. We found them but as it was just after high tide we decided we would come back tomorrow when we could see what we were stepping into and instead went for a swim. Very black sand, the water was warm and if you dug your toes into the sand it was hot!
Andrew’s making spag bol for tea tonight with his great garlic croutons. Best news of today, Cindy didn’t throw up!!!
