Maskelynes

From Ambrym Island it is a three hour hop over to the Maskelyne Islands. This is a group of small islands off of the south tip of the very large island of Malekula. We choose to anchor in a calm bay beside the island of Awai. It is picture perfect calm and before very long there are several dugout canoes full of people, mostly older children - it is Saturday today, silently gliding around the boat so that they can get a better look. One man stops to chat and ask if we would like any vegis or fruit. You can trade or pay for produce, it just depends on what you have to offer and what they are needing. Everybody in Vanuatu speaks pretty good English and the main mode of travel on water is by outrigger dugout canoes. There aren't a lot of fuel stations around for motor boats. We have some great pictures of the people in their canoes. To throw a little contrast into the scene, we drop our whaler down so that we can travel in relative speed and comfort to visit the large village of Peskarus on the island of Uliveo. It is Saturday and everybody is just hanging out. We pull in as close as possible to shore and hop out into knee deep water to wade in, toss the sand anchor out and let the boat float free. We meet Gren (sounds like Glen) the Chief, who is conveniently sitting in the shade of a huge tree along with several of other village men. After our chat, we have asked permission to anchor in their water and to tour their village, Josaiah is elected to be our guide. The village is large and picturesque. The house yards are set in a grid pattern with well packed walking paths as dividers. Everything is so clean - the Chief strictly enforces village rules and no littering is one of them. The same thatched houses with raked dirt yards, stake enclosures for the coveted pigs, the odd dog - in god shape, not many cats, some chickens and loads of children (again I have forgotten my candy bag - must be boatzymers). We travel down a wide packed dirt road to the school where we meet the headmaster, Benson and a young teacher, Bill. Bill is the son of the Chief on Avok Island and he agrees to ask permission for us to dive on the reef tomorrow. With our tour now finished, we discover that the whaler has floated away from the beach on it's anchor line. A quick word from an elder on the beach has a gaggle of small boys bobbing out to guide the boat back to shore. It is so cute, they are like a flock of little ducklings and make as much noise too with their chatter. They happily pose for a picture with the stray boat. Our afternoon is spent lazing on the boat. It is sunny with a light breeze, things just don't get much better. We won't get into any cultural activities here, though the area is rich in history, as we don't have the time to spend. We have to have Glen and Trish to Port Vila for a flight to Australia by Oct 5.

Our dive the next day is good. Especially for Glen G. this is his third open water dive and we get to spend a long time underwater oogling the fishes and checking out the crevices and caves. It is not nearly as packed with life as we are used too from our Fiji experience, but still good. Again we loll around all afternoon like we are guests on a cruise ship. Not too many canoes out, it is Sunday. One fellow does stop in to ask if we would like some lobster. Of course! So he promises to get some for us tonight (same promise was made yesterday). About 1:00 am I am awakened by.... what? Then I notice a light reflecting off of the boat. A quick inspection out of the port hole confirms that somebody with a flashlight is outside of the boat. Glen and I go out to meet them - four fellows in a large dugout - they have eight beautiful lobsters for us. For a mere $7000 vatu ($70.00 cdn) we have the makings of a feast. Our lobster dealer tells us that he went hunting for the lobster last night too, but he took his wife with him and she is not very good help, so tonight he has proper hunters with him. The guys catch the lobster at low tide at night when the lobsters come out on top of the reef. They shine a flashlight into their eyes and sneak a hand in sideways to grab them. One guy asks if we have cigarettes, but Glen tells him "No. Anyway smoking is not good for you." To which one of the other men responds to the first, "Yeah, It is not good for you!" They all got a laugh out of that. Nice guys.

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