YOLO in the E's--Emae, Epi, Espiritu Santo

A spotted goat tethered along the roadway on Emae at Revolieu Bay when we walked to the village.

A large rock wedged between 2 huge mango trees.  The trees have actually grown around the rock, making it look like a table or altar.

Some village buildings with woven walls on Emae.

This is the Sulua Store that greeted us as we brought the dinghy ashore.  Tiny and unmanned, it wasn't really even in the village.  We weren't sure if the sign was a joke or if the 'store' was just really closed when we got there.  We didn't see another store anywhere around, so it's probale the owner just wasn't around when we were.  There were gov't workers building a road just in front of this structure.

And the felled coconut palm hits he dust!  The workers hacked open a few of the nuts for us to drink.  Hard work, being a walking tourist, and we were thirsty!

Our buddy boat, Chesapeake, at anchor in Sulua Bay, Emae

A bean snake on the vine.

 

The Big Sista ferry loading people, pigs, peanuts, and produce to take back to Pt Vila.  They threw the bags and bundles from one man to the next and then into the ferry in any available space they could find.  How folks found their stuff when they got off is a mystery!  It was a sight that had me shaking my head in wonder.  But we soon gave up the ship watching and jumped in as there were large turtles swimming all around us here in Lamen Bay and the black sand made the water warm  and clear.

Karen and Jason on Karen's birthday

Linda and Karen on Karen's birthday

Jim and Jason eating the tamale pie Linda made for my birthday--yum.

A structure made of coconut tree trunks of varying sizes, giving it a sloped, spiral look.  Different than most here.

The normal mode of transport here in the islands--a dugout canoe with outrigger.  Usually made from a breadfruit tree chipped out by hand.  The outriggers are held by sticks and twine.

Bennington scraping coconut out of an open coconut for us to have fresh coconut cream.  She was a delight and had a garden that provided us with our fresh fruits and veges before we left Epi.

Dried fish hanging from a tree.  Not a clue as to why....

Big Sista leaving Lamen Bay.  Once the goods were loaded, they hauled the anchor and started motoring off as it they were on a schedule.  Notice the tender they'd used to ferry the goods from shore to the ferry is still hanging out on the crane arm.  They pulled it up and over and situated it on the roof as the ferry was motoring out around the point.  Amazing.

Pretty datura blooms hanging from one of Bennington's trees.  She has quite the green thumb and has lots of colorful flowers.

More of the colorful growth in her yard.

Still more colorful blooms.

The Blue Hole on Espiritu Santo.  The color of the blue was unreal!  And the water was clear, clean and cool.

The clarity of the water near the structure by one of the 2 blue holes we went to.  You can just see the rope swing in the upper left corner.  Yep, we used it.

A pretty little conch shell I found on Santo, as Espiritu Santo is known.

A live helmut shell that I brought up to show Jason.  You can't really see the detailed beauty of the shell in this photo.  I put him back where I found him after the photo.

The blue hole again.

Jason snorkelingin the blue hole.  That water is about 20 feet deep and you can see the bottom clearly.

Karen on the rope swing into the blue hole.  Cowabunga dude!

Karen enjoying a glass of wine on one of our rumble seats on YOLO.

A live cowrie I found snorkeling at Santo.  Yes I put him back.

Some of the dead and empty cowrie shells I found snorkeling at Santo.

Twists of tobacco for sale in the market in Luganville.  They have such artistic presentation of the tobacco here.

Linda, Jim, Jason, Karen in front of the market at Luganville on Espiritu Santo.

Bags of dried coconut (copra) in a warehouse at Luganville.  You could smell the coconut here and the containers of copra were opened during the day to air to make sure they didn't explode in spontaneous combustion.  What a rat haven this must be!  Rats love coconut and many of the fallen nuts in the wild have round holes chewed into them by the rats.

Karen holding down a small wahoo we landed.  Very good eating, these.

Bundles of peanuts for sale at the market.

A green lizard or gecko on a tree in Luganville.