Pacific south !

Here I am : alone Ready to leave for the VANUATU
I have left the coccon of friends and great shelters and start the real adventure .
Backpacker’s style for a while.
Follow me on M/V HAVANNAH , a cargo going to deliver goods but as well carrying islanders all around the ex condominium of the New Hebrides , 83wonderful islands spreading along 900 kms that France and England who had bought lands there ruled together since 1906 for decades; For a long time natives believed that French President and British queen who both governed them were in fact a couple!! !But then when the economy grew Melanesians
who were more and more involved in politics start to claim their land back from their foreign owner . Depending who they met first the pastor or the priest they are either protestant or Catholic and speak on top of their own language the Bislama French or English! But in 80 their dream came true! Vanuatu – meaning “our land” was born.
The Ni vanuatus were not totally ready to be left on their own yet
and many feel now as abandoned orphans from rich parents and ask “ when the dependency again ?” even so only last week were they celebrating their 25th year of independency with waves of bears !
No more new roads, no more social help, no more factories ! Freedom here has a price but plenty plenty young kids are around being educated and will soon be able to built a sound country one day.
Right now the economy is made mainly from coco, cobra oil + some cow’s skins, peppercorns, cacao and coffee. They have the best beef in the world .
They still have volcanoes in activity at least 3 of them and magnificent flora of course and laggons , tropical forests , waterfalls , hotsprings ( where the volcanoes are )white sandy beaches.
Its closest neighbour are new Caledonia in the south , Fidji to the east , New Zealand to the west , Salomon Islands in the north .
Among those islands all are not lived in and the principal ones are Torres Islands, Banks, the Sheperds Islands . The biggest one Spiritu Santo, Mallicolo , Efate et tanna are the one I shall visit .

I am the only white on the boat among 130 people . We leave half of those in Mare and Lifu on our way to the Island of Efate our entrance port in the Vanuatu. My remaining companions are all islanders an they are very joyful indeed , laughing and laughing and singing all the time .I right away meet Susanna , a Presbyterian preacher, part of a group of 38 coming back with their pastor from a retreat . They are the singing ones. Morning when waking up, noon and evening they chant for an hour ½ all sorts of spiritual songs and Melanesian songs . I am soon included in the group form Mele Village from Efate and the first night even so we sleep on the carpet is enchanting . Those people are so joyful that it is lifting me up as well.
Why not . The weather is around 25°to 30° all the year around and so is the sea //No taxes in Vanuatu