Sailing & Snorkeling in Vanuatu

We had booked a half day tour from the ship and set off on a large sailboat for a snorkling adventure and beach play in a small bay near Vila, Vanuatu. 

 The blue water looked lovely and clear.  The boys were excited to have a ride in the "tinny" over to the beach . . . until they saw everyone else on the tour strap on their fins and snorkels and jump off of the big sailboat and swim to the shore.  Then they *HAD* to do that and saved the "tinny" (aluminum boat) ride for our return to the sailboat after snorkeling. 

Actually, if they truth is told, after swimming from boat to shore and checking out the fish with goggles on, the boys played on the coral beach while mommy & daddy snorkeled and fed the fish.  Yes, they put a bag of bread crumbs hanging from this pole in the middle of the bay and you reach in and pull out a handful and the fish swarm all around you, bumping into you and nipping a bit (they were all of 6 inches long) to get at the crumbs.  Way cool!

Dave took the boys out in the kayak to let them hand feed the fish too. 

On the sailboat ride back (45 min), we managed to sneak in a little "unschooling" with a vocabulary game I had tucked in my bag for just such a *bored and tired* moment.  Luckily our hosts also treated us to hot coffee & tea, freshly toasted raisin bread with cinnamon and sugar on it and a tray of biscuits.  Xavier managed to grab 3 of these to sustain himself!   

It turned out to be a rainy on-again off-again sort of day, so we left the kids in Ocean Adventure Kid's Club and wandered back off the boat for a short walk on "dry" ground around the port and to check out the market stalls.  Totally forgot to take a photo of the market, but the women had set up their tents on both sides of the street for about 1 kilometer.  I found a lovely tablecloth for my mother-in-law who was to put up with hosting us for a few weeks shortly in New Zealand.  

 Mango & banana trees

 Wild pigs . . . well, actually there was a homemade pig pen nearby, but these ones were roaming free.

 Dave's brush with wildlife on the island . . . hermit crab. 

The shells were amazing! The whole beach was broken coral, not sand and the shells were often as big as my palm.  We couldn't take anything with us as entering Aussie & NZ regulations are very strict. 

Local children could be heard playing and laughing on a smaller island in the middle of the harbour.  

Today, we "avoided" town and such and really just contented ourselves with the scenery, the fish (We saw huge coral, large purple starfish, Nemo - type clownfish and even a baby shark hanging around underneath the sailboat, only about 2 feet long!) and the bird songs.  Beautiful cluster of islands on Vanuatu, we saw some lovely resort cottages too . . . wanna visit??  My exact words to Dave while sailing past this home was "I could live there!"

Resorts!