Vanuatu, The Last Paradise 🇻🇺 Vanuatu people and their living places 🌏🌊🌴⛰❤️4🍓

Every morning we wonder how amazing is this hidden beauty... some training, some coconut found around home and some information about the surrounding places. 

Vanuatu is a small tropical country in the South Pacific region with appr. 250.000 inhabitants. 

The Republic of Vanuatu contains 83 islands (12 bigger and many small ones) and is just 3.5 hours flying from Sydney with Air Vanuatu. The company has small but comfortable planes with very friendly staff and very nice food 🙂 Most of the islands were inhabited for thousands of years. In 1605 the Portuguese Pedro Fernandez was the first European explorer who reached the shores of the Vanuatu islands who thought that they are part of Australia. New Hebrides name was given by the British explorer James Cook, then in the late 18th century Europeans began settling the islands. From 1887 the islands were administered by the French-British naval commission and became important military bases during the World War II. After the war Vanuatu people started to press for their independence which was reached fully in 1980. Mystic islands, mostly with volcanic origins. The main island is Efate with the capital Port Vila which is a small town with local and many duty free shops... Almost every day a big cruise is coming to Vanuatu whose tourists have one day for discovering the island so locals try to make some profit from it. It's not disturbing since doesn't destroy the feeling and the view of the authentic atmosphere. We discovered one day the town then we continued our trip toward the small local villages. You can catch always buses everywhere, just pay few hundred vatu and they take you anywhere you want. 10km drive one way is about 300 vatu for one person which is about 3.5AU$. 

Don't miss the local market! It's amazing, colorful, many types of local vegetables and some fruits as well. 

Local shops and seaside in town. Food in shops is expensive... but the best solution is if you have a kitchen, you buy from local people fresh vegetables and prepare it. Live like locals and stay healthy 🙂

In some shops you find a special thing, called kava. Kava… everybody told us… yeees, you have to try, just not in the evening… you will feel something special… more and more interesting 😀 What is kava? “The name kava(-kava) is from Tongan and Marquesan, meaning "bitter"; other names for kava include awa (Hawaiʻi), ava(Samoa), yaqona (Fiji), sakau (Pohnpei) and malok or malogu (parts of Vanuatu). The roots of the plant are used to produce a drink with sedative, anesthetic, euphoriant, and entheogenic properties. Kava is consumed throughout the Pacific Ocean cultures of Polynesia, including Hawaii, Vanuatu, Melanesia and some parts of Micronesia for its sedating effects. Its active ingredients are called kavalactones” Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kava Hmmm… 😉 We were walking in the town, saw some other small markets, drank a famous Tanna coffee then we decided, Let's go to the villages and explore everything 🙂 

Many churches, schools and small houses, mostly made from metal sheets. Gardens with vegetables, some animals on the street, mostly chicken and pigs, very small shops with some cane food and some bread... and many people walking on the streets. Just few cars and some buses which is the main local transport. 

People are just walking on the streets, laughing, smiling... you don't know where they go and what they do since you see people just going going and going. Almost the whole population is self maintaining, they grow their own food, catches fishes from the ocean and on special occasions eat some meat. Almost everybody has chickens and pigs around home but they keep animals just for eggs and just pigs like a pet 🙂

These super friendly people have a unique and particular lifestyle, just so adorable that you really feel yourself at home between friends. When you are here, you have to go definitely into the villages and living like locals! This will give you the real Vanuatu feeling. You will not see tourists nowhere, just the local smiling and truly happy faces. 

Again an incredible day with an end of the day relax ❤️

Hear you soon 🌞