Holiday Part II - Futuna

The island of Futuna does not receive many visitors or tourists. There is no phone service for much of the year, a cargo ship carrying supplies arrives once a year if fortunate and many locals do not speak the national pidgin language of Vanuatu. Instead of warm greetings when arriving in a village, many locals would shuffle off the road at the site of me and small children would cry thinking that they had spotted a "white devil".

The island itself is not typical of Vanuatu. It is an extinct volcano whose steep 600 meter climb juts violently out of the South Pacific. Commuting from one village to the next involves climbing up and down sheer cliff faces of several hundred meters. Going to the garden is very dangerous for locals, should they slip while carrying their heavy bag of manioc, death or serious injury is a possibility.

A project to improve the island's footpaths funded by the goverment has been ongoing since 2004. Railing has been installed shielding pedestrian from trecherous falls, ladders have been bolted in the sides of mountain walls and cement walkways have made access in rounding Futuna much easier. I marveled to see the amount of work involved in upgrading the footpaths on Futuna. Tons and tons of cement has been carried manually up and down mountain sides, as trucks or even horses would be incapable of moving far on this island.

I stayed with the family of my former next door neighbor from Aneityum. After my hosts warmed to me, their shyness gradually faded. The people of Futuna are kind, but complain about the diffulties they face on their island. Kava is sent by plane twice a week to the island and local men fight to have a shell or two. Within 10 minutes of my arrival, old men were inquiring to my young host as whether or not I had tobacco with which to share with them. After informing them that I was not a smoker, they exchanged irritated faces and hobbled offwards, presumably having no more use for me.

Futuna is blessed with very rich aquatic resources. There is not much of a coral reef, rather the ocean drops off to drastic depth close by the island. But selling fish and lobster to the community fisheries project is the main source of income. I ate fish every day on Futuna and left the island with one of the largest lobsters I have ever seen.

It was an interesting 4 night stay. Many good photos from climbing to the very top of the dormant volcano and from the half-day trek around the island. The muscles in my legs definitely ached from the constant climbing, jokingly I referred to the locals as wild "nanny-goats" as people from Futuna share a similar lifestyle to those mountainous animals.