Tanna Island was an absolutely incredible experience. This little island is just about 25 miles long and 12 miles wide. The island is home to Mt. Yasur, which is a very accessable, active volcano. But the volcano will be the 2nd part to this story. Coming ashore was a whole experience in itself.
Tanna follows a more traditional lifestyle tha many other islands. Some of the villages are known as kastom villages, where modern inventions are restricted.
This island does get visitors because of the volcano, but they usually come through Port Resolution, or come by private boat. We came ashore at Waisisi bay. A cruise ship, even a smaller ship like ours, had never come to this bay. The villages had been notifed a few months prior to our visit, and really went all out getting ready for us.
This was our first view of Waisisi bay. Click on the photo to see bigger - that's all the village people waiting to great us. They had declared a holiday so they could all be there.
This bay had no pier, no place for the normal tenders. So it was another "wet landing" for us in the "beachers". The waters were incredibly choppy in this bay, very rough, and one of the 2 beachers even had to be towed back to the ship when it got a rock caught in the propeller. That's our ship in the background.
Once ashore we were met by singing groups welcoming us.
A village chief. Our ship brought a box of books for the school children, which was presented to the chief.
Local women dancing for us. A kastom dance.
Some beautiful face painting on these women.
There were villagers all over the place just hanging out to see us and the dancing.
The villagers had even put in plumbing on the beach, and installed 2 actual working toilets! They really wanted us to be comfortable! I must have been told by 15 different villagers that there are toilets. They were proud of them. They had a men and women hut, and in each was a toilet. This is a horrible photo, but look at the 2 huts. The one on the right is the mens, the one on the left is the ladies. The ladies hut is much larger than the mens, but still just one toilet inside. I am wondering if they were told to have larger restrooms for the women, and interpreted that to be larger room, instead of having more toilets. Just something I found curious.
Many of the villagers told me a story - the same story from each of them - that they have a prophecy that great things will happen through Waisisi bay. They believed that our ship anchoring there was to be the start of that prophecy being fulfilled. I have since read up on prophecy and beliefs on Tanna, and found that this island is the center of the John Frum cult. That was interesting, and could explain a lot of this "prophecy" talk. Interesting and a little disturbing at the same time. I understand that there are different religions in the world, and respect each person's right to their own beliefs. But to think that a whole people's religion is so young, centering around an American soldier from WWII. Like I said, a little disturbing.
Look how georgous this bay is.
Next will be the trip inland to the volcano..........