Espiritu Santo

After a hair-raising departure from Malakula and an overnight passage, we arrived at Luganville on another Vanuatuan island, Espiritu Santo (S15°31.366' E167°09.956') at 09:00 on September 20th. Only 4 other boats were present. This was a very rock 'n rolly anchorage and we had to at times keep 'one hand for the boat and one hand for yourself' - a sailors' motto normally referring to sailing rough seas.

Our dinghy landing was at a beach shore of a resort, and with their permission to leave it there, we caught a cab to town. This was our first cab ride in Espiritu Santo and the driver unfairly charged us more than the norm. But he was the only 1 that tried that during our time spent here.

The main street of Luganville stretches a long ways, just back of the shoreline. Once again we were exposed to a very large outdoor produce market full of bright colours, homegrown goods, and happy locals selling their wares. We're always surprised at how large the fruits and vegetables grow on these tropical islands compared to back home in Canada. We forgot to bring our own bag to carry all our large purchases, but the lady insisted we take 1 of her own homemade palm baskets that are in great abundance throughout the market...

Back to Sea Turtle with basket of produce

Most people we found to be attired in a bit more contemporary clothing and we only noticed a few women attired in the Mother Hubbard dresses, especially in the market. Resources of Espiritu Santo are copra, cattle farming, fishing, coffee, cocoa, and vanilla. Tourism is a growing market.

Eye-catching flowers

Jordan booked with a dive company to explore on Monday the sunken SS President Coolidge.