Day 9 (March 14, 2025): an unplanned change of hotel.



 




Sunrise over the Erakor Lagoon. 

Scenes from the grounds of the Ramada Resort Port Vila

The Ramada is built on a fairly high cliff on the banks of the lagoon. While it’s a very recent hotel and a great facility, it was just a little bit too close to the hustle and bustle of the city for what we were looking for. So we decided to move out after our first evening. 

A banyan tree adjacent to the hotel

The Ramada is built along the banks of the Erakor Lagoon. 





Let me introduce you to our third Hertz rental car on this vacation. They keep getting smaller with each new stop on the trip. This is a Suzuki E-Presso.

Where the lagoon enters into the open ocean, there is a lovely resort by the international hotel family, Warwick. We decided to check in there for our last two nights.

The grounds of the Warwick La
Lagon Vanuatu






The resort’s overwater bungalows. 


The Parliament of Vanuatu


Breakas Beach

When I was a kid, kids would hang out in front of the convenience store. Here, they hang out on the surfing beach!


It seems like all the little kids go to the beach as soon as school is out. And surfing is quite popular among them.



We were surprised to see this sign on BreakasBeach. It is testament to the influence of Christianity on everyday life here in Vanuatu.

We were intrigued by this tree and the huge ball-shaped fruit it produces.  

A family was selling vegetables outside their home. The honour system is completely at play here!

There are many ad hoc, cafés or kava bars, such as this one. Rustic is the name of the game!

Let’s talk sea life for a moment…

Here we are in the South Pacific, where the water is warm, and the sea life is teeming. But have we ventured into the ocean at all here in Vanuatu? No. And there’s one reason why we haven’t: sea snakes. There is a highly poisonous sea snake in the waters here called the banded sea krait. We have asked many people, and they all affirm that the snake is a common sight. And while they all add that the snakes tend to swim away when they see humans, such reassurance doesn’t really reassure! So we are simply playing it safe and plan to stay out of the water.

As much as we would like to be in the water, snorkeling, to see the various fish up close - such as those in the photo above, we are limited to taking pictures from above the water.

One thing that is a plenty here, and which you can see quite easily from above the water, is starfish. We have never seen so many starfish!

In this photo, you can see a starfish, sea cucumbers (the elongated items to the left of the photo), and sea urchins (the dark rounded items).

This is a photo from the Internet of the banded sea krait - just to show you what they look like and why our fear is so great!









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