Volcanoes, Kava, and Cargo Cults: Our Adventures in Vanuatu

There are places that you know – as soon as you arrive – will nestle firmly into your soul and stay there forever. They are the places that wow you, not just with their scenery, but with their uniqueness. They make you wonder what it would have been like to grow up there, make you empathize with their inhabitants, and make you question your assumptions about the world.

The island nation of Vanuatu was one of those places. We were there for only 5 days, but spent the bulk of our time slack jawed. First of all, in typical tropical island fashion (about which I’m extrapolating completely, by the way, because with the exception of the Thai islands, I had never been to a tropical island before Vanuatu), the place is beautiful. Crystal blue water, white sand, palm trees. The works.

Second of all, this archipeligo hosts Mount Yasur, the world’s most accessible active volcano. Yes, you can literally go up to the crater rim and look over the edge as the thing spews lava up to eye level, 100 meters away.

But what really left us amazed was the quirky culture and history of the place. Twelve things I bet you didn’t know about Vanuatu:

1. Until its independence in 1980 it was a dual British and French colony. That meant a British police station and a French police station; a British jail and a French jail; a British tax collector and a French tax collector… and so on.

2. Yes, that means the population is bilingual. Actually, the people we met preferred French over English.

3. Everyone also knows a third language – Bislama – which is the official national language. Bislama a pigeon form of phonetic English supplemented by indigenous words and creative riffs on English terminology. Example: the Bishlama word for “bra” is “titti basket.”

4. Oh and locals also know their own tribal language. In fact, Vanuatu is the country with the highest density of languages in the world. We were told that each local language is spoken on average by only 2,000-3,000 people. Therefore the whole need to invent “Bislama” – so people can actually communicate with each other!

5. During WWII, Vanuatu served as a major U.S. army base. The presence of American troops had all sorts of bizarre consequences, for example…

6. The formation of Cargo Cults, including the John Frum Religion. Followers believe that an American soldier, John Frum, is a deity who will one day return on his ship, bearing riches and salvation.

7. At the end of WWII, it was too expensive for the Americans to ship their heavy military equipment back. So… they just dumped it offshore. As a result, the Vanuatu coastline is like a living WWII museum, with coral reefs springing up inside of decrepit tanks, artillery, and submarines. Dunk your head under water and you can see it. It also litters the beaches.

8. Vanuatu also holds the world’s most accessible shipwreck dive: the U.S.S. Coolidge, a cruise ship turned war ship that sunk off the coast of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu’s biggest island.

9. Speaking of islands… Vanuatu is not one island, but an archipelago of 82 islands of varying sizes, many of them uninhabited.

10. Tanna island, in addition to hosting Mount Yasur, is home to what is considered the strongest Kava in Vanuatu. Like many Pacific islands, Vanu culture espouses the drinking of Kava, a muddy brew that tastes like dishwater and is cooked from a local root. The effect is described as a combination of stoned and focused. Traditionally, local men would gather at Kava bars starting in the late afternoon, and into the evening, discussing everything from sports to politics in an increasingly intense Kava-induced state.

11. We visited a Kava bar in Espiritu Santo. We had to choose carefully because many Kava bars do not allow women, and it would be “tabu” (forbidden) for me to enter. I didn’t like my Kava experience… it made me nauseous and slightly disoriented. But others at the bar (exclusively locals with the exception of two very stoned peace corps volunteers) seemed to be enjoying it.

12. Much tastier than the Kava was the beef… holy crap these people know how to raise cattle! The Vanu practice a grazing method whereby cattle graze under the shade of tall coconut palms. Their manure fertilizes the trees, and the cattle dodge the plummeting coconuts while munching on the grass below. Not sure whether its the sweet coconut palm skins that supplement the cattle's diet, but all I can say is Argentina got a run for its money with the delicious steak we had on the island.

We had never heard of Vanuatu before planning our trip. We literally pulled up Google Maps, found a random place we knew nothing about, and decided to buy a ticket. In this case, it definitely paid off.