Where I've gone

I'm counting every island, even the teeny tiny ones!

1. Efate
2. Hat Island
3. Hideaway Island (resort, still counts)
4. Erakor Island (ditto)
5. Tanna
6. Tongoa
7. Tongariki
8. Buninga
9. Epi
10. Ambae
11. Santo (afternoon layover)
12. Iririki Island (see Hideaway, Erakor)
13. Makira
14. Mataso
15. Emau
16. Emae
17. Ambrym

Most of those islands are tiny, tiny islands. I've rounded the Shepherds now (Tongoa, Tongariki, Buninga, Emae, Makira, Mataso.) Tanna was for HVV; Epi, I was visiting friends (and trying to go home); Ambae, visiting friends; Ambrym, a workshop (and a volcano.) The other ones are all day trip things.

I want to go back to Santo and do it properly. Next year, I'm hoping to move to an outer island not on this list ... stay tuned. And I would like, if I have enough money, go to Gaua next year in August for this big kastom festival (+volcano, natch.) I am planning on going to Pentecost, too, if possible, for the land diving next year.

Travel in Vanuatu is $$$$$, but all of the islands are so different, I think it's really worthwhile to go around. I say this and say this and say this, but Vanuatu is not like Fiji or Samoa where almost everyone shares the same culture. There's 106 local languages in the country, and kastom varies widely from island to island. On Tanna, women spoil kava if they get within sight of the nakamal; on my island, women chew their own when they want to drink. Physically, too, the islands are very different -- sand beaches, stone beaches, mountains, people who live "on top" or who live down at the ocean, access to water, et cetera, et cetera. If I had lots of money (read: a yacht), I'd love to travel throughout all of Vanuatu. To see every island, every kastom ... that'd be so beautiful. It's such a wonderful country.