But luckily as it was raining in Vila the sun was shining on Tongoa and we arrived with no problems. I turned to my mom as we landed and couldn’t quite make out what she was thinking about – the tiny plan, the grass field, or the shack/airport office – but she was smiling. We loaded up into a truck to take us to the beach to catch a boat over to Tongariki (you have to charter a boat each time you want to go between Tongariki and Tongoa and costs about $120 a day). My mom didn’t get sea sick although the water was calm. Until we got screaming distance from Tongariki and then it started to drizzle and rain started to fall. The waves made the boat owner nervous to get too close to the rocks that line the shore so one of the boat boys swam ashore and fetched a handmade canoe and paddled out to us to ferry us over. My mom was shuttled first and as I took the pictures below of my mom being carried onto shore in the canoe. I couldn’t help but laugh and think “only in Vanuatu”.
After arriving safely onto land we still had about an hour hike up to my village. The villagers helped with the bags and even cut my mom some walking sticks. We took it slow and steady and got up to my hut by mid afternoon a little fatigued but soaking wet (it started to down pour on the way up). All the rain made my stomach go into knots worried that this could be a storm --- my mom needs to catch the flight back to Vila on Friday to then catch a flight on Saturday back to California. Oh well no one can predict the weather in the South Pacific – I’ll just pray it all works out.
Mom made it to the top with her wooden walking sticks
No comments:
Post a Comment