Port Villa, Vanuatu

April 9
Port Vila, Vanuatu.

After having such a great time yesterday, I wasn’t sure that today was going to compare, but when a ton of people tell me to go to the “waterfalls” and that it’s worth it, I start to get my hopes up.
I got off the ship after rehearsal with Alex (the same guy who I went with yesterday), and a couple other friends knowing that this would make the cab ride cheaper. We walked through the stalls set up in the pier and were greeted at the gate by about a dozen different drivers all trying to give us the best price. I actually don’t think I’ve ever seen such a group of drivers being so aggressive. We ended up going with the guy who said $3 each, by far the best deal, even if he started hustling us….which he did.
The first problem was that one of my friends in our group of five backed out last minute, after we’d already negotiated a price, not making the driver very happy. We said we’d pay $15 anyways (3x5), and after waiting for the driver to do some basic math and figure out we were being honest, we left. That’s when he said it’s $3 one way, or $15 there, $15 back…but that was still a deal so we were ok and continued on through the city to the waterfalls. When we got at the waterfalls, we expected the driver to wait for us, which is the norm in places such as these, but this also was going to cost us. We didn’t want to pay the fee, which angered the dude. We were then swore at, verbally assaulted, what have you, it was almost surreal that this was actually happening. My friends in the front seats decided to go with an extra $20 for waiting, I wanted to find a different cab, but being outvoted and knowing I would still have the ride for about $10, it wasn’t too bad. So we left and entered the park.
After the $20 admittance fee (one of the first places I’ve been to that charged a fee) we started wandering the trails along a large number of small, unimpressive waterfalls, all having an unusually blue tint. A ways deeper into the jungle it got more impressive as you found yourself looking out over huge ravines. And then at the end all the recommendations proved themselves true as you came to the base of a 200+ foot waterfall, the largest I’ve ever had the chance to swim in (yes, swim in). So we spent a good 40 minutes just checking out the different waterfalls and pools that were caused by this massive falling wall of water, again being able to pretend that none of the other tourists were around. I wanted to take some pictures, but as you know, the camera didn’t quite make it through yesterday, so I’m stuck having to take pics from friends. But we eventually all left and went back to the cab who returned us to the ship with no further hassle, and as we were out of time for the day, that’s all I have to write, thanks!