Volcano time….

Today I took a day off (diving) and spent the morning in a hammock… 🙂 I wanted to go on one specific tour but the problem is that they don’t do it for just one person so I have to wait till someone else books it. So I went to Mount Yasur instead. This is an active volcano. Going there we had to go to the other side of Tanna and I realized that the island has changed a lot over the past two years. PAM destroyed it but after came the good. A lot of construction work has been done since, especially on the streets. I was totally surprised that they are not nearly as bad any more was they were two years ago. You can still see destroyed and abandoned houses, UNICEF-tents and houses that have only been provisionally repaired. But when we got back in the dark there were way more houses illuminated (meaning they have either electricity or solar power now) than there were two years ago.

Arriving on the entrance to Mount Yasur the organisation has changed. While in the past you just paid and drove on to the parking lot, now all cars have to remain at the entrance. There is a welcoming ceremony for everyone, there is a welcome and a volcano dance and then the chief drinks a Kava for everyone’s safety. He does that hidden from the visitors so I have no clue if he actually drank it. Don’t think it is a lot of fun to have to drink that stuff every day… 😉 Then we were all loaded into other cars and drove up to the parking lot. From there we were guided up to the rim of the crater. While I understand that they somehow need to ensure the safety of the visitors it was a big like a flock of tourists… 😉
Once up there we went to the crater and it was one heck of an experience. Activity is much higher than it was two years ago when I was there and it was just AMAZING…