Welcome to Wala Island. There are about 30,000 living on this island and 30 different languages spoken. Malekula was a name given by Captain James Cook. It was derived from the French "mal a cul" which means "pain in the tush". The name was apt due to the presence of cannibals, volcanoes, and mountainous rain forests. French is the primary language with some English. The weather was rainy most of the day with 80 deg temperatures.
There is no commerce on this island so they don't have a dock suitable for the cruise ship. We had to take the Volendam's tender boats ashore.
Sigrid with friend, Marlise (German), resting up for the shore excursion.
One of the tenders heading for shore.
Wala Island beach.
We were greeted by locals who sang for us in hopes of a donation.
A more professional musical group with the same goal.
Nothing like an ice cream cone after chasing down the rooster.
Mr Pig dressed up for his visitors.
Anyone want to play with sea turtles or star fish for a small donation?
The mother ship.
A tender at the dock.
Sigrid with outrigger canoe.
Another turtle. The kids are cute.
The kids were selling flowers to women tourists for their hair. This one fell out.
I was interested in the construction techniques used.
Sigrid took Robert's offer to get a guided tour of the village for only $10.
Robert explains daily life in the village.
Strange tropical fruit tree.
This is it folks. Home sweet home.
Robert's pet fruit bat. He will try to bite you if you sick your finger in the cage but is otherwise pretty boring..........he just hangs around upside down.
A nice supply of coconuts at Robert's front door.
The banana's are inside in the food pantry (floor).
All the comforts of home. You do have to watch the size of your cooking fires. The hut is pretty flammable.
After the tour, Robert told us about his uncle who had lost a leg and needed a wheelchair to get around. He was hoping that we would donate to the wheel chair fund. I think that the chair would have to have four wheel drive to get around the rough sandy trails in the village.....call me a skeptic.
An anatomically correct figurine.
Sister setting little parrot-head up for a stinger.
Later that day, I became the champion of the m/s Volendam at Table Tennis.
Off to Luganville.
Actually Malekula Is has a population of 30000. Wala Is is a separate island with maybe a hundred residents. And the story aboout the name meaning pain in the arse is an urban myth.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information. I don't recall my sources for what I posted, but it wouldn't be the first time that I had a bad source or I misunderstood what I read. I am curious and will do more looking on the "arse" issue.
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