Tag Archives: oyster bay lagoon

Scintillating Santo

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Espiritu Santo, (or just Santo, as the locals call it), is the largest island in Vanuatu.  There is an incredible amount of history from WWII museums, relics, dive sites, the sunken SS President Coolidge cruise liner, Million Dollar point, to planes and ships on the beaches and in the sea.  In addition, there are some of the most beautiful sites you will ever see including the stunning blue holes, Champagne Beach, and Port Orly.

We start off at Oyster Bay Lagoon located inside Peterson Bay (east side of Santo).  Our goal here was to visit the two beautiful blue holes: Riri Blue Hole and Matevulu Blue Hole.  Absolutely, one of the most stunning experiences we have had!

Hog Harbor

There are two bays inside Hog Harbor.  We anchor at Lonnoc Beach because it offered better protection from the winds and swell.  We drop the hook in beautiful clear blue water in between some bommies and overlook the pretty beach.  There are three small “resorts” onshore.  The one on the far left is closed (probably because the local airline is debunk and no guests can get here).  The middle resort is the largest and most well known, Lonnoc Eco Beach Bungalows. And the one on the far right is Lonnoc Beach Lodge.  These two locations offered restaurant, bar, trash disposal and laundry services to yachties.  They too were vacant but employees were around.

In front of the Lonnoc Eco Beach Bungalows is a WWII barge that washed ashore.  It now has several trees growing out of the center of it.

The second bay in Hog Harbor, which is far more popular, is Champagne Beach.  This is one of Vanuatu’s most beautiful beaches and is visited by cruise ships and tourists from all over the world. The beach is covered in a super soft, pure white sand and the waters are crystal clear turquoise.  Absolutely a stunning beach so we had to enjoy some champagne while on champagne beach! 

Port Orly

Our next stop in Santo is Port Orly.  We could see from the satellite charts that it was a really beautiful spot.  The super soft sandy beaches had beautiful overhanging pam trees.  The water is so clear that you can see to the bottom in 12 meters!  We cozied up to a little eatery and enjoyed a few lunches as we admired this stunning view.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind live events.  We visited Santo from mid-to-late August. We thoroughly enjoy a special performance of Vanuatu’s Bamboo Pipe Drum Band which was an epic performance (check out the post). 

Vanuatu Bamboo Pipe Drums

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There were rumors of a few islands that put on musical performances playing bamboo pipe drums.  We saw a video and it quickly got on our list as a “must do item” in Vanuatu.  The problem was we were not sure which anchorage or island played this unusual performance.

We decided to have a nice dinner one night while we were anchored at Peterson Bay, Santo Island.  We headed to Turtle Bay Resort which is a lovely resort, with super delicious food and reasonable prices.   To our surprise they had a band playing so we sat back, enjoyed our dinner, and awaited the mystery band.

Imagine our joy when 11 men came in carrying bamboo pipe drums followed by 4 female dancers!  Sweet as!!!!!

Bamboo Pipes

Bamboo Pipes

Bamboo Pipe Drums

We were not really sure what to expect.  Will it be enjoyable and entertaining?  Can you listen to a band play bamboo pipes for more than a few minutes without being “bored”?  The answer to all of those questions is a resounding, yes, yes, and yes!

Sorry for the weird colors in the photos, but the resort had colored lights.

They had drummers that ranged in ages from 9 to 50+.  The interesting thing is that the band rotated instruments throughout the night.  They did not stay with one set of bamboo pipes.  

There were 6 bamboo pipe drums, each with varying lengths of bamboo and each making unique musical notes.  

One person played a set of bamboo pipes like a flute, blowing into each culm creating beautiful baritone or base notes. And another person played the bag (for lack of better words). Inside the bag were a lot of nuts and they would lift and squish the bag making a marvelous sound.

What do Bamboo Pipes Consist of?

The bamboo culm (stem) is latched with vines and expertly organized by its sound.  One resort guest went up and asked to play (he was not so good).  But the guest asked the performer for “e” and believe it or not he pointed to a specific bamboo pipe!

The paddles are made of used, yellow floats that are carved up, shaped and attached to sticks to pound onto the pipes.  Talk about a great way to reuse these floats that end of up littering the beaches!

One of the dancers managed to get me out to the dance floor.  Not sure my Lake girl skills were helpful at this time 🙂

Matt and I had such an amazing time!  We really thoroughly enjoyed the bamboo pipe band!  The music was played with enthusiasm and joy and was truly fantastic.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  We saw the Bamboo Pipe Band at Turtle Bay Resort on 10 August 2024.  We finally found an adventure trail that almost wipes me out – the Millennium Cave Adventure — check out the blog post here.

Luganville: The Dreaded Errands

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It had been over 2 months since Matt and I were in a “town.”  We were in need of so many things that we had to make a day of it.   We hired a taxi driver to pick us up at a large concrete dock off of Oyster Bay Lagoon in the island of Santo.  Thank goodness he came in a pick up truck as we filled the back of it up!  And off we go to Luganville, the largest town on Santo and frankly in the northern islands of Vanuatu.

We had 2 large bags and 3 small bags of rubbish (the small bags belonged to another boat).  We had 7 jerry cans, 1 propane bottle and lots of empty bags to fill.  It is a nice 40-minute drive from Oyster Bay lagoon to Luganville.  The main town is all on one street located on the waterfront with many stores.

Luganville

Our first stop had to be the dump to get rid of our rubbish. We had heard that they recycle aluminum and tusker beer bottles but we later learned they only recycle the tusker bottles.  if you notice all of the red bags in the dump it is because those are municipality bags.  Locals buy these particular bags and then leave their bags in designated places on the street for free.  We heard about this and bought yellow bags in Efate thinking we could use them all over Vanuatu.  Ha!  Not the case.  Each island has their own color.  If you do not have the proper color you cannot leave your bag in the designated spots on the street.  Oh well, we tried.   Efate has yellow bags and Santo has red bags.

Our next stop was Paradise Petroleum.  We had (5) 20 liter and (2) 30 liter jerry cans to fill with benzine (aka gasoline).  We use gasoline for the dinghy and for our small portable generator.  The big boat uses diesel.  We had lots of cloudy days with no solar and had to use the generator a lot.  Plus we were out exploring in the dinghy using up a lot of fuel.  We filled up 157 liters and it cost $257 USD (192vt/liter).  Hopefully, this gasoline will last us for 2.5-3 months.

We also refilled our propane tank which we use for cooking and the BBQ ($21USD).  This should last us 4-5 months.

Next it was off to Digicel to get top up cards for our local SIM which I use to have internet access onshore.  We hit the fresh market (lower right photo above), the butcher (just because), Santo Hardware, and the fairly well stocked LCM Grocery Store.  The hardware store did not have a hose or machete that we wanted but we did buy some nice fishing lures.

Will it All Fit?

We were on a mission and were in and out of every store relatively fast.  By 11:45am we were heading back to Oyster Bay Lagoon.  I have to say that I am still impressed with all that we did in such a short amount of time.  We stuffed it all in the back of the truck and prayed it would all fit in the dinghy.

  • 7 Bags of groceries
  • 3 cases of beer
  • 7 jerry cans
  • 1 propane tank

I guess after 7.5 years of doing this we have it down to an art….no problem with the fit and we got the dinghy to plane!  We unloaded it onto the boat and admired our stash.

An expensive day for sure, but this will hold us over for several months.  

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  We went to Luganville on 7 August 2024.  Did you read about our trip to a private island and resort in our last blog?