During orientation at Heifer Ranch, on a cold, snowy February morning in Arkansas, we played an ice breaking game of people bingo. We had to circulate the room and find people to sign off on squares containing certain attributes. One of those attributes was "has been to Vanuatu," which was a curve ball, because I'm pretty sure no one in the room had actually been to Vanuatu. Eventually, we found someone to sign (I'm pretty sure she was just signing off on the square because no one else would) and the game went on. But it led to a general discussion of just where Vanuatu was. No one quite knew.
Well, I found out. It lies in the South Pacific (so much more South and Pacific than Hawaii, in that Rodgers & Hammerstein musical). It lies north and east of New Caledonia, which is itself north and east of Australia. It is near Tonga and Fiji, a bit far from Papeete and Tahiti.
It has an odd feel to it, feeling very Caribbean in some aspects, but very different in others. It has that same island ex-colony feel, since it was heavily colonized by the French. The local clothing is mostly bright colored and patterned, and the weather is hot and tropical, resulting in loose clothing and sandals. But there's an asian or oriental twist to the culture, in very subtle ways, that's hard to pinpoint and hard to explain. The landscape, setting and colors are right for the Caribbean, but it's not the Caribbean.
And the diving is spectacular.
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