A tropical island and a ship wreck

Another early start we have to be on zodiacs by 8:00 a.m. and Bob's birthday which because it's Halloween means a Halloween party tonight. Many staff wish him a happy birthday, they know because after all they have our passports.

At the briefing we were told that the island we are visiting today has the wreck of a passenger ship. It ran around and the company was not able to initially get permission to remove it, as time went on, coral grew and it became a tourist attraction so the company was never able to recover their ship and now it is rusting in the sea. We can swim and snorkel here, listen to more music with dancing and take a walk to a village on the other side of the island. The swimming sounds really good given it's hot and humid. I'm not so enthusiastic about the walk. There is a market of locally made things for us to buy. We need local currency which we were warned about when we arrived.

Ponant supports local communities on islands we visit and we are told not to give to anyone on the island. But of course we can buy locally made goods. The major reason for not buying anything else or giving things to children is because it's a hierarchical society and if you give to one person you will upset someone else.

When we land on the beach we are greeted by a group of men wearing traditional costume, they tell us this is their Island (Florida Island) and we should not be here, it's a welcome ceremony and we are asked if we are a friend or an enemy, we say friends and they welcome us. The chief of the village greets us and introduces the dancers and the musicians. The dress here is quite different, in this part of the world, dolphin and dog teeth are used in the decoration women wear. The music is very melodic with musicians playing very large pan pipes. It doesn't last very long and then we are allowed to either go with guides to the other side of the island or swim and snorkel. I decide I might as well walk at least part of the way, it is a lovely tranquil place very green and lush. I end up walking to the other side and back. I was quite slow and careful because although there was a path it was narrow and often there were tree roots and water across the path. A local guide stayed with me and helped when I needed it.

It turns out that this was a good decision to walk first as the snorkeling was challenging. The shipwreck was very close to shore and we had to swim between it and the shore and try not to bump into people or zodiacs all around. The snorkeling was not all that wonderful it turns out. The swim however was very pleasant after a humid walk. In the water I watched small boys climb a tree hanging over the water no doubt amused by us in the water.

Back on board Bob finds a small birthday cake, he manages to eat all of it which I suspect he regretted later. I can't have it, I suspect flour was used. This was supposed to be served at dinner bit of a communication breakdown. At dinner however he gets another one. Funny though it was my dessert but presented to him. Another communication problem. We share it.

We had a great lecture on world war II in the battle of the Coral Sea. So much I didn't know about what had happened during the second world war. How close the Japanese had to come to their goal of occupying all of this part of the Pacific. The battle was quite close in the end.

Halloween dancing and music followed. No dancing for me but watching was fun. Our classically trained pianist studied for nine years tonight dressed as a pumpkin he played and sang Highway to Hell. This was funny particularly for the AussiesRead more