Trip to Ambrym Part II January 18, 2009

The next day, we found out that we were being charged the equivalent of $50/night to stay in this dirty guesthouse and receive meals we didn't ask for. When we said we were gonna camp instead of pay that rate for another night, the owner quickly revised the price to $25. Oh Vanuatu.

Our first day there, we walked up to the kastom village where Steve's parents had spent some time during their Peace Corps service. The walk was short, but took us up several steep climbs through gardens. We ran into a family working in the garden who was happy to tell us about what they were growing, then offered us a green coconut to drink. It was so hot, we were very grateful for the hydration.

The village was probably the most kastom village I've ever seen. Men were making carvings, and we were taken on a walking tour and got to see the taboo nakamal (for men only), the chief's burial grounds, and a nasara, or sacred ground.
We also saw the chief's house, which was built high up on stilts so no one could come into his house at night to kill him or put nakaimas (a curse) on him while he slept. I'm not sure how the village believes that the chief died, but it was his death that had brought us to Ambrym to pay our respects. We heard some interesting stories about how a man becomes a chief, including one where he must stand on a balcony-type of structure, while people throw stones at him. We also heard about how, if something bad happens in the village, it usually means that someone has stolen bones from the chief's burial grounds, and that a team must be assembled to investigate and recover the missing bones. Crazy.

We realized that because the ship had taken so long to deposit us on Ambrym, we had missed the boat that would've taken us to the West. So we decided, in our infinite wisdom, that we would just walk. But first we wanted to see another village called Ranvetlam. At this point, Steve was feeling pretty ill, so instead of walking, we took a 10 minute speed boat ride and climbed up to the village. People stared a lot, but once they realized who Steve was, welcomed us with open arms. Isaiah has a guest house and let us camp there for the night. It was a beautiful setting looking out over the ocean and sunset. Although he and his wife were busy caring for Isaiah's ailing brother, they still found time to bring us food.

Steve shivered and sweat all night long, but the next morning was ready to go. We packed up our stuff, collected our supplies, and set off to meet our guide. The chief had put a taboo on going to the summit of the volcano because it was time to plant the yams, a very important crop on Ambrym. Sometimes, they have kastom yams up to ten feet long! Maybe even longer! So we decided that we would climb over the volcano, then go back on top from the west, where the taboo wasn't in place.

Chief Louie was our guide, and man, was he fit. Because Steve was still a little weak, the chief carried our heaviest pack (about 60 pounds). Steve carried one that was about 30-40 pounds, and mine was only 10-20. We climbed and descended, walked, and rested for about six hours, covering about 10 miles. Steve and I each went through at least a couple of liters of water and Powerade, but Chief Louie had barely touched the liter that he had brought. He charged ahead, stopping every now and again to light a cigarette and wait for us to catch up.

It was my first day of backpacking, and it kicked my ass. I was starting to hear ringing in my ears. We were running out of water and the afternoon was quickly running away from us. When we got to the Western side of the volcanos, we convinced the chief that we would be fine from here on out. We wanted to camp and walk around a bit. He was reluctant to leave us, but eventually did, and we set up camp. It was deafeningly quiet. I never understood that expression before that day. I'm talking about total silence. We were on the ash plain. No birds, no nothing. Here and there were tiny flying insects and small shrubs growing in the cracks of rocks where water had collected, but for the most part this place looked like Mars. We were the only people around for miles...

To Be Continued...