Yakel Village, Tanna Island

Oct 10, 2015
3 min read

The last post left us looking for transport to a customs village on Tanna Island, Vanuatu; I will share some more about our experiences here and why we stayed at an awful anchorage for a few days and a terrible one for another few days.

Our small friend Rita introduced us to her Uncle, Mr. D, who had a friend with a taxi; unfortunately it had a broken tire so we were on our own. A Tanna Island taxi is basically any dude with a 4x4 who wants to make some money, there are no vehicles that aren’t 4x4’s, nor are there meters and the capacity is only limited to how many people can fit in the box. Cara spotted some other travellers and asked them if they wanted to split cab fare to a customs village and so we halved the cost with Josh from England and a French guy who I would have remembered his name if it wasn’t so French. We quickly found a cab who offered to take us up there for 2000 Vatu, a little more than $20. Sounded fair to us, I was a little worried about finding a ride back but turns out he waited for us to finish our tour and charged us the same return fare. After about an hour drive on some pretty gnarly roads but with amazing scenery and many friendly Vanuatian smiles and waves we arrived at Yakel Customs Village and were introduced to our guide Tom.

Tom, not a very traditional name, was dressed in a very traditional way, initially you could easily sense everyone’s discomfort but you would be surprised how quickly ones gets totally comfortable talking to a man wearing only a string around his waist attached to some dried grass ornately wrapped around his penis holding it in an erect manner. True. Tom brought us a little way into the village and explained we could see the waterfall, gardens, and a traditional dance and we decided we wanted to see it all, 5000 Vatu per couple, sounded fair to us. We all enjoyed the tour very much; swimming in the fresh water was a treat after who knows how many days without a freshwater shower. Check out the pictures for a better description than I could ever write.

At the end of the tour we met the men and women who were going to perform the dance and did some smoking with the men, I traded some TM’s for locally grown tobacco and Cara and our travelling companions got to smoke some Vanuatu Bud, she enjoyed it, as she does. The dance was enjoyable to watch, singing, clapping and stomping of feet. Very cool and suiting to the jungle setting. After shaking all the dancers hands and thanking them we sat around contemplating, or I did, maybe everybody else was just stoned, until our taxi driver told us it was time to go, pretty sure a part of all of us did not want to leave.

When we got back to Lenakel we invited Josh and French Guy back to the boat for dinner, they were stoked even though I explained to them how shitty it was going to be. Cara made some mashed sweet potato that had been given to us by Rita’s family and we had it with a coleslaw she had made earlier from market vegetables, some ground beef stirfry from the local butcher’s and fresh bread. Just so you have an idea how rolly the anchorage was, French Guy couldn’t stay below at all as he instantly was feeling seasick, we all ate in the cockpit and shortly after we finished eating Josh was starting to feel the effects as well. I brought them back to shore and we decided to meet up a little later at the Kava Bar.

Think that’s it for now, I will do another post soon about the rest of our experiences on Tanna Island. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy the pictures and as always look forward to hearing any stories and pictures from back home!