Vanuatu - Lake Letas

"The above named area is a volcanic crater lake that covers an area of 19 square kilometres. It is the largest freshwater system in Vanuatu and the Pacific with a maximum depth of 350m. The water from the lake flows over a waterfall and cascades through a short river to the sea. The most prominent feature of the entire caldera is that the lake is associated with swampy vegetation and an active volcanic cone. This region is a cultural monument for the native people of Gaua. The local community believes that such a physical setting hosts ancestral forms of wealth. The area is respected and kept and contains many traditional taboo sites."

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List

Vanuatu - Yalo, Apialo and the sacred geography of Northwest Malakula

Yalo and Apialo are two ‘spirit’ caves located in Northwest Malakula. The terms ‘yalo’ and ‘apialo’ mean ‘place of the spirits’ in the languages of the Small Nambas and Big Nambas people. Yalo cave is located in Small Nambas territory, close to the site of Wonbrav in the Tenmiel area. Apialo is located approximately 7km to the south of Yalo in Big Nambas territory, between the coastal villages of Lekhan and Benenavet. The coastal and inland communities residing in the area between Lehuru and the northern bank of Malua Bay River believe that when a person dies their spirit enters Yalo cave. Those living to the south of Malua Bay River, between Alpalak Village and Benwé, believe that their spirits travel to Apialo cave. Yalo and Apialo are central nodes in the spiritual landscape or sacred geography of Northwest Malakula, regarded as places where a sense of community with and connectedness to the spirit world still exists. People conduct pilgrimages to these caves to visit their ancestors who are believed to have left tangible imprints on the walls of the caves in the form of rock-markings. Yalo and Apialo contain approximately 750 and 1500 rock paintings and engravings, respectively, many of them hand stencils. Descendents seek out the handprints of their ancestors, as well as their footprints – traces left behind as a result of their incessant dancing.

Vanuatu - Vatthe Conservation Area

The Vatthe (meaning “eye of the sea”) Conservation area is located in Bay Bay, on the Northern coast of Santo (the largest island in Vanuatu). Covering an area of 2,720 hectares it is believed to contain the only extensive alluvial and limestone forest left in all of Vanuatu. It extends westward to the Jordan River (one of the largest rivers in Vanuatu) and southward, covering the black sand beach of the bay, the Matantas River, and four kilometres to the top of a raised limestone cliff 400 metres above sea level. It has three caves that serve as roosting sites for insectivorous bats; one is “taboo” and can only be entered by the High Chief of Matantas village after performing a custom ceremony. Within the conservation area there lives a snake spirit, Alawuro, who is the guardian of Big Bay and its forest. Alawuro lives in a cave of a limestone cliff overlooking the magical forest and sees all that goes on in Big Bay. He rides in his white horse to the village and warns them when he is not content with any happenings in the village. Sometimes Alawuro appears to villagers or visitors in their dreams. Alawuro helped protect the Big Bay forest by cursing a planter, Mr. Bardo, the builders of the first road to Matantas village, and a school teacher who was afflicted with lasting severe headaches. These people were led to flee the area. The villagers of Sara and Matantas fear and respect Alawuro and believe that it helped them establish the Vatthe Conservation Area.

Vanuatu - The President Coolidge

Launched on 21st February 1931 the SS President Coolidge was the largest passenger ship to be constructed in America (with her twin sister, the SS President Hoover) at that time. Built by Newport News Shipbuilding Drydock Company in Newport News, the Coolidge was 200m by 25m and had a gross displacement of 21,936 tons. This ship first started out as a passenger carrier but by the beginning of the Second World War its role shifted to that of SS President Coolidge. On the 15th of July 1941 the President Coolidge began its first voyage, on a full-time basis, for the army, taking it from Honolulu to Manila. Up until the time it sank, the Coolidge ferried troops to the war front prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbour. On 6 October 1942 it sailed out from San Francisco headed for New Caledonia and Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu. This was the ship's very last voyage. On the 26th of October 1942, after striking an American mine, it sank in 20 fathoms of water at the east entrance of the Segond Channel of Espiritu Santo. Nearly all of the 5,000 officers and men on board were saved.

Vanuatu - The Nowon and Votwos of Ureparapara

The Nowon and Votwos of Ureparapara are the central architectural elements of pre-European contact Ureparaparan culture, and are inextricable with the Sok graded-society (commonly referred to as the Sukwe in reference to other of the Banks Islands). Nowon and Votwos architectural forms were built adjacent each other and were the overt manifestation of social power, authority, leadership and peacemaking; functioning as meeting places and for ceremonial dancing, pig-killings of the Sok, reverence to ancestors and oratory addresses by community big-men. Typically located along the mid-slope plateau (100-150m above sea level) of Ureparapara’s steep outer volcanic flanks, each ceremonial-complex was associated with the hamlet or village settlements that existed across the island prior to sustained European settlement. The influence of some of these places was felt across the island.