Some of the tours that you can do an Santo include the historical WW2 tour. Santo was a military base for the Americans during the war with thousands of troops based here as well as a military hospital. There is still plenty to see including a B52 Bomber wreck, the site of the old military hospital, Millionnaire Dollar Point, as well as rusting hulks dotted throughout the island.

 

 

Patrick, Annie and Stephen at the B52 bomber wreck site. To be honest the site could be developed with some thing as simple as an information board as the guide was unsure about his details, and although they take visitors from the cruise ships here as well as day-trippers like us, it is sad to think that the site will eventually return to the jungle, unmarked. Perhaps that is how it should be!

 

 

 

 

Million Dollar point. When the Americans left the island they offered the hardware and equipment to the local chiefs. But the chiefs did not want to pay for all that equipment. So, the Americans pushed it into the sea with bulldozers and then left. The beach is still strewn with rusting hulks, old glass coca cola bottles, crumbling rubber with the vast quantity under the water with fish and divers for company.

 

 

At the Old Military hospital Stephen is admiring the jungle, with a huge Banyan tree behind him.  The only thing left here are the concrete foundations of the buildings and the paths in between. It must have been a huge complex in its heyday. All the buildings were removed. Again, some information boards here would help. I can only imagine that it was a bit like Hawaii at the time of Pearl Harbour.

 

The chief here is an artist and carves beautiful totems for the local woods. Here he is with Stephen admiring his latest one.