Since meeting an old doctor and wife from Scotland in the Perlas islands, who had lived in Port Villa with there young family 30 odd years ago we've had expectation of the place.  Our expectation were dashed.  Port Villa now is a rather classic example of a island capital, where most of the traders are Chinese sell cheap nasty goods from those shores, even the local craft market mostly flogging these machine crafted man made fabrics. 

 

The most damning impact seems to be as a result of the huge thrice weekly monster cruise ships.  Whilst these guys might plant a wee bit of cash mostly in to the hands of the expat communities.  Whilst here of a week we quickly learnt to escape up to the museum each time they boat rocked up.  Here we were left undisturbed by the hordes of holiday makers in search of entertainments and cheap duty free buys....

 

The 24hr produce market still remains a special place.  We eat here each day along with Ni-Vans and aid workers, The food was simple, cheap, nutritious and plentiful. 

 

Sadly for me I managed to pick up a nasty case of giardia with continued to plague me and keep me in bed for the following 3 weeks.

Flowers for Mum

 

The high-light of Villa for us is the Museum and the guild Edgar who is a national treasure.  Zinnia, especially, become an Edgar Groopy we took her under his wing and taught her the wonderful art of 'Sandroing' Sand drawings.  These are the original Ni-vans art forms depicting animals and stories often still found in Caves on the Northern islands.

Traditional masks