Graptolite - Climbs a Volcano
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Wed 9 Jul 2008 12:04
A very interesting day today.
We had a formal ceremony in the morning with the Port Resolution villagers
where there was dancing and an exchange of gifts. We gave them some western
bits and pieces and they gave us baskets of fruit and vegetables, banana
leaf hats, grass skirts and one very frightened-looking piglet.
In the afternoon we piled into the back of pick-up trucks and bounced along
a dirt road to another village where dozens of men and boys gave us a
display of dancing while wearing nothing but penis-sheaths. We didn't see
any women there. Who knows what the women traditionally wear.
Moving in the trucks, we bounced through a forest of giant tree-ferns up the
side of an active volcano and then stood on the volcano's rim as darkness
fell and stared at the fountains of lava and ash being thrown out.
Completely at our own risk, apparently.
Returning to Port Resolution, the villagers had laid on a feast which we ate
off banana-leaf plates. The little piggy was very tasty.
M