Celebrity Solstice - day 5 - Mystery Island, Vanuatu

Sunday morning found us stopped in the waters between Aneityum Island and Mystery Island, Vanuatu.

Our cruise director, Angela (on the right), and her husband, the activities director Dave (on the left) record a overview of the next day's activities at the end of day -- so we can watch it when we get up in the morning! (They may look a bit rough in the photo, but it was just bad timing of us taking the photo from the TV in our room -- they do a really great job!)

We went to the buffet restaurant for breakfast and could see the island our the window -- we could see the whole island -- it is pretty small.

Celebrity Solstice from the tender

Neighboring island Aneityum

Celebrity Solstice with Aneityum behind

Selfie on the wharf -- it may look like I'm waving, but I was just bringing my hand down from holding onto my hat -- I was holding Carl's hat on with my other hand -- it was **very** windy!

Selfie with Mystery Island behind us

Part of the beach -- the island has beaches most of the way around it, and can be walked around in about 45 minutes if you don't stop to enjoy or take pictures!

Some of the shore excursions offered by the locals...

Some of the services available on the island

As we were walking along the slightly inland path, we saw some locals arriving -- it turns out that there are no residents who live on the island, they only come over to Mystery Island when a cruise ship is there -- they come to offer goods and services to the passengers bringing everything over, set up shop, and leave when the passengers head back to their ship.

We went down and walked along the beach for a while...

This may look like just a bunch of shells washed up on the beach, but when you looked at it closely, some were moving -- check out the video we took: https://youtu.be/mqhQL2AIRng

When the little crabs were not encased in a shell, they looked like little pieces of fluff, and since the wind was blowing so steadily, we could only distinguish them when the "bits of fluff" were moving counter to the wind direction! We heard later that they are called "ghost crabs" (we were thinking they might be hermit crabs since they adopted shells).

There were a number of "toilets" on the island! This one was a bit more rickety than most (the others had doors that actually had hinges, but all either had a wooden seat or were squatty-potties!).

We did a lot of our walking around the island on the sand path as it was easier to walk on than the sandy beach.

This was another toilet (out house) building -- I found it so neat to see how they made a plaid wall out of bamboo strips on the side.

Another view of the sand path

Along the western end of the island, there was more exposed stone (lava rock? coral?) than the other areas which were covered in sand.

Carl on the rocks

Patti on the rocks

The rocks were a bit slippery in places, so we had to be careful in our walking.

A video so you can enjoy the sound of the waves from this location:  https://youtu.be/KRFV7pNzUVQ

Along the southern shore, there was a wider beach area and the locals were offering many services there - excursions, massage, hair plaiting, etc.

Looking east

Selfie with all the beautiful colors of blue water behind us!

Back toward the "small boat harbor" -- many of the locals had brought their boats over to bring items to sell, or provide services (massage tables, lounge chairs, and boat tours).

A video showing this area: https://youtu.be/cy6XPBke31w

Back around on the north side with a view of the beach on Mystery Island, Celebrity Solstice, and Aneityum Island beyond.

We had heard that there was a cannibal cauldron where visitors could have their pictures taken... one of our fellow passengers was participating...

Locals with their "dinner"

It was all good fun!

At this point, the "dinner" had the upper hand!

On our way back to the ship, the locals were offering excursions that we could take advantage of.

When we arrived, the singing group had not yet set up, but as we were leaving, they were there -- a video of their performance can be found here: https://youtu.be/h8kJXgnAqCY

From the ship -- a picture of Mystery Island in the sunshine

We enjoyed our visit to Mystery Island -- quite breezy in the morning, which kept the bugs away, and made it feel reasonably comfortable even though it was in the mid 80s, both Fahrenheit (temperature) and humidity!

We were entertained in the evening onboard by Andy Joy, who played a total of 8 different instruments during his show - including drilling out a large carrot and embedding a saxophone mouthpiece and playing it!

On our way back to our cabin, we stopped in the Effy Boutique for a drawing... we did not win...

Keeping busy, enjoying ourselves!