Day 6 - Sunday 21 July - Vila, Vauatua

Safely anchored at the wharf in Port Vila. Weather warm and sunny with a touch of clouds.

View from cabin balcony to street stalls

Off the boat heading out to the stalls along the road to the town centre

Have disembarked and taken a stroll along the market stalls lining the road away from the wharf. Must say that if you were a big Bob Marley fan then you could pick up a lot of souvenirs! We have managed to spend some money at a number of different stalls and now will have plenty of stubby coolers for entertaining in the sunroom at home. Alison also scored a new poncho style overtop and Philip a hand-painted shirt - he will have to cope with the fact that the buttons on the wrong side for a man! He couldn't bring home the very friendly island lady who buttoned it on him to ensure that he would buy!

AP at the stalls

Brought our booty back to the ship in the middle of a practice abandon ship drill for the crew and have settled for some chill-out time on the Lido deck while we wait to head out for our shore excursion at 12.30pm. Pool area was quite and deserted when we arrived allowing the towel animals to have some safe time pool-side!

Pleased to say that the Toast to Villa (aka Tusker Beer Crawl) was the best thing that we could have done to while away three hours on a sunny Sunday afternoon. All on the mini-bus had a ball. Started with a fresh coconut with malibu added to the coconut water and a straw in the top handed to us as we boarded the bus. This with a guitar strumming local tour guide, communal singing and drinking at four different venues certainly helped to exercise the face muscles through laughter.

Both succumbed to a Nanna Nap before dinner and have now returned to the cabin after watching an enthralling upbeat illusionist, contortionist, magician show.