On one of our final days on Espiritu Santo, we booked a snorkeling plus turtle and dugong spotting tour. What’s a dugong, you ask? We’d never heard of them either! A relative of the manatee, dugongs are large-ish marine mammals that live in the coastal waters of the Indo-West Pacific. They are shy and gentle vegetarians, and unsurprisingly, their numbers are threatened. While we weren’t lucky in dugong sightings, we did see several sea turtles – mostly fleeting, they move fast!
But the true highlight of the excursion was the snorkeling. Fabrice, owner of Island Fishing Santo, took us to a spot off the coast of Aese Island, promising us the best snorkeling on Espiritu Santo.
We traveled to a spot up-current of the reef – Fabrice and his skipper would follow us as we snorkeled and drifted with the flow of the current. Chad jumped into the water first; Lindsay, however, took an extra moment to gather her courage, memories of roiling seas from the Cape Town shark cage dive still uncomfortably fresh. Once submerged, it was easy to relax into the rhythm of the waves and submit to the underwater serenity.
Beneath the surface was an astonishing underwater world. We glided over swarms of colorful fish and gardens of coral…
… stony colonies of branching coral antlers, solitary purple or gold coral boulders, flat oblong corals like strange petrified mushrooms with curling ridges and lacy edges, both delicate and sturdy.
The reef unfolded from a shallow shelf to an exhilarating drop-off, a dramatic underwater canyon with a coral-encrusted wall plunging 40m into the abyss.
Two hours flew by, and left us with some wicked sunburns that have since faded – but the vivid memories of the underwater wonderland remain bright.
Something Fabrice said while we motored to the snorkeling site has stayed with us… we had remarked that we were happy to set off early in the day, since it seemed like the rains typically started in the afternoon and we hoped for good visibility. Fabrice responded with a laugh, “yes, well, if you wait for the rain to stop, you’ll never do anything”. Of course, he was speaking about the capriciousness of Vanuatu weather – rain comes and goes here according to the fickle whims of Mother Nature.
But this bit of colloquial wisdom could also be the makings of a Vanuatuan adage for life and living. If you wait for the perfect conditions to seize a moment or create an opportunity, to take a risk, to deviate from the conventional path – chances are, you’ll be waiting for a long time. Timing is rarely perfect, and there are a hundred and more reasons for staying on the established, tried-and-true path.
When we made the decision together to take a career break and embark on these travels, we understood that it was unconventional, and may have consequences – Chad would face a job search upon return home, and Lindsay walked away from potential opportunity in her role. But we can say with conviction that it was worth these risks, and we wouldn’t trade our experiences for anything. Our lives are richer because of these 100 days abroad – travel is education, and has allowed us to see the world with new eyes. Travel will always be a priority in our lives… we look forward to the next adventure!
A Forever of Nows 