Vanuatu: a day on Pele Island

May 2015: It’s been two months since category five Cyclone Pam slammed into Vanuatu, uprooting trees and hurling corrugated iron roofs through the angry sky, stripping leaves off coconut palms and generally making one hell of a mess.

I arrived yesterday and today I headed out to one of the most popular attractions from Port Vila : a day tour with Evergreen Tours combining snorkelling and a bbq lunch with the villagers of Pele Island.

This is a warts-and-all photo blog!

I could just focus on the stunning beach (Lord knows I took way too many pics of that!) and the repaired homes or I could just focus on the mess that still needs cleaning up. Instead I’m going to show you a selection of today’s photos that will give you an honest run-down. And also let you see that Pele Island is open for business!

Pele Vanuatu — The boys get the boats ready

Pele Island Vanuatu — Arriving at the beach you can see some of the damaged trees

Interestingly the driver of my tour today hadn’t been out here since the cyclone and commented on how much wider and more beautiful the beach is. Apparently the trees grew closer to the waterline, but were destroyed. The islanders have tidied it up and now he reckons, this is better than before. I thought it was pretty perfect!