12.06.2010 – Gizo, Solomon Islands, at some resthouse of unknown name…
Well well, what an interesting place this is! We met Denee and Dirk at the Nadi airport in Fiji as planned (I received a wonderful gift – a weight belt with pockets!), and from there we made our way safely to Honiara, the capitol city of the Solomon Islands, on the island of Guadalcanal. After waiting in a customs line that went out the door and around the corner, we finally checked into the country, exchanged some money, and made our way into town to find a place to stay for the few days we were in town. Originally we had hoped to just stay one night in Honiara, as we had heard it was dirty, unsafe, and on average just plain boring. But due to the last-minute nature of our travel style/situation we found ourselves not able to book tickets until 4 days later, and all of the cheap resthouses were full up, with the exception of EXTREMELY expensive western-style hotels and a place called “The Quality Inn.” A better name might have been the “Pris-Inn,” as the entire compound was patrolled by security “boys,” rimmed by meters upon meters of razorwire, and gated and locked at every entry point. The power (and thereby fans and A/C) died early the first night we were there, and the water was on average…off. Perhaps the civil unrest from the recent “sacking” of a government official had caused sewage to back up into the shower/sink water reservoir – or maybe it was just poor maintenance, but either way the water was shit: literally. The walls were floor to ceiling woodgrain laminate, and indoor smoking is apparently OK at a “Quality” establishment such as this. But thank god the price was cheap….OR NOT! $500 Solomon dollars per night for a room, which has fecal matter plugging up the plumbing! For the love! Anywho, we skipped out of there as soon as we could (two nights) and found vacancy at a place called the Chester Resthouse just a few hundred meters away, for less than half the price. It was clean, we had our own cooking facilities, the folks were nice, and Saturday morning cartoons were available every day of the week, all day. The porch looked out over the harbor and the main road through the city, and it was peachy. That said, there was a crying baby in the room next door, and apparently I’m the only one who didn’t mind it a bit. But otherwise a wonderful, fully-appreciated change from the Inn from Hell. On our first day in town things were rather locked-down, in that the aforementioned bit of civil unrest had the local businesses shut down in fear of riots, and the police was out in full force doing their best to keep order. So we called it a day, hoped things would “simmer down” in the morning, and they did. The unnerving thing about Honiara that we first noticed was that street vendors sold three things (that I can remember vividly): watches, betelnuts, and fixed blade knives. The last item really rang strong in our heads one night when Aimee and I were walking back in near darkness from the Yacht Club to our hotel. Undoubtedly the most sketchy walk home in my life, so much so that when we got home safely I quickly unloaded my pockets except for cash and headed out the door to take a cab BACK to the Yacht Club where Denee and Dirk were finishing dinner, and recommend strongly that they come back in a cab. Of course I was just walking out the door when I heard them return to their room, and I got to rest easy knowing that they hadn’t been stabbed. Never again! Anywho, after blowing way too much money at the yacht club (mmm…the lime juice they made was amazing…) we spent our last day taking a cab out to Bonegi beach (sp?) and went snorkeling on a Japanese supply ship that had beached itself there in WWII. Totally freaking amazing. Best coral, fish, visability, and the utmost easy-access I’ve ever had to date, but we’re hoping to exceed that in the next few weeks to follow! : ) Note: See the picture above for an aerial photo of this wreck that I took while flying out to Gizo. The next afternoon we caught our flight out to Gizo on a twin-engine prop plane (a Dash-8) and landed on a coral airstrip in the middle of a small island. We were then taken by boat to the Dive Gizo dock in downtown Gizo where we met the owners Danny and Kerrie, along with some folks from Europe who were on the plane with us. After a quick hello to the dive shop we jumped in Danny’s truck and headed up the hill to some resthouses to find a place that suited us best. We managed to get two rooms for $250/night per room, for 6 nights, and we feel pretty good about that, except for that Aimee and I don’t have A/C in our room that works, and for whatever reason it’s hotter than hell at night in there… Anywho, shortly after settling in we went down to town, bought a bunch of groceries, a tuna, and came home for dinner. That night we chatted it up with our European housemates, shot the green laser at quarreling rats in the bushes, and drank rum ‘n juice. All was well. : ) The next morning we met at Dive Gizo for a day of snorkeling (and diving for a couple other folks), and although we had discussed the idea of opting out because of increasingly bad looking weather, Kerrie convinced/conned us into going out…and we got smashed (not to mention some of the discs in our backs). We did, however, get to dive on a WWII Hellcat fighter/bomber plane that was in near-perfect condition, resting on the bottom in about 9-meters of the warmest water I’ve ever dove in (see pictures, and eventual video). On the boat ride back we got pounded, soaked, and just plain wet – and that’s coming from the guy who loves small boats and rough weather. This poor boat flexed and groaned in more places than it should have, and we all agreed that it would be fortunate for us if it got us safely back to port in one piece. I had my mask in hand just in case she broke up, and took off my weight belt. And on that note, I’ll retire for the night, dry, alive, happy, and looking forward to what tomorrow, the next day, and the rest of December has in store for us! We’ll be traveling to Munda on the 10th, leaving on the 15th for Tetepare Eco Lodge, then onto Solomon Dive adventures on the 21st, with a short stay in Chea with Connie in-between. After the 26th we’ll be working our way up Marovo Lagoon for a week, then flying out of Seghe on the 3rd of January, out of Honiara on the 4th, and arriving back home in Seattle on the 4th (weird, I know) in the evening. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Until next time,
Danny, Aimee, Denee and Dirk
Amendment to above post: 12.8.2010, Gizo, Solomon Islands
Gizo is a small town, hot as hell and humid as a steam room, but it has a nice local feel to it and food is easily obtained from the local market and a handful of stores that all seem to carry the same items. Dirk and I went on a two-tank dive on the 446’ Japanese wreck Toa Maru, which was sunk in 1943 by an American air squadron. It’s stern lies in 37m of water (approx 120’) and it’s bow is just a few hundred meters off the beach in 7m/25’. There were overturned battle tanks, huge cargo holds that we could swim through, piles of junk (cargo) spilling out of the holds (the entire ship is resting on it’s starboard side), and all sorts of remnants from over 60 years ago! After we finished off our second dive, we went back into town and used our remaining 50bar to dive on a shallow airplane wreck that is literally 100’ off the waterfront market in about 7m/25’ of water. Beer cans and garbage were everywhere, the water felt like it was horribly contaminated, and the visibility was crap: but low and behold, a WWII fighter plane was sitting, mostly intact except for it’s tail, with little anemonefish and lionfish abounding! Anywho, we’re just chillaxin’ our way through this week in Gizo, eating popsicles, watching season 8 & 9 of Scrubs, and eating food! A decently sized tuna cost $25-40SBD ($3-4USD) and feeds all four of us – it’s wonderful! On the 10th we’re off to Munda for 5 nights, and I’m not too sure we’ll have reliable internet until….we get back to the USA? It’s been pretty slow and sketchy here, so this may be the last post for awhile.
Peace yo!
Danny
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