Chasing Summer –

November 12, 2025

One day in a brand new country seems a little short.

But it only seems a little short when you reach Alotua and realize there is nothing to do unless you leave. I have no idea why this port was chosen. I’m guessing it was available and cheap.

Now, some of the residents did have a day trip booked, or they were going out into the countryside to visit a village and see some of the local tribes people. They may have seen a little bit more than I. I have also heard that there is a festival every year that, if you attend during that time, there are over 50 traditional groups that come together and wear their traditional costumes and do their traditional dances, and that would be awesome.

I did neither of these things. One, because their festival wasn’t happening right now. Two, I had no desire to spend any money after Cairns.

Instead, I just got off the boat at about 9:30 AM and walked through the entire town to the Central Market. The town is basically all along one main Street that follows the coast and takes about 45 minutes to walk from one end to the other. The city has only 16,000 people, and the majority of them are independent small farmers or outside of the economic system of the country.

Papua New Guinea is considered one of the poorest countries in the world, with only approximately 10% of the population having a salaried job as adults. Poverty is widespread, and education is neither free nor compulsory. Most children who attend school do not even complete primary and there are more boys than girls who attend these schools. I do know that as soon as our cruise ship rolled into town, all of the children chose not to go to school that day and instead hung out in town following the visitors around.

Walking through town, I did notice that there is a sidewalk coming up, but it is not in the best condition. Many of the local population do not wear shoes, and with heavy rains in the afternoon, there was a lot of mud and debris to walk through. There were several supermarkets along the way, where a vast majority of people could be seen hanging out in front of.

We walked until we came across a memorial from the war. Here, I was impressed at how well-maintained the site was. The grass was well-maintained, posters were still easily read, and there was no one loitering in the space.

Beside this memorial, there was a small group of individuals who were selling wood carvings that had some mother-of-pearl inlay. Several children would go grab different pieces and come up to us asking us to buy them for 5,10, or twenty of their currency. Online, the exchange rate for the US dollar is 1 to four, but in reality, the money changers here will only give you one to three.

We continued on to the Central Market, where locals are selling their produce, handicrafts, betel nuts, and food items. We have seen betel nut in several locations in this region. It is an addictive stimulant that many of the locals chew, and it makes their teeth and mouths red. There was a whole section of the market just for this nut and another for the tobacco that is often mixed with it.

Betel Nut – Alcohol and Drug Foundation

The only other section of interest was the local pier where the fishing boats and water taxis were located. Another sort of loose market could be seen at the place where people were selling last-minute things, including betel nuts to people who were going to be going to other parts of the island. It was even one group that came in carrying a live boar that was attached to a stick by its feet. It was not happy to be transported this way.

By lunchtime, the rains began, and I quickly made my way back to the boat. The rains continued throughout the rest of the afternoon, so I stayed on board.

Ship Tea

We have had several people depart quietly or not. Ironically, for our demographics, we have only had two residents pass away. One of those had a stroke on the boat and was sent to the hospital, where she later passed. The other was off the boat on shore leave, and I am unsure of his cause of death. We have had more people going to rehab or leaving for mental health reasons than actual death. So this lifestyle is more likely to make you crazy than kill you.

Perhaps an effort to combat this, VVR has hired a guest speaker for the next three weeks who specialises in talking about how to handle pressure better. I am slightly shocked that they didn’t make going to the sessions mandatory.

We are at 326 passengers, which is half the ship’s capacity. Last night at dinner time, our hotel manager got on the intercom to remind people not to flush anything other than toilet paper and your 1s and 2s. Every time we get new people, there is someone who flushes a handtowel, or diaper, or sanitary napkin, and it clogs up the system. Also, someone is apparently not using the toilets to go to the bathroom. Ew, I can’t imagine what the new people are thinking about the ship they boarded and its residents.

Taa Taa for now and onto the Solomon Islands.