Big Bay Celebrations

Big Bay (Bay of Illusions) is the large bay in the north of the island and is a 2 hour trip away. Olgeta arranged a cultural celebration and there was a country fair feeling about it with hastily erected benches for the visitors to sit on, a sign to a WC (long drop with handy leafy branch) in the overgrown forest and of course the admission booth with a solar powered fridge containing Tusker beer and Coke.

        There were demonstrations of making stone fires and laplap ( favourite local food), a mash of yams/taro/banana wrapped in cabbage leaf and baked in the stone fire.The women were busy grating taro and yams on the base of a Natangora palm whilst the men grated the coconuts using a sharp end of a cut bamboo. Later we had firemaking  and sand drawing. It was very informal and the visitors wandered here and there with a fair amount of waiting around.

 

We then had a good lunch of beef cooked in the stone oven, together with lots of island cabbage and salad. It was served on banana leaves and plastic forks were provided. By the time we queued up they had run out of banana leaves so we got china plates but no forks, so back to the fingers!
After lunch we had a presentation of custom dancing by a small but enthusiastic group. Later everyone was invited to join in which caused some hilarity. I don't think the old lady could believe she has just danced like that in front of all those strangers.

 

 


We then wandered down the black sands of Big Bay to see the monument to the Spanish explorer Quiros who was the first recorded European visitor in 1606.
On the way back we said farewell to a couple of the performers.