Check out the show....

...."Meet The Natives" / Travel Channel 

What time/day it'll be on TV?

http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Meet_the_Natives

Great show - we watched all the episodes last night.

MrsFisHunter

Great show - we watched all the episodes last night.

MrsFisHunter

I hope their message will be heard by many

Great show - we watched all the episodes last night.

MrsFisHunter

I hope their message will be heard by many

Care to fill in those of us who missed it?

In 2002 I spent a week on the Island of Tanna.  What a interesting place!!!  We visited natives that had almost zero contact with the outside world.  Their only contact was through limited visits arranged through one of their own who they had designated as a point of contact.  They sent that person to school in the "outside world" in order that he be the bridge to visitors like us.  I have a couple of rough hand carvings on my fireplace mantle as a reminder of this trip.

Also, Tanna is the center of the mysterious "John From" cult, one of the Cargo Cults of the south pacific that sprung up during World War II.  These cults saw the "riches" that the landing ships brought with them during the way.  When the war ended, cults sprung up that worshiped the return of the precious cargo.  Apparently one of the first Americans to land on the island said something like "Hi, I'm John From America", and so the John From cults were bord.  On Tanna, you knew you were in a John From village when you saw the Red Cross sign.  The cults adopted this sign.

Oh ... and then there was the encounter with the volcano.  We hiked to the rim of a very active volcano.  At one point we had a massive explosion and with large fiery boulders getting blown over us and one particularly large VW sized boulder landing 100 yards in front of us.  Hindsight being what it is ... we should NOT have been there.

And ... the snorkeling was absolutely amazing.  Being a thermally active area, we'd swim through pockets of very warm water with the most colorful coral reefs I've ever seen.

I'll have to dig up some pictures.

-Allen

Kinda reminds me of this.....

http://www.lostboysfilm.com/

Definitely an eye opener and something we can all learn from. IMO: We should have more shows like this...instead of shows like "MTV Cribs" and "Survivor" 

And ... the snorkeling was absolutely amazing.  Being a thermally active area, we'd swim through pockets of very warm water with the most colorful coral reefs I've ever seen.

I'll have to dig up some pictures.

-Allen

How difficult was it to get there? 

And...

besides the ornamental fish, were there bigger fish? 

And ... the snorkeling was absolutely amazing.  Being a thermally active area, we'd swim through pockets of very warm water with the most colorful coral reefs I've ever seen.

I'll have to dig up some pictures.

-Allen

How difficult was it to get there? 

And...

besides the ornamental fish, were there bigger fish? 

Not difficult to get to, just l-o-n-g.  LA to Sydney, Sydney to Port Vila, Port Vila to Tanna via island hopper.

GT's, dogtooth, and reefsharks on the edges.

I spent 4 days fishing out of Port Vila.  Blue Marlin, YFT, and Ono galore!!!  I was staying in a cheap backpackers hotel (spent my money on the boat) and fed the whole hotel that week.

I spent another week on in Espiritu Santo.  Did a deep dive (170') on an old sunken luxury liner turned troopship carrier in WWII.  Ended the deco stop with large potato grouper.  Shallow end of that wreck was in 70' of water.  Did a night dive into the upper holds ... filled with lantern fish!!  Deco stop was over-run with feeding lionfish.  All sorts of artifacts in that ship still including medial vials of quinine floating in the rooms.  Did another couple dives on Million Dollar Reef.  This reef was where American troops bulldozed excess supplies into the sea forming a reef.  Supposedly it as cheaper than shipping it home.  Whole jeeps, coke and champagne bottles, all sorts of stuff littering the ocean floor.

Man ... the memories.  One of the best trips I've done ... 5 weeks of island hopping bliss.  The stories I could tell ...

-Allen

The stories I could tell ...
-Allen

we are listening

Great show - we watched all the episodes last night.

MrsFisHunter

I hope their message will be heard by many

it was funny and sad.....
funny when the natives react to things they'e never seen or done before.

sad, when the point out, the easily figured-out, greed for money in our modern world.

they show the whole series of episodes, one after another, it was very entertaining and eye opening......a good reality show.

The stories I could tell ...
-Allen

There were these 3 British nurses I met at the hotel in Port Vila ...

-Allen

There were these 3 British nurses I met at the hotel in Port Vila ...

-Allen
[/quote]

Now everyone is listening
You may continue.......