{"id":18545,"date":"2020-07-12T21:11:20","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T04:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/?p=18545"},"modified":"2020-09-23T11:09:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T18:09:11","slug":"untamed-islands-adventures-solomons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/untamed-islands-adventures-solomons\/","title":{"rendered":"Untamed Islands: Adventures in the Solomons"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"locals
It\u2019s a lazy day on Tavanipupu Island Resort, on isolated Tavanipupu Island, with plenty of time for lunch in the shade.<\/span> PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE HAGGERTY@COLORWORLD.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HONIARA, Solomon Islands \u2014 If it weren\u2019t for the potholes, thousands of gaping pits jolting the car every which way, I wouldn\u2019t have missed the sign on the tree. But Andrew, our guide on Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands, knew everybody. \u201cThat\u2019s Dolphin View Cottage and there\u2019s the owner,\u201d he said, waving at a stocky, dark-skinned man in rumpled shorts, a faded t-shirt and flip flops. \u201cIt\u2019s Guyas Tohabellana. He works here in Honiara. \u00a0C\u2019mon, let\u2019s say hello.\u201d<\/p>\n

Down by the shore, Guyas\u2019s son Mike sat at a picnic table with his sister, playing with his pet cockatoo. Behind them the beach sloped down to Iron Bottom Sound, the World War II graveyard where 50-plus sunken ships \u2014 American and Japanese \u2014 still rest, slowly rusting away. \u00a0Across the water, Savo Island, site of the famously fierce WWII batle, shimmered on the horizon. For a minute the two men chatted, speaking local Pijin so quietly I missed most of it. Then Guyas turned to me and held out his hand. \u201cYou\u2019re from America!\u201d he said, beaming. \u201cDo you like it here? Have you been to Gizo and seen the beautiful coral reefs? Yes, my grandfather was a Coast Watcher<\/a> during the war, a spy you\u2019d say, reporting Japanese movements to the Americans. He watched the Battle of Savo Island<\/a> from right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mike
Guyas Tohabellana\u2019s son Mike poses with his pet cockatoo, at home on the shore of Iron Bottom Sound, on Guadalcanal.<\/span> PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE HAGGERTY@COLORWORLD.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Arriving for a two-week trip in early 2019, we were lucky to be there before the corona virus became a pandemic and the country closed its borders. Two of just 25,000 annual tourists \u2014 fewer than on a single day at DisneyWorld \u2014 we seemed to be the only Americans there. But we did want to see some of Guadalcanal\u2019s famous battle sites, rusty tanks, long-buried artillery and the remains of downed airplanes. In 1942, when the first company of American Marines landed on Guadalcanal<\/a>, the local islanders joined the fight, supporting the troops as eyes on the ground. Allies then, American tourists still friends, invariably greeted with an exchange of names and a handshake. \u201cAmericans are always welcome,\u201d said manager Ellison Kyere, from the tourism office in Honiara, the capital city, when my partner Steve and I met him for lunch at the Lime Lounge Caf\u00e9. \u201cBut we want them to know that there\u2019s more to see here than battle sites and more to do than scuba dive for wrecks. We have mountains that have never been climbed, natural preserves, miles of beaches, lagoons, forests and rare birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Langalanga
A Langalanga family, Margaret, Ester, Julie and their mother, from Malaita Island, north of Guadalcanal, laugh at their little brother\u2019s silly joke. Members of a group who make \u201cshell money\u201d (beads from shells), they sell it in strands and as jewelry in the Honiara main market. Ten strands, each ten feet long, are the price of a bride, valued at about $250 U.S. dollars.<\/span> PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE HAGGERTY@COLORWORLD.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Planning a trip beyond Honiara is a tall order in this South Pacific nation, 2039 miles northeast of Australia<\/a>. With 922 islands, three-fifths of them uninhabited, it\u2019s a hodge-podge of many cultures, dozens of traditions and 78 different languages. The website is a good place to start, at\u00a0 www.visitsolomons.com.sb<\/a>. But there\u2019s no hurry. With no covid19 cases reported as of July 1, 2020, the borders are closed and international flights are cancelled.<\/p>\n

\"locals
Local markets bring friends together, to share news and to shop for home-grown fruits and vegetables. Also sold \u2014 not given away \u2014 are piles of second-hand dresses and shirts, baby clothes, blankets and fabrics, items donated in churches in the U.S. and other first world nations. Shipped to related churches overseas, they end up in rural communities.<\/span> PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE HAGGERTY@COLORWORLD.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When it comes to picking a flight, Fiji Airways\u2019 non-stop, overnight flights from Los Angeles are our first choice. The airline\u2019s gleaming new plane \u2014 an Airbus A350-XWB \u2014 has private beds in the front and big seats in the rear, with an overnight flight that lets you sleep. We arrived early enough for a second breakfast in Fiji\u2019s Nadi airport and plenty of time to board the Solomon Airlines three-hour flight to Honiara. On arrival, I took advantage of the \u201ctourist special,\u201d \u00a0a SIM card good for 75 minutes, priced at U.S. $1.30. The rest of the day we spent in the Heritage Park Hotel garden and pool, and booked a tour for the next day.<\/p>\n

\"twilight
A scene found almost every evening and on most islands: Layers of pink clouds fading into a purple twilight.<\/span> PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE HAGGERTY@COLORWORLD.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were still jetlagged when Andrew pulled up the next morning, driving a two-year-old, shiny black SUV. I was impressed but he apologized. \u201cAll our cars are Japanese and they\u2019re all second-hand. We never get new ones,\u201d he said. \u201cNever. And see this? The Japanese are building the overpass and paving the street and it\u2019s taking forever,\u201d he added, as we inched past grimy storefronts and vegetable stands overflowing with greens, tomatoes and squash. \u201cThat new one, where everybody shops, is owned by a Chinese company,\u201d he said, nodding at a big-box department store, the kind China builds in every willing mineral-rich third-world country. We\u2019ve seen these \u201cgifts\u201d before. They are there to smooth the way for future highway and mining contracts.<\/p>\n

\"overgrown
The foxholes in Bloody Ridge, one of the grassy hills above Honiara, a rude exception in this pastoral setting, are a reminder that 40 American Marines died here in 1942, defeating the attacking Japanese.<\/span> PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE HAGGERTY@COLORWORLD.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mortified, I looked for something I could brag on \u2014 an American-built hospital or a college \u2014 but Andrew had already turned toward the American Memorial Garden, the cemetery and then to Bonegi Beach to see a rusty tank. Then we headed to up the hills to Bloody Ridge<\/a>, where Andrew parked, leaving a few minutes to walk past the row of overgrown foxholes and imagine \u00a0the deafening noise and chaos as the Japanese rushed up from below and were beaten back. I wondered who they were, the 40 U.S. Marines who died here.<\/p>\n

\"100-foot-long
The 100-foot-long pier at Fat Boys Resort connects the Lodge, built on stilts over deep water, with a half-dozen visitor bungalows on shore. The lodge location \u2014 the bar, dining room, lounge and kitchen \u2014 protects the shoreline\u2019s shallow-water coral and provides a boat dock.<\/span> PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE HAGGERTY@COLORWORLD.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After touring Guadalcanal, we flew we flew north to a one-room water-side airport on Gizo, on Ghizo Island and then to Munda, on New Georgia, in the Western Province. The gateway to pristine rain forests, volcanic mountains, blue lagoons and sandy beaches, the Western Province was made for adventurers. Meeting our driver and a Fat Boys motor boat, we hopped aboard and in minutes we were speeding away over a clear blue lagoon to the dock.<\/p>\n

\"ready
The outer islands near Fat Boys Resort, a maze of scattered coral reefs, tiny islets and sandbars, are close enough for snorkeling, diving, fishing and beachcombing.<\/span> PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE HAGGERTY@COLORWORLD.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fat Boys Resort, our base camp for three nights, was located on a small island, in a group of smaller islets near easy-to-reach tour sites. The first was Kennedy Island (also called Plum Island), where Lieutenant John Kennedy and his PT-109 crew swam ashore after a Japanese vessel sank their torpedo boat. After a look around \u2014 and a quick swim \u2014 we headed away to another group of islets and sand bars, for a lobster barbecue and snorkeling. \u201cThe ocean is washing the island away,\u201d said Sam, the boat captain, as he stowed the ice chest and a grill under a shady tree. \u201cWhy do these trees, with half of their roots in salt water, seem to be dying,\u201d I\u2019d asked. \u201cPeople around here used to think they had a disease,\u201d he said. \u201cNow everybody knows why. It\u2019s global warming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"the
The dock at Gizo, population 6150, the largest town and commercial center in the Western Province, is busiest on Market Day, when sellers, buyers, families and fishermen come from nearby islands.<\/span> PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE HAGGERTY@COLORWORLD.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was party time the next day in Gizo, the main town on Ghizo Island, at the Friday market. Families in home-made dugout canoes docked at the waterfront, buyers crowded the aisles, coins changed hands, sellers hailed friends and old ladies filled their shopping bags. Everyone smiled, asking where we were from and offering to pose for photos. Ngali nuts \u2014 the holy grail of island snacks \u2014 were in season so I stocked up with a half-dozen packages in folded-leaves. Green taro leaves competed with slippery spinach (Malabar spinach), purple bananas, four or five kinds of potatoes, carrots and betel nuts, a popular and affordable substitute for coffee or cigarettes. \u201cWhat do they taste like?\u201d I asked an older man with red-rimmed eyes (the give-away), who offered me a seat in the shade. \u201cDo they make you feel relaxed?\u201d I ventured to ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, no, they give you energy!\u201d he said, smiling, showing me how to fold the nut and leaf together with a pinch of slaked lime (ash from burned clam shells). \u201cOne or two of these and I want<\/em> to get up and work all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flying on to Munda, famous for wreck diving, we checked into the Agnes Gateway Hotel on the waterfront, a group of rooms and spartan cottages advertised in scuba and backpacking magazines. Our cottage was beyond plain but it had a front porch with chairs, and hooks and a clothes line for bathing suits and diving gear. The restaurant and bar, conveniently adjacent to the check-in desk, served hearty, tasty affordable meals. Booking a boat tour out to Skull Island \u2014 the last stop for many a victim \u2014 now a popular tourist highlight \u2014 we joined captain Billy Kere, 40-ish and friendly, and as he introduced himself, a \u201cdescendant of the Roviana headhunter clan.\u201d Once past the coral, Kere cranked up the speed and we roared out over the deep water for\u00a045 minutes, the bow pounding the waves until we reached the island, a small pile of slippery rocks and sharp coral (wear tennis shoes). The skulls inside this gloomy cavern were piled high on every side, with more on a small altar, near a cement plaque where \u2014 where it is said \u2014 the headhunters buried a well-intentioned but unlucky Christian minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry, the headhunters are gone,\u201d said Billy, chuckling. \u201cNowadays it\u2019s all about love. But not then. If you sinned, your head came off.\u201d Heading out, we docked at Lubaria Island, a public park and the PT-boat base where Lieutenant Kennedy and his crew were stationed during the war. The barracks and a new modern bathroom were open and several rusty artillery pieces remained, half-hidden in the bushes, facing out to sea. But a new monument stood in the center, guarded by Ata, the park\u2019s ancient keeper, who lives in a tent near the pier. Hustling over to us, he produced a carved wood bust of the youthful Kennedy which belongs on the monument but which he hides at night. \u201cIt\u2019s been stolen and recovered twice,\u201d he said, as we snapped photos.<\/p>\n

\"bungalows
South Pacific chic reflect the mood at classic bungalows, in the shade at Tavanipupu Resort and Spa, southeast of Guadalcanal.<\/span> PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE HAGGERTY@COLORWORLD.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the trip wound down, we headed for Tavanipupu Island Resort and Spa, one of the Solomons\u2019 few five-star properties. Installed in the same palm-shaded bungalow where England\u2019s Will and Kate overnighted on a previous world tour, we reveled in the screened windows, four-poster bed, indoor and outdoor showers, two sinks and a covered porch, a perfect place to watch the sunset. We swam off the dock in water so clear we could see 20 feet down, canoed (with a guide) over acres of healthy coral, sampled the chef\u2019s summer menu, climbed the hill for a view and walked around the perimeter, an easy 45-minute stroll.<\/p>\n

\"Tavanipupu
Melania, on the staff at Tavanipupu Resort and Spa, off the southeast corner of Guadalcanal, takes 15 minutes from her work day to make a gift basket for a guest, woven from narrow strips of sego palm.<\/span> PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE HAGGERTY@COLORWORLD.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On our own to explore, we met some of the local islanders, a chance to learn more about everyday life on an outlying island: Finding fresh water, doing laundry, picking coconuts, planting vegetables, making canoes, uses of native trees, the names of other islands, and favorite foods. When I asked who made the woven baskets in our room, I was introduced to Melania who paddles to work from her home on an adjacent island. Finding her in the laundry, an open-air platform behind the lodge, furnished with soap and water, outdoor tubs and an improvised washboard, she put the washing aside for 15 minutes to show me how to split and strip the leaves from sego palms, then weave them together. Before we left, the manager joined us for dinner, and asked what we thought what most Americans liked to do, besides swimming and sunning. We suggested a couple of inexpensive and low maintenance games: croquet, tether ball and the corn-hole toss. To my surprise, he\u2019d never heard of any of them, hence a comic evening enlivened by charades.<\/p>\n

At last, with two weeks gone and our trip at an end, we boarded a Twin Otter \u2014 lifting off a grassy field \u2014 for the flight back to Honiara. Soaring over islands, bays, coral reefs, mountains, rain forests, volcanoes, winding rivers, broad estuaries and waterfalls \u2014 I realized how much we\u2019d missed. The Solomon Islands, unspoiled and spectacular, is one of the world\u2019s last untamed destinations. The roads need work, but those ghastly potholes might be just what\u2019s keeping the uncurious away. Potholes or not, we\u2019re going back.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u00a9Anne Z. Cooke, The Syndicator 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If it weren\u2019t for the potholes, thousands of gaping pits bouncing us on the back seat, I wouldn\u2019t have missed the sign on the tree. But Andrew, our guide on Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands, knew everybody. \u201cThat\u2019s Dolphin View Cottage and there\u2019s the owner,\u201d he said, waving at a stocky, dark-skinned man in rumpled shorts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":18553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[3946,3947,3948,3944,3942,3941,3943,3949,3950,3939,3940,3945,3951,247],"class_list":["post-18545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-travel","tag-bloody-ridge","tag-fat-boys-resort","tag-ghizo-island","tag-gizo","tag-guadalcanal","tag-honiara","tag-islands","tag-john-f-kennedy","tag-munda","tag-solomon-islands","tag-solomons","tag-south-pacific","tag-tavanipupu-island-resort","tag-world-war-2"],"yoast_head":"\nUntamed: Adventures in the Solomon Islands \u2014 Traveling Boy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Solomon Islands, as unspoiled as it is spectacular and rarely visited by tourists, is one of the world\u2019s last untamed destinations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/untamed-islands-adventures-solomons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Untamed: Adventures in the Solomon Islands \u2014 Traveling Boy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Solomon Islands, as unspoiled as it is spectacular and rarely visited by tourists, is one of the world\u2019s last untamed destinations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/untamed-islands-adventures-solomons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Traveling Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-13T04:11:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-23T18:09:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Molas-at-Ghizo-Island.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Z. Cooke\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Z. Cooke\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/untamed-islands-adventures-solomons\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/untamed-islands-adventures-solomons\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anne Z. 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These range from city touring, museum-loitering, temple-climbing, horseback riding, spa-lingering and volcano-watching to mountain climbing, glacier-skiing, river rafting, backpacking and float-plane fishing. Her byline has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Westways, Backpacker, MotorHome, Travel 50 & Beyond, the Miami Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/author\/anne\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Untamed: Adventures in the Solomon Islands \u2014 Traveling Boy","description":"The Solomon Islands, as unspoiled as it is spectacular and rarely visited by tourists, is one of the world\u2019s last untamed destinations.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/untamed-islands-adventures-solomons\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Untamed: Adventures in the Solomon Islands \u2014 Traveling Boy","og_description":"The Solomon Islands, as unspoiled as it is spectacular and rarely visited by tourists, is one of the world\u2019s last untamed destinations.","og_url":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/untamed-islands-adventures-solomons\/","og_site_name":"Traveling Archive","article_published_time":"2020-07-13T04:11:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-09-23T18:09:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1240,"height":540,"url":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Molas-at-Ghizo-Island.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Z. 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These range from city touring, museum-loitering, temple-climbing, horseback riding, spa-lingering and volcano-watching to mountain climbing, glacier-skiing, river rafting, backpacking and float-plane fishing. 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