March 24, 2019 - Kitava, Papua New Guinea - Sunday, Day 77
Today we arrived at Kitava. This is a small island not far from Alotau. It is overcast and this is a tender port so we chose to have breakfast in the dining room before going ashore. This worked well because the tender line was very short when we left the ship. We were ashore in 15 minutes. And the rain had stopped.
There is a small island very close to Kitava. It is ringed by a reef. The water color was beautiful. The camera does not do it justice. Locals sell rides to the island for swimming and snorkeling. The captain had warned us not to try to swim across because the current could be up to 5 knots. The boats did a good business.
On the shore men, women and children had turned out to greet meet us. Some sold their wares. Others just gathered and visited. Several school groups performed to raise funds for their schools. They all had places under the trees well away from the sun.
We walked the long line of people a few times, but were only able to find a few things to buy. We had been told onboard that only Kina, the local currency would be accepted. In fact US dollars were freely taken. They would also accept Australian dollars, but then the vendors would try to find someone willing to buy them with Kinas at a very favorable rate.
We were content to stay under the shelter of the trees to avoid the sun. They even sheltered us when a gentle rain fell. People were very friendly and not at all pushy in selling their things. It was all very low key. After a few hours we returned to the ship feeling enriched by the experience and the beauty of this place.
We learned later that the home of all of these people was a village over the low mountain. It was very primitive with no running water. We regret that we did not make the trek over there.
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