We have been here now for three full days and have wandered around the local town, the town Kalibuhiri is like a sprawling village with no real center or square, just seems to go on and on. Again the locals were very friendly and were happy to try their best English words on us, we even had our photos taken on more than one occasion..

Whilst finding a place to eat near the harbour two young ladies rushed up to us who spoke very good english. They were the welcoming party for the sailing rally, they had been given some office furniture which had been put by the quay side to sit behind and a temporary dingy launch had been made with planks and barrels. They had been given two umbrellas to sit under which was nice, what they lack in facilities they make up with bundles of enthusiasm though.

More boats are starting to appear, the main celebrations start on the 13th with a welcome party and dinner. The timetable always seems to be a bit hit and miss with schedules being altered at the last minute without anybody knowing !! We had another outing with some other yachties outside the local area, we visited a couple of local villages high in the hillsides and went to a beautiful coral beach for snorkelling and lunch.

The first village let us go into their bamboo built homes, the ground floor was an open area for resting/cooking/socialising with the two upper floors, accessed by ladders, the sleeping areas for the whole family. The houses were very sturdy with a thatched roof and also very cool. There were two more ornate houses which had more carvings around the edges which were seperate from the local houses, these were used for ceremonial purposes and were kept in tip top condition, also out of bounds from the tourists.

There was the village elder who dressed up in the local warrior costume and posed for photos for everybody.