Incredible Water and a Friendly Sea Turtle

One of the amazing things about exploring around Easo was the color of the water.  As I headed back to the tender, walking on a pier, I couldn’t help but stop and just photograph the water looking down.  While doing this, a group of us happened to see a friendly little sea turtle coming by to say hi to the tourists!

Enjoy!

Low Church

Our walk in Easo culminated with arriving at what the villagers call the “low church”.  There was another church sitting high upon a bluff that was, of course, called the “high church”, but that walk (and climb!) was a bit too much in the very humid temps, so I was happy to visit this church instead.  Per a villager standing nearby, this is a Catholic church.  It doesn’t appear to be used, as it was a Sunday morning when we visited, and it was clearly not open for Mass.  But, it did seem to be cared for.

The church tower was very impressive for a not very large church.  Altho it was a pale grey in color, begin exposed to the elements over the years, aged it to a lovely patina.  The cornerstone above the front door indicated it was built in 1898, so I’m sure it’s faced its fair share of tropical storms, sunny days and wind.

The tower windows were impressive as well.  There were large stones which seemed to serve as the casing for the windows.  These were on the tower of the church, perhaps on the way up to ring the church bell when the church was still in use.

Here’s another view of the windows.  It seems to confirm my thought that the windows were more for air circulation in the tower than to look out of them.  Notice the way the sort of levers in the window are facing – downward.  One can’t see out of them very well, but they would let in light and air.

On the other side of the church was an old cemetery.  Many of the headstones seemed to be made from the same type of stone that built the church.  The cross sort of leaning into the headstone spoke of the age of the cemetery as well.

Enjoy!

A Walk Thru Easo

Our first stop in New Caledonia was at a small village on the island of Lifou, called Easo.  There was a small market there, and we walked thru that on our way to a road that led up thru the residential area of the village to an old church.  More about the church in another post, but this one will focus on all there was to see on the walk.

One of the first things we saw was this lovely, very lush, tropical garden.  It seemed like it may have been the village garden, but I didn’t see a sign that identified it as that.

We saw several blooms along the way.  Some seemed very much like those we saw on the other islands of the South Pacific…..

…with some worthy of a sort of watercolor sketch, just because they were so delicate.  Yet, they are hardy enough to just bloom along the side of the road!

Others were very different from what we’d seen.  One was a type of plant that grew from the exposed root of a tree, and the other had almost a bark as its stem.  Beautiful, but very different!

Another thing we saw during our walk, were huts like this.  I’m guessing that they are either used for ceremonies of some type, or are just left as a bit of a homage or memorial to those who came before.  There was always one doorway and then windows on all sides of the round hut.

Oh, my goodness!  I guess I wasn’t really surprised by the palm trees and lower bushes (after all, we were in the tropics!), but I did love the pattern that they always seemed to provide!

On another walkway (after seeing the church), we got to glimpse at the aquamarine waters of the bay.  There wasn’t really a place to swim, but the waters sure looked inviting!

And, as we walked on the dock back to our tender boat, we did catch a look of the other church, the “high church”, of the island.  The walk – actually, the climb – was a bit too much for me on a very humid day, but it was nice to see it from below!

Enjoy!