a nice beach. No restaurant, no bar, nothing. Sure someone is owning the land and you
have to pay a toll when you want to enter his property, absolute
understandable, but 20CHF every time and not even providing some drinks,
renting snorkel gear or so?
On Tanna Island, where you are also paying a toll at the entry of
the volcano, there is a discount. First time, full price, second half
the full, third half price again and after your third visit, it is for
free. Also all the money goes to the four villages who are owning the land
around the volcano, because they have from time to time heavy loss on
there harvest and buy for example rice from that money.
But back to Champagne Beach, spending 20CHF every time you want to go
to a nice Beach? And don't think about that this poor guy who is owning
the land is not able to build a restaurant or so, why should he? Did I
mention the Cruise-Ships which are landing also at that beach? $$$ I
don't know what the big cruise lines are paying for each landing boat,
but I'm pretty sure they will not pay less than 500Vt p.P! Also in
every travelguide you will find that beach listed or google for
something like "worlds best beaches", there is no need for the people to
discount anything or providing anything like a restaurant/bar or a snorkel
gear rental station, this will only generate more work and who likes to work
more when there is no need? By the way, reminds me a bit of Koh Tao in
Thailand, were the Thai's let people from Myanmar doing their work and pay
them half the price, but the contract is based on Thai ;)
Additional there are the transport costs and they also try to suck you
out. We did one tour, Blue Hole & Champagne Beach for 3500Vt p.P.. 500Vt
entry for the Blue Hole and 1000Vt for Champagne Beach, the rest is for
transport. Sounds NEARLY fair, even the transport coast are way much to
high for the distance, but this will not even change if you are doing the
tour with four people, instead of two. 8000Vt instead of 4000Vt for
transport, easy money. If you don't shop around so much, you can easily up
to 9000Vt p.p. for the same tour.
Can I take a picture of your dog, yes sure 1000Vt, 500Vt for the dog and
because the dog is standing on my land, additional 500Vt!
The thing that the landowner needs to get payed, is ok and it's the same
with the
Marine Reserve in Fiji. But if you are running a
place like Champagne Beach you should offer the tourist something. I talked
to someone who knows the owner very well. She said, he is
like a bullheaded guy who is not interested in "giving the tourist" something
for their money. He is more like, "here is your beach, what you want more?
No I don't want an answer, this was a rhetorical question!"
Enough said
The way how they play tourists like a sucker, really sucks and is leaving
a sour taste on our travel to Santo. But enough negative about Santo.
The Tropicana Hostel & Backpackers is probably the best value
you can get on Santo. Payed 4000Vt per Double Room and night. Big bed,
private shower and a big kitchen, which is open to all guests.
The Blue Hole and also Champagne Beach are both worth a visit. There
are three Blue Hole's which you can visit, but only one with heaps
of fish in it. And there are all the WWII wrecks around for which Santo
is well known by divers. As I mentioned above, except some snorkeling at
Million Dollar Point, I didn't had a chance to see anything down there,
very frustrating. Worst part of my journey till now.
It also seems that some of the land owners really love their environment
and try to protect it, after they noticed some slightly changes which happend.
For example there were Dougongs around some places in Santo again. They've been
there before, but disappeared after a lot of action in the reef, snorkelers,
divers, fisherman, spearfishers and some other water activities.
A couple of month after he banned everyone from the reef, more turtles
and also Dugongs visited the place again. Now he is only allowing one
person entering this area by boat and during this "Dugong Tour",
nobody is allowed to go into the water. Also a part of the money
for the trip is going directly to the owner as a compensation for the loss of
their income by fishing the reef. Good to know that there are some
locals with some vision.
