Duviara
Guesthouse is near the Duviara Conservation Area and at
the start of the northern route to the crater lakes. It's
a quiet place, cool and green
at 500 m elevation with cloud forest further up the mountain. Duviara is an excellent base for hiking and bird watching. Ask about Paul's swimming hole, it's about 5 minutes walk
from the guest house and ice cold. Go fishing for freshwater prawns. There is a taboo stone you may visit.
Tankyu tumas long Angela for updating us.
Costs
and Booking
Duviara Guesthouse is owned by Paul Vuhu. He teaches at Matevulu College on Santo (2009) and his sister, Emina Mweta,
looks after the place. Accommodation at Duviara costs 1000
Vatu per person, per night. Meals cost 200 or 250 Vatu per
plate. Local guides charge 2000 Vatu per day. You can hire tents for overnight visits to the lakes. All expenses
are payable in Vatu cash. Exchange
rates.
You can contact Emina on 5481890 (mobile) or you can contact Paul at his work on 36436 or 5347718 (mobile).
Accommodation
and Food
Duviara has one guesthouse built of local and modern materials
with three rooms and one garden bungalow with a double bed.
There's plenty of space and groups as large as eight people
have been accommodated before.
The bungalows are lockable
(you might bring a small padlock). There's no electricity.
Candles and kerosene lamps are used for lighting. Bring
a torch light. There are no mosquitos at Ambanga.
Duviara has a water supply connection and a new water tank. Paul has constructed a haos
blong swim (bucket showers) and a satisfactory toilet (pit latrine with seat). Bring your own bath towel, soap and toilet
paper.
Meals
at Duviara Guesthouse may include rice, aelan
taro, lap-lap
taro, kumala,
tin meat, chicken, freshwater prawns, bus
kabis and salad. Breakfasts are tea or instant coffee
with bread, gato
or pancakes. The water supply source is in the mountains,
it's clean and good to drink. If Paul is around there will
be kava.
Bring a raincoat or jacket and a warm top.
Transport
The dirt track from Lolosory
to Ambanga is not good and trucks may not be able to drive up after rain (40 minutes walk).
Duviara Guesthouse is 5 minutes walk past Ambanga. If you are walking, there's a shortcut road just west of the Lolopuepue Catholic
Mission but it's steeper.
It's
fairly straight-forward to walk down to Lolowai, mostly
along truck roads (about 3 hours). It's also possible to
walk this way to and from the airport (bypassing Lolowai) in
about 4 hours. Unfortunately, there's no easy shortcut to the
Longana airport.
First
surveyed: November 2004 by Stephen.
Last updated: 2009 by Angela.
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(3 Votes) 
