Duviara Guesthouse, Ambanga, Ambae Visitor Ratings

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 outside Ambanga village and cool and green at 500m elevation with cloud forest further up the mountain. It's an excellent base for hiking and bird watching. Also ask about Paul's swimming hole, it's about 5 minutes walk from the guest house.

Costs and Booking
Duviara Guesthouse is owned by Paul Vuhu. His sister, Mweta looks after the place. Accommodation at Duviara costs 1000 Vatu per person, per night. Meals cost 150 or 200 Vatu per plate. Local guides charge 1000 Vatu per day. All expenses are payable in Vatu cash. Exchange rates.

Paul Vuhu teaches at Saint Patrick's College, Vureas (Staff room 38368, Secretary 38378). Languages used are Bislama and English.

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.

Update, September 2005: Facilites have been upgraded. There's now a water supply connection. Paul has constructed a haos blong swim (bucket showers) and a new toilet (sit-down dry pit design). 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.

Services and Suggestions
Ambanga is near the bush and little developed. It has a medical aid post and one or two stores. The nearest telephone is down on the coast at Lolopuepue. At Ambanga you'll need a raincoat or jacket and a warm top.

Transport
The roads to Ambanga are not good. The road from Lolosory to Ambanga may not be motorable when wet (40 minutes walk). Duviara Guesthouse is 5 minutes walk past Ambanga. If 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/from the airport (bypassing Lolowai) in about 4 hours. Unfortunately there's no shortcut to the Longana airport.

See our Ambae page for map and truck transport information.

First surveyed: November 2004 by Stephen.
Last updated: September 2005 by Stephen.