Tanna is in the southernmost island of Vanuatu (before Aneityum and Mystery Island) and very disconnected from the world.  Well, that was the case for most of Vanuatu other than Port Vila and Espiritu Santo, until now.

The coolest thing about the place is the volcano.  You can talk to islanders in the village near the yacht club in Port Resolution bay and they will take you up to the volcano.  Its around $20 USA.  If you have been to other active volcanoes (ie. Hawaii) this is not the same.  You basically ride in the back of an pickup truck up to the volcano, hike up the side of it and sit and watch.  Some other yachties had told us that last year (1999) a Chinese lady got hit with a rock that came out during a medium danger day.  She was impaled and died instantly.  So the locals told us it was a light activity day, which was accurate.  Anyhow, my friends and I hiked up to the top and are watching this thing spit up molten rocks about every 2-3 minutes then one of the big ones (every 15 mins) comes up and throws a rock about 50 feet from us (we are probably 200-300 meters from the center).  Before then we were just joking about the danger, but when that happens we all totally freak out and my friend Todd is running away.  Still later that evening I ran across the bowl of the crater with Matt.  Its just insane being out there.  If you are anywhere near you have to go.

These people there have a religion based on a GI from WWII named John Frum, as in John from America.  They think that sometime in the future this dude is going to return to the island with ships filled with treasure.