On arrival at the Hotel Santo, after a smooth flight from Brisbane, we left Ros and Cheryl to unpack while Don, Peter, Milton and Ros S headed across the road to check in at the Allan Power Dive Centre. After sighting our dive qualifications and signing the usual waver, we were on the list for the following morning bus pick-up from our hotel. I was really pleased to catch up with the most professional and friendly dive leaders in Santo; Garry, Tula, Alfred, Lionel and August.

While Ros and Cheryl sampled the delights of shopping in the Trade Stores of down town Santo, we divers began a week of awesome diving on the President Coolidge. Heading down the rope towards the bow on the first dive filled me with great satisfaction, the Coolidge (a massive 654.3 ft long) was just as I remembered her. Getting orientated again was comforting, the old girl hadn’t changed much, apart from obvious disintegration. Over the week we revisited the famous sights including: The Lady at 45 meters (true to the expected, Pete, Don and Milton kissed her lips but Ros kissed the horse’s ass), the Saloon, the Doctor’s Room, Beauty Shop, Galley, Hold One which was the shallowest dive at 30 meters (jeeps and truck), Hold Two at 35 meters (GMC trucks and anti aircraft gun), the Crows Nest now on the bottom, rows of toilets (not as many as there were 10 months ago), various guns and cannon, the engine room at 40 meters, control Room at 46 meters, medical supplies at 36 meters , the Swimming Pool at 55 meters with the barber’s shop above, the Promenade Deck and the once beautiful, but now silted, rusted and grey, Continental Lounge where a few remaining amazing ceiling lamps can still be seen. Artefacts like helmets, crockery, a typewriter, guns, bayonets and gas marks have been placed at points easily seen by divers.

However only Peter and Don braved the stern and reached a depth of over 65 meters and 73 meters at the tip of the props. This dive was led by our excellent dive master, Tula, who made sure the boys had enough air with extra tanks staged along the way for safety. Pete admitted experiencing narcosis and feeling a little uncomfortable, it’s not easy to pull out of a dive at that depth! However both Don and Pete remarked that the stern is an awesome sight and well worth the dive. Decompression stops for this dive were 5 minutes at 12 meters, 5 minutes at 9 meters 10 minutes at 6 meters and twenty minutes at 3 meters.

The decompression stops were far from boring though, especially the last, called the Coral Gardens where the Allan Power dive crew has placed beautiful hard and soft corals. Schools of fish swarm in snapping up the tit-bits distributed by the dive masters. I kept my eye on couple of huge hungry buffalo fish after experiencing a painful bite from one some years ago.

Million Dollar Point was on our list of things to do so we greatly enjoyed drifting over the huge waste of war litter at depths ranging from 10 to 25 meters. There are so many interesting vehicles and pieces of equipment jumbled on top of each other that it was quite a challenge to appreciate just what we were looking at. Was it; a bulldozer, a crane, a forklift, a bucket dredge, a piece of earth- moving or some road-building equipment? As well there are two small ships lying close to the wreckage. One of these, The El Retiro, sank while trying to salvage equipment from the dumpsite.

However it wasn’t all about great diving. Santo’s people, history, culture, casual attitude, natural beauty and climate make it a real "Tropical Paradise". It has a fantastic history, with the first (?) settlers arriving several thousand years ago. Luganville (the capital of Santo) is a mixture of old and new buildings with American built Quonset huts still in use alongside modern attempts at new hotels and resorts. The local people smile and greet visitors as they pass on the sidewalks and every day we heard local bands playing and singing somewhere.

We also visited beautiful Aore Island Resort, a water taxi ride across the channel from Luganville. Here thatched buildings, coconut palms and green grass verge onto white sandy beaches, which drop down to a delightful, reef full of amazing coral fish and other creatures. We spent a day touring through coconut plantations and visited Lonnoc Beach, where a low-cost, relaxed-atmosphere resort is very popular with overseas visitors; it boasts no power, crushed coral floors and thatched bungalows. From there we visited Golden Beach and snorkelled at the famous Champagne Beach followed by a quick sunbake on the tropical yellow sand. On our way back to Luganville, a scenic drive through tropical rain forests, more coconut plantations and cattle properties, we stopped at the old American "Fighter One" Airstrip and walked a short distance to enjoy a swim in the Blue Hole, a truly amazing crystal-clear, ming-blue fresh water pond about 20 meters deep.

I hope our enjoyable adventure gives you the desire to sample the delights of Santo and the President Coolidge for yourself. Would we go back? You betcha!!!

Ros Bowman, Ros Sharp, Cheryl Ross at Deco Lodge