Street View takes us a thousand miles off the coast of Australia, to the remote country of Vanuatu, an 80 small island archipelago, filled with lush jungle vegetation, pristine beaches with black sand, and nine volcanoes.
From today on Google Maps, you can "travel" to the edge of one of larger lava lakes in the world, on the island of Vanuatuan of Ambrym. This Street View collaborated with exresearchers Geoff Mackley and Chris Horsly, who went 400 meters into the active volcano's Marum Crater with Street View Trekker, collecting photos 360 degrees of the molten lava lake, which is about the size of two football courts.
Ambrym consists of 39 square miles of desert volcanic caldera that hosts two active volcanic cones called Benbow and Marum. But the tropical island is also home to more than 7.000 people living in the tropical forest under the mountain. While the volcano has played an important role in defining their history due to unpredictable explosions and has an impact on agriculture and the environment, its inhabitants have learned to live in harmony with this beautiful but deadly natural phenomenon.
Moses, a leader in the local village of Endu, explains, “We believe the Marum and Benbow volcanoes are devils. If you go to a volcano you have to be very careful because the two volcanoes could get angry at any time. We believe that Benbow is the husband and Marum is the wife. "Sometimes, when they do not agree, there is an explosion which means that their spirit is angry and that is why we sacrifice a pig to the volcano."
As part of the route to Google Maps, Captain Moses invites you to take a stroll through his village and hopes to inspire you to visit this holy place he calls home. After cyclone Pam a few years ago, the country has rebuilt its infrastructure. Now Moses and his village are ready to welcome visitors back to Vanuatu, to taste its stunning beauty and learn about its cultural traditions of.