Welcome Vanuatu: the 199th Country to Visit PhilosFX

Beautiful Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu

Today we welcome Vanuatu, the 199th country with at least one visitor to PhilosFX!

The flag of Vanuatu was added to our Flag Counter today

Vanuatu is a South Pacific Ocean nation made up of roughly 80 islands that stretch 1,300 kilometers. The islands offer scuba diving at coral reefs, underwater caverns and wrecks such as the WWII-era troopship SS President Coolidge. Harborside Port Vila, the nation’s capital and economic center, is on the island of Efate. The city is home to the Vanuatu National Museum, which explores the nation’s Melanesian culture.

The island nation of Vanuatu is located in the South Pacific Ocean

Multiple waves of colonizers, each speaking a distinct language, migrated to the New Hebrides in the millennia preceding European exploration in the 18th century. This settlement pattern accounts for the complex linguistic diversity found on the archipelago to this day.

Sail from Fiji to Solomon Islands to New Caledonia and back to Fiji, and you will sail a triangle around Vanuatu

Vanuatu is a Y-shaped chain of islands. There are four main islands and 80 smaller ones. Several of the islands have active volcanoes and there are several underwater volcanoes as well.

The population of Vanuatu is 277,554 (July 2016 est.). The largest city, Port-Vila (capital), has about 53,000 (2014) inhabitants. Agriculture, fishing, and tourism are the main occupations.

I would love to go island-hopping in Vanuatu!

I do not know the identity of the first-time visitors to PhilosFX unless they identify themselves. But this time I do know who checked in from Vanuatu. I want to thank Berni for stopping by and adding the 199th flag to our Flag Counter! Danke sehr, Herr Gollin! 

More information about Vanuatu is available here.

And more information about the global reach of this blog is available here.

Which country will be number 200? And on what date will we hit 242? Stay tuned!