"The plaque of ..." a Solomon Islands Travel Page by jorgejuansanchez

Solomon Islands constitute one of the most interesting and unknown countries in Oceania. Some years ago I spent two months in these islands and travelled always by boat, which is the most fascinating way to discover them, especially the journey between Honiara (the country capital, situated in the island of Guadalcanal) and Gizo island, considered one of the best maritime journeys in the whole Pacific Ocean, together with the one in north Tonga, around Vavau, and another one in the Rock Islands, south of Palau.
During the XVI and XVIII centuries Spanish navigators discovered around ninety per cent of the Oceania archipelagos, but when they got the independence, most changed their European names, except Marquesas Islands, Marianas, Carolines, and Solomon. This one was thus named because its discoverer, the Spanish explorer Don Alvaro de Mendana, believed that in these islands laid the gold that Solomon found to construct his temple in Jerusalem.
The islands that I loved most during my stay in the Solomon’s were:

- MALAITA is just in front of Guadalcanal There live some locals without connexion with the external world. Some of their inhabitants still observe a rite in which they worship sharks.

- SANTA ISABEL has a very interesting trekking across the island which will take you three days (at least this is the time which took me). The locals can do it in just a long day, from dawn to midnight.

- SAN JORGE has many legends related with the cargo cult beliefs and the locals will invite you to sleep in their huts for guests.

- SANTA CRUZ Islands, my favourite ones. If you visit this interesting archipelago and the rest of this area, such as Tikopia and Anuta, you will find yourself in a mysterious and fascinating world.

If you go or have been in Nendo Island, in Santa Cruz archipelago, please tell me if you saw or heard about a plaque dedicated to Don Alvaro de Mendana, written in Spanish language, in a village called Lata, just at the entrance of Nendo. The fact is that I put it in 1991, but never had any news about it, and I wonder whether it still exists (see the pictures).

I ordered this copper plaque in Honiara and took a boat to Santa Cruz archipelago arriving to Nendo island after two days and two nights.

I found this anchor which belonged to the Don Alvaro de Mendana ship SAN JERONIMO.