Lata is the provincial capital of

Temotu Province Temotu (or Te Motu, literally "the island" in Polynesian) is the easternmost province of Solomon Islands. The province was formerly known as Santa Cruz Islands Province. It consists, essentially, of two chains of islands which run parallel to ...

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

. As of 2007, it had 553 inhabitants. There are a few rest houses for overnight stays. There is a post office, telecom office and numerous stores. The town contains a small air strip with flights to

Makira The island of Makira (also known as San Cristobal and San Cristóbal) is the largest island of Makira-Ulawa Province in the Solomon Islands. It is third most populous island after Malaita and Guadalcanal, with a population of 55,126 as of 2020 ...

and

Honiara Honiara () is the capital and largest city of Solomon Islands, situated on the northwestern coast of Guadalcanal. , it had a population of 92,344 people. The city is served by Honiara International Airport and the seaport of Point Cruz, and lie ...

. Shipping service is irregular, but occasionally transport can be found to Honiara or the outer islands. Outboard canoe travel around the island of Nendo or to the

Reef Islands The Reef Islands are a loose collection of 16 islands in the northwestern part of the Solomon Islands province of Temotu. These islands have historically also been known by the names of Swallow Islands and Matema Islands. Geography The islan ...

is possible. Temotu Province's main hospital,

Lata Hospital Lata (Hindi: लता) is a Hindu/Sanskrit Indian female given name, which means "creeper" and "vine". Lata may refer to: Notable people named Lata *Lata Bhatt (born 1954), Indian singer. * Lata (born 1975), Musician. *Lata Mangeshkar (1929–2 ...

is situated in Lata town. The only fixed-wing service is by

Solomon Airlines Solomon Airlines is the national airline of Solomon Islands, based in Honiara. History Solomon Airlines was established in 1962 as a charter airline by Laurie Crowley. Crowley had a charter operation in Papua New Guinea with occasional chart ...

. The

Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), also known as Operation Helpem Fren, Operation Anode and Operation Rata (by New Zealand), was created in 2003 in response to a request for international aid by the Governor-General of ...

(RAMSI) used to provide its own helicopter flights fortnightly to Lata. During the ethnic tensions of 2003, there were no problems in Lata, mainly due to its being so far away from the capital, Honiara. Lata is serviced by one free to air analogue television channel broadcast in the VHF band on 175.25MHz providing a mix of sport and news content. The channel is provided by Telekom Television, wholly owned by Solomon Telekom one of two telecommunications providers in the Solomon Islands.

Climate

Lata has a

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate, humid tropical climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southea ...

(Af) with very heavy rainfall year-round.

References

* Populated places in Temotu Province {{Solomons-geo-stub