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The only downfall was that we left for Fiji just 8 days after Quita got out of quarantine. Luckly we've made some friends with dogs and they offered to puppersit so we knew she was in good hands! Bree emailed me this picture saying Quita "barely even growls" at her new friends! Naughty pup!
We took a red eye flight to Nadi, but it was only 3 hours long so it didn't allow enough time to rest!
The timeshare is on Denarau island, which is an upscale tourist area just outside Nadi town with several large resorts. It was wonderful - here's the living/dining area.
Bedroom with fresh flowers to greet us!
The grounds were gorgeous - there were all kinds of mini colorful shrubs pruned to perfection, and every unit has a garden view!
I took a little nap while Sev snapped away! What a good photographer!
Our first stop was the restaurant for some breakfast - which just happened to be on the far side of the pool!
Waiting for our breakfast at the poolside restaurant.
After we ate and got settled we were too tired to do anything but lounge by the pool! As you can see the beaches in Denarau aren't very nice - actually the island used to be a swamp before the resorts took over!
Working on a base tan!
In the afternoon the wind seemed to be picking up so Sev broke out his kite while all of the resort staff stood around and watched in fascination!
I rented a kayak and planned to act as his lifeguard if he got into trouble out there! Not that I would have been much help...
I paddled around in the water while Sev flew his kite for a while - and it was fun!
In the end, the kite didn't stay in the sky because there wasn't enough wind and after a few launches we called it a day!
That evening, there was a Meke at the hotel, which is a display of traditional Fijian dance with dinner.
The food was traditional Fijian, and would have been pretty good except that it was cold. Fijians eat a lot of seafood, pork, and root vegetables. Usually the fish is cooked in a coconut cream sauce and the root vegetables are just boiled. They cook pork in a Lovo for special occasions, which is a hot stone oven underground like how it's done in Hawaii.
Sev tried the local Fiji beer.
And I thoroughly enjoyed the dessert items - all of which contained coconut! The mini coconut pie was my favorite!
The dancing performances were a bit cheesy in general, but these guys were awesome and brought a little boy up from the audience to dance with them. They wore grass skirts and enacted traditional Fijian stories through dance.
Fiji consists of over 300 islands, and only 1.5% of Fiji's area is land - the rest is ocean! Needless to say there were many opportunities to check out the islands. The next day we took a sailing tour of the Mamanuca island group on the Seaspray sailboat. We took the second catamaran in this picture to Mana Island, where we transferred to Seaspray.
Port Denarau has some impressive boats!
Sev brought his kite and board but there wasn't much wind!
The catamaran stopped at several small islands to pick up or drop off passengers on the way to Mana Island. This is South Sea Island, which is only about a 20 minute boat ride from Denarau and very popular for day trippers.
The catamaran stopped off shore and a smaller boat would come to pick up and drop off people at each island.
We found that Japanese people take it very seriously when you ask them to take your picture - the guy who took this snapshot had a mini photoshoot with us on the boat, then he and his friend wanted pictures with us!
Another island - I can't remember which one it is though!
We arrived to Mana island and transferred to Seaspray! Sev was disappointed that we didn't sail at all but putted around with the engine all day!
Some boats off the coast of Mana.
Once we got settled on Seaspray they popped a bottle of champagne and the vacation officially started!
"Sailing" through the Mamanucas! While our guide was welcoming us, we spotted a sea turtle coming up to the surface!
The guide said the Seaspray was built in 1929 in Scotland! And we learned that there's a TV show about it - now we have to watch it!
As you can see, the views were incredible and we took lots of pictures!
Within a few minutes we saw 3 dolphins swimming alongside the boat, jumping and playing around!
We went to the front of the boat and were standing right over them! This is the closest I've been to a wild dolphin and it was unbelievable how fast they swam so effortlessly!
They even swam on their side so they could stare back at us! It was amazing!
We had live entertainment all day. It felt like a dream come true!
Our first stop was Monuriki Island - the place where the movie Castaway was filmed!
The island is uninhabited and had two gorgeous beaches right across from each other.
Sev jumped right out of the boat and started snorkeling as soon as we arrived!
Coming up for a breather!
I wanted to see the beach where Tom Hanks actually lived in Castaway - this is it - and tried to snorkel there but it was so shallow we decided to go back to the first beach.
As you can see, I can't contain my excitement! There was a ton of different colored coral, hundreds of tiny fish an inch long in huge schools, and lots of bright purple and yellow fish.
After snorkeling for a while and a delicious barbeque lunch on the boat, we went to another island for a village visit.
This is the school library in the village.
The village school - we heard kids singing in classrooms but didn't see them.
These little kids were yelling "Bula!" from their house. Bula means hello in Fijian. Everyone in Fiji was very friendly and seemed fascinated by us.
They gave us lemon leaves to rub in our hands to smell good.
The houses in the village were simple cinder block homes.
They welcomed us with a kava ceremony at the hall. Kava is the national drink of Fiji and is made from the root of a type of pepper tree. It has sedative and anesthetic properties, and in Fiji they say it relaxes you.
It does taste a bit spicy and makes your mouth numb but doesn't have a very strong taste or effect. I loved the woven mats we sat on in the hall - they're very comfy!
Of course we met the cutest residents of the village!
And they were very friendly and surprisingly clean!
After the village visit, we "sailed" a bit more through the Mamanucas then made our way back to Mana Island to catch the catamaran back to Denarau.
We had a beautiful sunset on the catamaran!
After our experience at the hotel restaurant, we decided not to go back. So we went to the Sheraton hotel restaurant for dinner that night. It had sand floors, was on the beachfront, and had delicious food!
We took advantage of the kitchen in our hotel and ate breakfast on the patio each day.
These little birds pranced around and showed off their extensive range of songs every morning while we ate breakfast. They even ate our food if we left it on the table!
Day 3 was quite cloudy and even rained a few times but we still went on a jet ski tour!
It was such a touristy thing to do (and very bad for the environment), but it was so much fun! We saw several bright purple jellyfish in the water from the jet ski.
Self portrait while stopped getting a tour of the islands from the guide.
We went to Beachcomber Island and snorkeled. It was a cool day and was warmer in the water than it was outside, and the snorkeling was incredible! We saw all kinds of different colored fish, a sea cucumber, some squid, and some amazing coral with neon purple tips. At one point I got scared and decided I needed a break, so I started to sprint towards shore, but it kept getting deeper. I put my head above water and realized that I was swimming into the ocean! Sev said he thought I was trying to swim to the next island over! Now I see how scuba divers get lost!
There's only one hotel on Beachcomber Island, and this is it. Beachcomber is known as a party island. There didn't seem to be many people staying there but the ones that were there were definitely the young crowd!
We sat in the cafeteria and tried to warm up after our snorkel!
All of the common areas had sand floors, and there was a reggae band playing. The chalk board here says that happy hour starts at noon!
Even the bar tables are covered in sand! I would have had all kinds of fun here in college!
After a very weird hot dog lunch (it was packed with cheese, veggies, and other odd toppings) we got back on our jet skis and headed back to Denarau.
I drove out to Beachcomber so Sev got to drive back.
Back at the hotel we had some drinks and relaxed at the pool.
Sev read his email while I studied up on Fiji! I've decided next time I go snorkeling I need to learn the types of fish so I know what I'm looking at down there!
That evening we took the Bula Bus to Port Denarau for dinner. The Bula Bus is a tourist bus that loops around Denarau and passes by all the hotels every few minutes. It has lights and a thatched roof on it!
We decided to have a few drinks since we had already gotten started at the hotel and we didn't have any early morning plans for the next day. It wasn't until halfway through that we realized our carafe of wine was actually more than a bottle!
I had read, and we had heard, that the Italian restaurant at the port was good. We were definitely skeptical of Italian food all the way in Fiji but it ended up being delicious! It was a creative interpretation of Italian, though, as there was a lot of cumin in Sev's ravioli sauce!
It rained while we were eating dinner and right after the rain stopped it was like a pilgrimage of toads hopping under this table!
I like how this one looks like it's sticking its neck out. Our server told us that they go there because it's near the lamp post and that's where the bugs are to eat!
The next day we took the bus into Nadi town (pronounced Nawndee). We learned that the average Fijian lives in a different world from the tourists just a few kilometers away on Denarau.
We found the market, which includes a whole section of kava. These are waka roots, which are pounded into a powder and filtered like tea to make kava.
There is a fish section which is very fragrant and not air conditioned. Neither of us wanted to venture inside!
The fruit and vegetables are organized into little piles and very inexpensive.
This is taro root, a common vegetable. It has a bluish grey color when cooked and almost a bread-like consistency.
This little guy was practicing his knife skills on a cassava root.
Cassava is called yuca in Spanish speaking countries and it took me a few days of saying "this tastes exactly like yuca" to realize that it's the same thing!
We met this guy at the market and he took us to his souvenir shop. It seemed a bit scary when he was leading us down an alley and to an upstairs shop where they made us drink kava (I read that you should never refuse kava when offered). As usual, I was too fascinated by the whole thing to leave! Plus there were a few important signs of legitimacy - like him showing us how he soaks the wood in mangrove mud to turn it black before they carve it into souvenirs.
Kava welcoming at the souvenir shop.
Sev was the chief because he was the oldest of all the tourists taking part, so he got to drink kava first. They wouldn't let us get up and shop until the ceremony was over!
Fijian warriors used to be cannibals and there were various tools they used to kill and eat their opponents. This is a club used to break someone's neck.
This is a shot of the main street in Nadi. It's not a very big town and looks a lot like towns in Central American to me. So many things about Fiji reminded me of my time living in Costa Rica!
I had read about the large Indian population in Fiji, and it was apparent in Nadi that Fiji is a very diverse place with many people from India as well as China.
The next day we hopped on the Yasawa Flyer to head out to Waya Island!
The Yasawa Flyer goes through the Yasawa group of islands and back to Denarau each day - the whole trip takes 10 hours!
We admired the boats in the port on our way out of town again.
This is one of the islands we stopped at to drop people off.
The islands in the Yasawas are very dramatic looking.
Some were green like this and some were more brown.
You can't tell in the picture, but it was a very bumpy ride and I nearly lost my breakfast!
The water was so rough that we couldn't be dropped off at Octopus Resort, our destination. These are our scared faces!
Instead, they dropped us on the other side of the island and we hiked over a hill to the resort where we would spend the day. This side of the island has a village where the people live who run and work at the resort. It looks like the guy in the picture was harvesting some crops or something.
We walked past the village cemetery - all of the cemeteries I saw were like this with people buried in concrete.
It was a nice hike up a hill.
And we had some unexpected views of the island and ocean!
Luckily we were only coming for the day - some people were going for 2 weeks and had a lot of luggage! Most of it was brought in a boat to the other side, though.
There are about 20 islands in the Yasawa group.
The hike wasn't difficult, but it was very humid that day and we were a bit sweaty by the time we arrived!
We were instructed to sit on the porch and enjoy ourselves for a few minutes while everyone got organized. I found it funny how Fijians always had to tell us when it was time to relax!
We got welcome drinks!
Then made our way to the pool. Unfortunately, the sea was too rough to swim or snorkel that day.
I drank my juice and tried to get over my sea-sickness...
And we sunbathed for a while on the pool lounges.
Sev practiced his acrobatics in the pool. This was the beginning of a handstand.
At lunch, I ordered the traditional Fijian dish of the day, which ended up being ceviche in coconut cream sauce. It was incredible!
I loved my lunch! Sev had beer battered fish and chips and it was the best fish and chips we had in Fiji!
In the afternoon the sea calmed down and the tide starting going out but they still wouldn't let us snorkel so we walked to the end of the beach checking out the beach bures (a bure is a Fijian house with a thatched roof).
The beachfront bures had private beach areas, hammocks, and lounges. I would love to come back and stay at Octopus Resort!
There were hundreds of hermit crabs on the beach, most of which hid as soon as they saw us coming! This brave one let me take a picture of it!
These are all hermit crabs and washed up coral!
Sev brought his football.
So we played a little catch.
And just hung out, wishing we could snorkel!
The wind picked up later in the afternoon, but it was low tide and there was a lot of coral so Sev went to see if it would be safe to kite board and decided against it.
On our hike back to the boat pick up area, we came upon a mom pig and her 3 babies! The mom was bathing in the mud when we came. They were so cute!
We waited on this beach for a few minutes.
Until our bright yellow chariot came to get us!
This little guy was helping out on the shuttle boat that brought us to the Yasawa Flyer!
We saw an impressive yacht anchored just off the coast of Beachcomber Island on the way home!
And some pretty colors in the clouds during sunset!
We ate dinner at an Asian restaurant as soon as we got to port. Sev ordered his favorite type of sweet, fruity drink with it!
And I have my favorite food - noodles! All the food at this restaurant was wonderful!
The next day we took a hiking trip to Koroyanitu National Heritage Park. The road was so bumpy that we couldn't get a clear picture!
We were going to rent a car and drive ourselves to the hike, but there were no cars available. We were doubting the warnings that 4 wheel drive would be required to get to the park and even considered renting a 2 wheel drive car - thank goodness we didn't do that! We are taking a break here with George, the tour organizer. The couple behind us was starting a 3 day hiking tour of the park at this time!
The visitor center at Abarca (pronounced Ambartha) village. Our guide, Ste, was an 18 year old who had grown up in Abarca. He told us that Abarca are the first 3 letters of the Fijian alphabet.
Flexing our muscles to begin our journey.
The Koroyanitu Park is federally owned but the 6 villages inside the park maintain the grounds and farm the land. This is a cabbage plot. Ste told us he likes to farm and play rugby for fun. The land is plowed by the village ox!
There were many pine trees at the beginning of our hike - doesn't this look like central Oregon?
This is Castle Rock - the couple in the picture before were going to hike to the top of it and spend the night.
Like all good tourists we took pictures of each other taking pictures.
Sev decided to lead the way, which at times proved challenging because we couldn't make out a trail. The plants on the right side of the trail are Cassava plants, and this is where they are farmed by Ste's grandfather. He said his grandfather comes up here every day to take care of them.
A banana tree that only produces flowers.
Me trying to find the trail! There were many times in which we couldn't see the ground, but Ste assured me that there were no snakes here!
This is a tree that looks like thousands of roots out of the ground! It was incredible!
The same tree again. It was huge!
I'm using hands and feet to get up the trail at this point! The hike was a pretty good workout, but the hardest part was just getting through the plants and trees!
The lower waterfall on Castle Rock. There was a huge flood in Fiji in March and Ste explained to us that this whole area was under water at that time!
That island in the distance is Waya Island, where we had gone the day before!
The trees behind us are where we started hiking - we basically made a large circle around the park. On this side of the park there are fruit trees and grass for horses to eat.
Admiring the view of the plains and Yasawa Islands.
The waterfall seen here is above the one that we hiked to.
On our way back down we swam in a pool from the waterfalls. It was one of my favorite things in Fiji! Both of us thought that it reminded us of growing up swimming in rivers at home, except this water was a lot warmer!
I wish we had a waterproof camera because the view was so beautiful inside the pool with the water flowing from a river on one end and overflowing over the rocks on the other end. I didn't want to leave, but we started to get cold!
We went back to Abarca village where we had a homemade lunch at Ste's house and reunited with the couple we had met earlier. Our lunch consisted of sausages over noodles, rice, fish in coconut sauce, and boiled cassava. It tasted so good after our hike!
Another villager came to eat with us and had wild pig that someone had killed the day before. We tried it and it was extremely greasy and gristly, although the man told us there was not fat on the wild pigs! This is also where we tried taro root.
Then we walked around the village until George came to pick us up. This is a traditional Fijian house with woven walls.
There were only about 15 homes in the village and none of them appeared to have electricity or running water.
The village square and church. The village is Methodist. There is a very strong missionary influence in all of Fiji. There are different traditional Fijian instruments in the hut next to the church.
Sev tried to pet the chicken and her chicks that were running around. All of the villagers were very friendly and came out to say hello to us.
On the way back to Denarau, George took us to his house to have some coffee.
When we got back to the hotel, the daily welcome crew was out to welcome the arriving guests.
We spent the evening relaxing in the hot tub!
On our last day in Fiji, we rented a car to go to Nananu-I-Ra Island, which is the main kiteboarding spot in Fiji, so that Sev could try his new sport.
We had to drive from Denarau to Ellington Wharf, then catch a boat to Nananu-I-Ra. It's only a 98 mile trip, but it took 3 hours to get there because the roads are riddled with potholes and not paved in many areas.
We got a wonderful view of the countryside and village life while passing through.
Sugar Cane is one of Fiji's main exports, and the week after we left Fiji was the sugar cane harvest time. We saw endless fields of sugar cane on the way to Ellington Wharf.
The villagers lived up to their reputation as friendly - everyone we passed dropped what they were doing to wave at us!
We had some gorgeous views of the ocean and islands. You can tell it's dry season since many of the plants are brown in the pictures.
At Ellington Wharf, we met a tiny puppy who played with Sev and tried to suck on his fingers!
It's a good thing we arranged for a boat to pick us up in advance, because this is what Ellington Wharf consists of!
Nananu-I-Ra was gorgeous, though the beach was slim!
There were a few kite boarders and wind surfers when we got there.
We went to Safari Lodge, which is a kiteboard/surf/windsurf resort, and they took us on a boat to another island where Sev kite boarded all afternoon.
I worked on my tan for a while and made friends with the island pup. He was very friendly and even laid on my towel with me!
Sev was a bit nervous about kite boarding since he's still a beginner and doesn't know the waters around there, but the folks at Safari Lodge helped him!
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