BULA!!!

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I tried to think of a more clever title and I actually came up with one but then I forgot it. And anyway, what could possibly be more appropriate? Here in Fiji, bula is the standard greeting. It means welcome in Fijian. It is written all over everything and everyone says it to you. Seriously everyone is saying bula to you all the time, from hosts of your hotel to the guy on the street trying get you in his taxi, everyone everywhere all the time bula. Of course there is a lot more to Fiji than that. There's white sand beachs, palm trees, crystal clear warm calm water, beautiful coral, hundreds of different fishes (fishes is correct in this context, look it up), great weather and oh you can't forget about hammocks. Yes yes there is the whole cultural side too. All the natives here speak Fijian and there are traditional villiages throughout the 330 islands that make up Fiji. (Mel Gibson owns a pretty decent sized one that he bought for 38 million. Good deal if you ask me) Unfortunalty Beth and I never made it to any of these villages. We only had seven days here, two of which are travel days, and with this last full day spent on the internet and doing a little purusing of downtown Nadi we just didn't get around to it. We did however find enough time to sit around and do nothing on pristine beaches out on the Yasawa islands for four days. After our time in the Galapagos it was nice to finally get to just stop and breath and recharge before we head to New Zealand for what is going to be a crazy whirlwind tour but I am getting ahead of myself. Back to the beginning.

We woke up in our very nice hostel room in Quito on the morning of Nov. 6. The hostel by the way is Hostel Posada de la Maple and Beth and I strongly recommend it to anyone going to Quito. The lady who runs it is super nice. She talks super fast so I barely ever knew what she was saying but she was super nice. After an amazing display idiocy by multiple members of the airport staff we boarded our plane out of South America. That only took about 2 hours and not because it was crowded. Really, they were just super slow. So four hour flight to Miami. Three hour layover in Miami during which we had to go through security again. That also took forever for no apparent reason. The longest hold up was when an employee couldn't get through the metal detector without beeping. After removing all 100 metal bracelets, from each arm, her badge, her belt and various other items and three attempts she finally realized she had a cellphone in her pocket. Some people eh? Before I could go through the metal detector I was routed through a new security machine. It looks like a metal detector except a little deeper and glass doors blocking the exit. You step in and then are assaulted by jets of air. They are actually pretty weak and quick but they come from all angles. It is like when you are on the Indiana Jones ride a Disneyland and they have the fake blowdart section. For all you non-season pass holders I hope you can imagine what I am talking about. Anyway, after the air jets you sit there, or stand as it were, for a few seconds and then a few more seconds and then just as you start wondering if the secret police are creeping up behind you the doors open and you can then proceed thru the metal detector. I love flying. Then there was the 5 and a half hour flight to LA. Three hour layover there where my mom and Beth's parents came and met up with us. It was really nice to see them even if only for a few minutes. And just like that we were off again on the 10 and a half hour flight to Nadi (pronounced Nandi) Fiji.

We arrived in Fiji at 4:55 am on Wednesday the 8th and were picked up by some representatives of the Tropic of Capricorn hostel. I booked this hostel at the suggestion of one Noah Pomeroy and within five minutes of arriving I knew we were at the right place. If you're going to Fiji you gotta go to Mama. When you get to the hostel you are immediatly greeting by the very loving if not also a little bit strange, Fijian woman who runs the place and goes by Mama. She comes up, gives you a big hug and welcomes you home. Shortly after we got there our room was ready and we were served breakfast. Then we went for a walk along the beach. The hostel is of course, on the beach. I wouldn't have it any other way. This is where this first picture came from. It was absolutely incredible how calm the water was and so warm and clear.

When we came back to the hostel, the woman Mama employs to handle inter island travel was there. After a little discussion we booked a sailboat (far bigger than our Galapagos one) out to the Yasawa island chain. It is out on these islands that all those pictures for posters are taken. We were booked for two nights at Barefoot Island and then after that we were to play it by ear. Barefoot is the only resort on the island and has a maximum capacity of 40 people. When we were there the number of guest never exceeded 14. Our bure (little hut with a double bed or two twin beds pushed together) was about five steps off the beach and about ten feet off the shore the coral reef started. It was unreal. That night after dinner we had our first kava ceremony. Now for the uninitiated, if you haven't had kava, you haven't been to Fiji. It is the traditional drink of the native people. It is made from a root which they dry for days and then crush in a metal mortar. They then put the stuff into a rag that basically looks like a bandana. They then proceed to repeatedly wet and wring out this cloth into a bowl of water. The water takes on the color of dirty dish water and frankly doesn't taste much better either. You do some clapping and say BULA! when offered your cup which you immediatly gulp down. That is followed by a numb tounge and apparently after enough cups you just fall asleep. We never drank very much but the workers had a ceremony every night and drank until they could barely keep their eyes open. Keep in mind that kava doesn't make you drunk. No one gets loud and reckless when they drink too much. As far as I can tell it just makes you sleepy.

The next morning we went to see the manta rays. Barefoot island at the resort end is only about three or four hundred yard from the next island in the chain. This small passage leads to a pretty substantial ocean current which the manta rays apparently just sit in and allow the fish to just flow into their gaping mouths. The day before we got there they saw 8 manta rays, all of them of enourmous size, 2-3 meters. On this day however they weren't there. Unforutately they weren't there any of the days we were. Apparently it is only during the winter season that they are around and now the seasons are changing so the mantas aren't around every day. Mantas or not though, we still went snorkeling between the island and it was sooo awesome. The current was too strong to even bother trying to swim against so we just had a really cool drift snorkel. The visisbility was crystal clear to the bottom, at least 30 feet down in some places. And the number of fish was absolutely incredible. There were litererally, highways of fish traversing the reef, very cool. As for the rest of our time at Barefoot, I basically alternated snorkeling, journaling, laying in a hammock, practicing drum, and then at night, trying to spot constellations with the help of a book I brought and using our binoculars to check out cool celestial stuff. After two days there it was time to move on. We took a five minute dingy ride to the next island (opposite direction from mantas) and then we were at the Manta Ray resort.

Manta Ray had more people but was still small. It was slightly more developed and had electricty aplenty. One really cool thing about it was that to lessen their environmental impact they used composting toilets (really not as gross as it sounds) and had a desalination system for the water. The activities here were basically the same except we didn't do any snorkling or manta ray spotting. Yes, that means that we actually didn't do anything. Well that isn't quite right. One problem with Barefoot was that the food was atrocious. Imagine meals that a stereotypical male would make himself if he was twenty five and live alone. Yeah, one step above Ramen but way greasier. Anyway Manta Ray was the complete opposite. They had a chef and the buffet he put out was exceptional. So basically we were doing nothing punctuated three times a day by massive feedings. It was awesome. We were there for two night and then we headed back to the, "mainland" as the Fijians call it where we had two more nights at Mama's before moving on to New Zealand.

Our first night back, we just hung around the hostel, had Mama cook us up some burgers, had a Fiji Bitter (beer) and went to sleep. The next day we headed into town on the public (open air) bus. After the ten minute ride we were downtown and headed to an internet cafe where I proceeded to write the previous two blogs. It was during that time that I placed my sunglass by the computer next to me and had them promptly stolen. That was a bummer at first but then the storm clouds rolled in so no worries. I found a sweet new pair at the duty free shop the next day (today). Anyway after a fair amount of time spent at the internet cafe we wandered town to do some shopping. I got a new shirt. Beth got a hat. Pretty uneventful until the thunder started. We had gone back to the interent and I was messaging Mike on MySpace when the storm rolled in. (Slocombe, if Mike didn't tell you I said to tell you thanks for the email and sorry I didnt' get back to you. It's hard on the road you know.) (Yep if you want to featured in my blog all you have to do is give me cool presents like headlamps, good advice, or really even just email me.) But I digress. Shortly after the thunder began the heaven opened up and within seconds completly saturated the entire town, all the uniformed school children just let out included. In case you are curious Fijian population is split between Indians (from India) and native Fijians who are black. There is no racism intended here. I'm just describing the people because I imagine most people haven't been to Fiji and have no idea if it is a bunch of guys in loin cloths with spears or a bunch of rich British past explorers with spectacles.

After a quick drenching we boarded the 3pm bus back to Mama's. As soon as we got back to storm was over and the clouds cleared. At about six oclock we went up to the third story of the unfinished expansion to the Tropic of Capricorn and watched the most amazing sunset I have ever seen in my life. I am really not exagerrating. I have never seen one that good before. It was like being in a postcard. It's like that feeling you get when you look over the Grand Canyon. After the sunset, what do you think we did? Well we were in Fiji so we went and got Mexican food of course. After some serious confusion over getting chips and salsa as an appetize Beth got a surprisingly good chimichanga and my beef fajitas we above par. The next morning we boarded our plane and headed over to Auckland which is where I am now, about to set of on a wild 12 day tours of both the islands. Day after tomorrow we are going river sledging. Don't know what it is? Well it sounds crazy. I'll have to let you know how it goes.

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Photos

First Beach Shot
Here's the beach right in front of the Tropic of Capricorn

Told you it was close
Here's the view from bed in our Barefoot Island Bure

Where's my Corona?
Here's me doing so hardcore hammocking

First sunset on Barefoot Island
As the resort is on the point of an island there is a beach on each side. This is Sunset Beach.

Kava Ceremony
It doesn't taste any better than it looks but you gotta try it

Reef off Sunrise Beach
Getting better with the underwater camera

View from the top of Barefoot Island
The beach at the next island is the Manta Ray Resort

Fiji Poster
I'm sending this one in for publishing

That's my Mama..
Here's crazy Mama cleaning the pool in the rain

It was the greatest sunset in the world
This is just a tribute

Comments

[Noah]

Mama
I'm glad you now know the warm embrace of Mama in a Mumu...she is one of a kind. Hey did you ever make it to Ed's bar?...that's where Christian was hitting on some girls that turned out to be a prostitute and here pimp followed Christian into the bathroom hitting him up for cash!