Snorkeling, sunsets, and ex-cons

---

Wow, where do I begin? The bus ride from Suva to Nananu-i-Ra was crazy. We were on an old rickety bus going over steep dirt roads and across "bridges" that consisted of 2 wooden planks and no guard rails. We passed lots of local villages with stands on the side of the road selling fruits, veggies, and live chickens. But then 4 hours later we made it.

Nananu-i-Ra is a small island about 3km off the northeast coast of Viti Levu. It is much drier and hotter in this part of Fiji. It was about a 20 minute boat ride with the most incredible scenery. We finally got to the Nananu Island Lodge and what a beautiful place. It was total stereotypical Fiji, the type of beaches and crystal clear multi-colored blue water you associate with a tropical island. Going into the sea was like swimming in an aquarium. You are literally surrounded by tropical fish with amazing colors. We snorkeled right on the beach and some of the fish and coral were incredible. Too bad I don't have an underwater camera.

So that's how it went for those 5 days. Swimming, relaxing, and hanging out. I almost got hit by a falling coconut, so I decided to learn how to open it up and eat it. That was fun. Sunsets were an event every day. There was a big hill in the back which everyone would go up during happy hour and just have fun while watching the sun go down.

As soon as we got there, we started setting up our tents and we see this girl walking over to us. Turns out it was Vicki, one of our friends from the Beachouse. So we were really happy to see her and we hung out for the next few days. Now she's in New York on the last stop of her trip before going home to Liverpool. Dave and John were still with us also. Actually, we were having such a good time that John wound up moving his flight out a week, he was supposed to be home for Christmas but decided to stay. Dave has just left for New Zealand so we had to say goodbye but we'll probably meet up with him again once we get there.

Right now I'm in Lautoka with Bryan, which is one of the larger cities in Fiji. Alan wound up staying in Nananu-i-Ra to finish his scuba certification, so we'll meet back up with him soon. But Bryan and I came for a couple days because there is an amazing national park and we wanted to do some hiking. Well, we found it. After a 45 minute drive from our hotel on unpaved roads in the back of a 4 wheel drive truck, we took the most ridiculous hike ever. We literally climbed a mountain, and I'm not kidding. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, basically straight uphill through a rainforest. I think we walked through more than a dozen gigantic spider webs. Spiders in the rainforest are no joke. But when we got to the top, it was totally worth it. We had a view of the Yasawa and Mamanuca island groups. We could see for hundreds of miles probably.

When we got back to the hotel, we went down to the bar for a few drinks and met this guy "Ray" from California. I put that in quotes because I highly doubt that was his real name. He was probably the craziest person I have ever met in my life. He got 2 hotel rooms - one for sleeping and one for partying. Why? "Because this shit in Fiji is so cheap bro!" When we told him we were from New York we officially became part of his posse. Yeah he had a posse, you couldn't really call it anything else. He hired two bodyguards/personal servants and a few girls. All he needed was some theme music. So we hung out with them and partied. Also we found out he was an ex-con who served time for transporting cocaine and methamphetamines. Model citizen. We all drank beer together from a small glass that was passed around. They'd fill it up, you'd down it, then they'd go to the next person. And so on and so on and so on.....

Then we went to a Fijian nightclub. Let me tell you being the only 2 white people in there was insane. Girls were grabbing our asses and insisting we go dance with them. Too bad they were all disgusting. Other people were coming up to us and just being weird and stupid, but Ray was like "yo don't worry about a thing, you're with me and I'm taking care of everything, so it's all good." I think he paid off everybody he saw so that he could do whatever he wanted all night. Good fun.

Anyway, next stop is Nadi for a night on our way to Mana Island for about 5 days. Later all.

---