The village in the crater

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The transport for Epi's Tour did not leave until sometime after 10am, so after breakfast I enjoyed the beautiful morning from the hotel gardens. The only thing to mar it was the smell from Pafco (the tuna cannery). In the past two days, I've only smelled the smell at the south end of town. Unfortunately it has drifted today. The noise from the cannery is everywhere, all the time.

There were six people on the tour--two other backpackers and three 'grown-ups' from the nearby homestay. We rode up to Lovoni in a carrier, which was more comfortable than I expected. Once there, we sat outside Epi's house for an hour while some of his family made us lunch. While we were waiting he told us the story of the time he and his wife spent Christmas with her family in England. His wife is actually in England right now as her mother just passed away, and I think he misses her. He canceled the tour a couple of times last week to spend time with his children remembering their grandmother. Because of that, someone left a nasty note in the sign-up book at the Royal Hotel about him not showing up. How horrible for Epi!

After a lunch of traditional Fijian food--fried eggplant, boiled dalo (taro), tapioca with coconut cream, and tuna and ferns with coconut cream-- we sat outside again on the grass mat on the verandah to listen to Epi weave the story of Ovalau and the Lovoni people. Their story is woven into the history of Fiji. Epi is a really good storyteller, and although I knew the bare bones of the story, he made it come alive.

We went on a bit of a trek up to look over the village. On the way, Epi pointed out some traditional Fijian medicinal plants. Coming back down he shook a ripe papaya from a tree for us and cut it open after we'd waded across the river. We passed through the village where Epi was hoping to find someone to buy kava for our savusavu--for us to present to the chief. There was no one, so in the end we left money with epi for him to get the kava on our behalf. The 24hour grog shop we passed on the way to Lovoni would have come in handy.

While we waited back at Epi's for our carrier to pick us up, we saw the chief go down to the river with a bar of soap to wash up.

The driver arrived, and asked me to sit in the front with him (so he could flirt with me). I think he thought Canada was a European country, because he kept talking about getting a European girlfriend and waiting for me to come back to Fiji. He was funny, and so friendly.

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Comments

[akesa marama]

joka ca!!!
luv dis place..........!pliz dnt 4get im original 4rom cea!

[LITIANA VUIDREKETI]

Lovoni my homeland..
PERFECT, BEAUTIFUL, the picture is really beautiful,nice choice of the angle where you took the photo from...