Fiji Blog 12/28
Bula! (Fijian for Hello)
We made it to Fiji after a long grueling trip. Fiji is beautiful. Very hot and humid and brilliant sunshine that penetrates several reapplications of the strongest sunscreen so we are a bit pink. It's late afternoon. The airport is by some beautiful volcanic peaks, the ride to the resort through various scenes, fields of cane and grass but occasionally some denuded hillsides and raw earth which are kind of depressing - I think there was once jungle there. Nearer the beach and in the river valleys the lush vegetation and ocean views make for beautiful scenery. The towns are ramshackle but very neat and well kept with brightly colored cinderblock houses. Brilliant red flowered trees stand out here and there. People keep their livestock by the highway for some reason and we saw several close calls. We have a rickety old Nissan and you drive on the left. At 5:45 AM after 2 days of jet lag Chris handled the car surprisingly well but it all made for some scary driving at first. A few seconds episode of being in the wrong lane was quickly righted. Many of the men here and schoolboys wear sarongs instead of shorts/pants and many people go around with bare feet in public places (like the airport). The resort is very isolated, on the two-lane "Queen's Highway", rural all around. It is somewhat less pretentious than an American resort, clean, well kept and very comfortable with many amenities, like the wifi I am using right now. Our bure which is a kind of cinderblock house with a peaked roof and porch is stylish and looks out onto the dynamic ocean which is sapphire blue with roiling whitecaps from the stiff and cooling breeze. There is a coral reef surrounding and the beach is littered with chunks of it and with coconuts, making the pool a more popular option for swimming. The afternoon activity at the kids club today was coconut hunting and opening. With a stick and a large knife. The kids are loving the kids club and pool which has a water slide and lots of Australian or possibly New Zealand children. Hard to tell. Cricket on the telly at the beachside bar. Chris and I watched it for a half an hour and still could not make heads or tails of it. We have a lot to learn I guess
Fiji Blog 12-30

There are colorful animals and birds here. The birds come out in the morning. A small egg-shaped bird with a tiny beak, green with a red head and tail. There are red parrots with blue heads. In the water there are blue sea snakes, poisonous but harmless if not molested we are told. There are purple starfish and small electric blue fish everywhere near the coral. There are black and white striped fish and striped sea snakes. There are large toads the size of your palm which come out at night and sit on the lawns and are very easy to catch. There are many colorful flowers. Many of the plants are recognizable from Phipps conservatory, etc, but the trees are spectacular, some are covered with bright red flowers, others have hanging red flowers, and huge trees have spectacular red and orange flowers about 6 inches across. The most common birds are reminiscent of starlings, black, with an awkward hop, with a yellow beak and a yellow “mask” over the eyes which suits them because they have a bandit-like way of swooping down to your table at meals and trying to steal your food. They warble and sing beautifully at times, at other times they set up a sudden raucous clatter – I suspect it is a message to rivals encroaching on the food supply - which startles you and makes you laugh. Even the locals laughed when they did this in the food market.

12/31
In the morning resort staff came by with a long handled coconut knife and cut down coconuts from the trees in front of the bures for people to drink. After lunch we took a drive into Sigatoka (pronounced Singatoka – apparently someone years ago set down the rules for writing down the Fijian language and got it all wrong, so Nadi is pronounced Nandi, etc.) The town is cluttered, colorful and very third world. The businesses are mostly owned by Indians and in town it feels like you are in India, not a South Pacific Island. The supermarkets sell packaged goods and blare loud music. We heard a very unusual version of Guantanamera! The huge outdoor market sells fruits and vegetables and tourist trinkets. We took a drive up the road by the river until the paving ended, about 10 km up from the town. The view of the mountainous landscape is spectacular. A woman working at the hotel here grew up in the adjacent village (10 min walk from resort) and never went up the road from Sigatoka. She is going up there tonight for the first time for a wedding! This is not surprising since most people here do not have cars and they walk and take taxis and buses. Saw a man proffering octopi and a herd of boar by the road today, with many little piggies and a line of traffic driving slowly while they crossed at leisure. There was a heavy downpour around 2 pm that soon stopped and cooled things down. It was hot. We have realized that one has to get out of the sun at least between about 11 and 2 PM and we had a nice day out of the sun today.