Planes, Trains and Automobiles

The flight to Labasa was both breathtaking and extremely frightening. The tiny plane shook violently as we took off, and there's something extremely eerie about looking down and being able to see the wheel of the plane right under you when you're in the air (E, I couldn't stop thinking about your story where Adam had to hold the door of the plane shut as you flew...it seemed so hard to fathom when we talked about it in the States, but now I can see just how possible a situation like that can be!)

Once in Labasa, I found myself in the middle of a slightly illegal Fijian business transaction without even fully understanding what happened until afterward. I had fully intended on staying in Labasa that night and booking a bus ride to Savusavu the following morning; however, my taxi driver had other plans...when I got into the car, he immediately asked me if I was headed to Savusavu...because if I was, the bus that was sitting in front of the airport was headed there that very same night. It was $15 he told me, which was more expensive than what I was expecting to pay at the bus station in town, but I had had mixed feelings about staying in Labasa from the start and wasn't completely bummed about jumping right onto a bus and skipping the town all together. Great! I told him, ready to make the transfer from the taxi to the bus, and just like that he started to drive off...ummm, now I can't say that I was scared when this happened, but I was definitely nervous and confused, and when I quickly asked for an explanation, he replied that we would be meeting up with the bus further down the road. Why? It's illegal he told me, so I couldn't board at the airport (ummmm, sh*t! what in the heck had I gotten myself into? Jenny, it was totally one of those What were you thinking!?!?! moments...and in the midst of all of it, I had to laugh out loud, wishing terribly that you were there with me!).

As he continued to drive, I still couldn't understand what the heck was going on, and with a little bit of a language barrier, the message just wasn't coming in clear. All I got from it was that he had an arrangement with the bus driver wink wink (Oh God). We finally pulled over to the side of the road and when the bus drove by, my driver flagged it down. Now, in most cases after all that had just ocurred in the past ten minutes, I probably wouldn't have taken my bags and boarded the bus...but I realized that an Australian family with two small children were on what now appeared to be more like a shuttle than a bus...and $15 Fijian dollars was well worth arriving in Savusavu as soon as possible at this point. Are you headed to Savusavu? I directed at the mother as I handed $15 to the driver, who was obviously trying to hide the whole situation even though the Aussies were seated one seat away. (I have to note here that I also handed the taxi driver $10. He totally ripped me off on that one, but I was so anxious trying to figure the whole thing out that I decided just to go with it...and he looked like he needed it more than I did anyway). The mother nodded yes to heading to Savusavu with a somewhat puzzled (and was that an unfriendly?) look. And so that was that. The bus started down the road again and I sat down. hmmm....

Not at all satisfied with what had just gone down, and still completely confused as to why this was deemed an "illegal" operation by my taxi driver, I turned to the mother again and probed further...

Turns out, the family had booked a holiday trip to a resort close to the town of Savusavu, and because the Savusavu airport was closed, the hotel had sent a courtesy shuttle to pick them up and bring them to the resort....oops! it finally clicked...and just like that, I was sitting in an air-conditioned, cushioned, resort shuttle, non-stop to Savusavu :)

When I arrived in Savusavu, I found a hostel right across the street from the Copra Shed Marina, where Ocealys was expected to moor any day now. I shared a room with a wonderful French and Italian couple, Emma and Filippo. At breakfast the next morning Emma and Filippo started talking to a Belgian couple at the next table over. They quickly found out that this couple, Cendrine and Ben, had fallen in love with the country and the people when they came to Fiji on their honeymoon the year before, and so when they returned home, they packed up everything and bought an immense amount of land just west of Savusavu (about 1 1/2 hours by bus) in a town called Tuvurara. Because there is not too much to do in Savusavu, and because there was even less to do that day (it was Sunday and the town shuts down so everyone can attend church), they invited us back to their house for dinner and to stay the night. What an INCREDIBLE time we had. We explored the area, cut open fresh coconut, took a ride in their boat down the river, checked out a copra (dried coconut used for cononut oil) shed and watched them feed their chickens and pick fresh eggplant, carrots, tomatoes, celery and herbs from their garden.

When the boys trekked down the road to purchase Kava from the neighbor, us girls sat around drinking tea and hot cocoa and chatted about traveling, politics, and of course, our boys :) ...which was wonderful knowing that I might not get to have those sort of chats in a long while! :) Once the boys returned, Cendrine made an incredible dinner of Dahl and Naan, and we continued to chat and pass around the coconut shell with Kava that Ben had concocted out of the pressed root they came back with (one clap before drinking BULA! three claps when you finish). The conversation switched between English and French, they were so good about speaking English to each other so that I could understand, even though I can only imagine how tiring that got since there was technically a 4:1 ratio of French to English (only) speakers.

Note to self...learn French!

A storm came that night...and as I watched the palm trees from the window swaying frantically outside, all I could think was BLOW wind BLOW! haha and blow it did! Because I just received an email from Austin saying that after two days of slow and uneventful motoring, they encountered intense winds and are now anchored off the next island over Taveuni, expecting to sail into Savusavu tomorrow!!

To catch the bus the next morning, Ben took us by boat down the river and then we walked a ways down the road. The surrounding area was absolutely breathtaking...miles and miles lush greenery and palm trees stretched out before us, the mountains lingering in the background.

And then, before we knew it, we found ourselves sprinting with our 100 pound :P backpacks when Ben spotted the bus rounding the hill toward us. Sweating and wet from the rain, we boarded the bus as pure entertainment to the locals I'm sure, and received many smiles amongst laughter and greetings Bula!

All in all I've had a very eventful and fun time since I left Nadi, and I finally get to see Austin tomorrow! Cendrine is halfway through her first pregnancy, so they are now moving to Christchurch, New Zealand in just a week! We exchanged information and I really look forward to catching up with them again in a whole other climate and atmosphere.

A Backpacker's Life For Me!

Bula from Nadi!!!!

What an absolutely breathtaking country this is! The main island of Fiji, Viti Levu, which is where Nadi is located and where I spent the first couple days of my trip is incredible. Sugar cane fields span for miles and the Sleeping Giant mountain range casts an amazing backdrop over the lush, green island...

The flight to Fiji was incredibly painless. I was thankfully able to get some sleep and was thoroughly entertained by Kung Foo Panda (not so entertained by the latest Indiana Jones, however...I can't believe they cast the kid from Even Stevens as the son of Indy...what's up with that?)

OK...I've arrived in many airports in many different countries, and I can honestly say that there is nothing quite like arriving in Fiji. Even at 5 am in the morning, I was greeted with the warmest, happiest faces in the entire world. I know this sounds like an exaggeration, but I can honestly say that it is not. My friend Natalie had previously "warned" me about the incredible friendliness of the Fijians...almost to the point of suspicion. And I have to admit it was a wonderful thing to be "warned" about this small fact because I was immediately directed to everything I needed and everywhere I needed to be upon my arrival. I guess not everybody was "warned" like I was. As I sat in comfort on a plush couch waiting for the courtesy shuttle to my hotel, I watched as multiple tourists lowered their eyes to the ground and mumbled a "no thank you" as they passed the greeters, clearly unclear of where they were going or how they were going to get there. I almost felt compelled to stand up and help them myself! Apparently the hospitality here is contagious...and this has not ceased since I've arrived.

Before heading to the hotel, I threw off my bags, sat down with a cappucino and a suncake and watched the sun come up. With birds chirping excitedly in the background and the glee exponentially growing inside of me as dozens of new travelers arrived in Fiji that morning, I felt like I was in the middle of a Disney movie (Kay, you were right!). I figured that at any moment a rainbow would come out over the horizen and the locals would start singing and holding hands...unfortunately, that didn't happen, but I'm telling you, I'm pretty sure it came close...

My hotel ended up not looking anything like the website haha, but it was the perfect stopover before heading to the Northern islands. The first evening, (after a long, exhausting day of napping and laying by the pool :) I met some other single travelers, and as the night went on, more and more people joined our group. We all sat down and had dinner together, shared pitchers of beer, and talked into the night, sharing stories about where we were from and where we were headed. I had forgotten how incredible backpacking could be. Just to think that a couple of hours before I hadn't even laid eyes on these people, and there we were, 6 different countries represented at one table (New Zealand, Germany, Holland, US, Irelend, England), swapping email, blog, and facebook addresses as if we'd been traveling together for months.

New Favorite bar snack: Deep fried coconut covered in sweet chili sauce...um YUM! :P

I had my first try at Kava that night. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be...it honestly went down pretty nicely :) but it made my mouth and tongue tingle and I just couldn't stop smiling...maybe it was the fact that I had just arrived in Fiji...maybe it was the fact that I had just spent the past few hours chatting and learning about about these other incredible travelers from all over the world...maybe it was a combination of everything...but my cheeks hurt like hell by the end of the night and all through the next day.

Because my hotel was surrounded by miles of sugarcane fields, we were advised not to go wandering around the area on our own. This was extremely disappointing for me as my favorite part of traveling, hands down, is wandering around foreign places and getting lost. So my second day in Fiji I got dropped off at Denarau Island, where all the extremely posh resorts (we're talking lifestyles of the rich and famous here) are located in the area. I was craving some more pool and beach time, and wanted a place I could walk around and explore on my own. Denarau was the perfect solution. I threw on a dress and my most glamorous sunglasses and spent the entire day resort crashing. I made it a point to swim in every 300-yard, bridge-covered, infinity pool on the island.

In between resorts, I found myself walking through palm tree covered pathways or along beaches that looked out onto other islands in the distance. It was an incredible day. I guess my new motto is: If you can't afford it, fake the hell out of it!

The next day a group of us (South Africa, England, New Zealand, US represented) headed into town to check out the local markets.

It felt like I was immediately transported back to Mexico as we walked passed the street vendors and eclectic shops. The fresh produce, dried meat, and mounds of colorful spices made me feel right at home. There was also stacks and stacks of Kava root at every turn...very cool to see the origin of such happiness in the Fijian culture (not to mention all the tourists who drink it by the full shell into the night ;)

Random observation:
Fijians, both men and women, no matter how tall or short, heavy or frail, old or young, appear to have the most gigantic feet I have ever seen! Once I noticed this, I was hard pressed to find anyone that actually fit onto his or her sandals! Needless to say, they seem to be a very grounded group of people :)

It poured the rest of the day...amazing, big, fat, warm, tropical rain. I honestly don't think there's anything more relaxing and satisfying than sitting under cover, drinking cappucinos, chatting with fellow travelers and sharing experiences and future plans to pass the day away. As always, the two man band (with absolutely incredible voices) that plays at the hotel every night was spot on. I have nothing more to say than it was an amazing day.

Today I fly to an island in the North, Vanua Levu. Storms followed by minimal wind (go figure) has delayed Ocealys' arrival to Fiji by a week. The current ETA is Tuesday morning of the 23rd in Savusavu. Because the Savusavu airport is closed for renovation, I will be flying into Labasa and taking a bus down to Savusavu. The 3 hour drive to Savusavu is supposed to have some of the most beautiful scenery in Fiji so I'm excited for the ride. Savusavu is one of three ports where boats are required to check into the country, so it caters to internationl yachties and tourists and is supposed to be pretty nice. At least I'll be able to wander around on my own, which is great because it looks like I'll probably have another full day to myself upon arrival in Savusavu before the boat pulls into the marina!

I couldn't be more excited to see Austin, meet Joel, Maurice, Sophie, the kids, and get my first look at Ocealys in person...just 3 days more!!! (but who's counting? ;)