August 19, 2006

We caught the Yasawa Flier today for Tavewa. It was awesome. I love being on a boat. We went straight to the top deck so we could sit in the sun, which we missed dearly, and watch the scenery. We traveled from Lautoka (essentially Nadi) through the Mamanucas and up to the northern islands of the Yasawas. The islands ranged in size from less that a quarter mile diameter to miles in diameter. The boat stopped many times to drop off and pick up passengers at the scattering of island resorts along the way, so it was a five our boat ride for us since we were the last stop. I didn’t mind though… I could have just stayed on the boat. Oh yeah! Here’s a cool side story. We were informed that professional photographers were going to be on the boat taking pictures for travel brochures to promote Fiji tourism. I ran into one of the photographers later, on Tavewa, and he showed me a picture that he took of me and asked if I’d sign a consent form so he could use it professionally. Cool, huh? Next time you look at a Fiji brochure, you might see me!
Once we got to Tavewa, we stayed at Otto and Fanny’s resort. Otto and Fanny are Indo-Fijian and their resort is renowned for having excellent food. It’s true. The curry dinner our first night there was amazing. And, they went out of their way to serve plenty of vegetarian food for me and Amy. There are only 6 bures in the resort and the max number of guests is 12. So, it was cozy. We met some really nice couples there, and I have a suspicion that most thought that Amy and I were a couple too. Oh well. Most of the guests were from New Zealand, but we also met a German couple, and Irish couple, and a guy from Siam named Chuck. We had a nice, relaxing time. But, both Amy and I got terrible sunburns on the first day. That’s what happens when you liberate someone from dark, cold skies into warm, welcoming sunlight. We wanted to snorkel or dive, but we had to stay covered up and out of the sun, so no snorkel, and it was too painful to put on wetsuits or masks, so no dive. We ended up going on a very nice hike to the top of the island. The views were amazing. The next day, we decided to visit some nearby caves. They were nice, but the caves in Bermuda are much better. Besides, I couldn’t stay in very long because the sea mites were eating me alive. Now I’m an anti sea mite. (Ha ha!) By the way, sea mites in the family Cirolanidae are “often very common and can reduce a dead fish to a skeleton in a few hours.” Wow.
After the cave trip, we went on a cattle dive. This is what we call tourist dives because they take you out in a boat like cattle and you have to play follow the leader under water. It’s annoying to divers who are used to doing their own thing while diving… but it was still fun. Besides, it wasn’t huge. There were only 12 people on the whole dive, including the two guides. And, the reef was spectacular, and warm. I was even able to wear my shorty! No hood. Oh! And we saw a Manta ray. I’ve always wanted to see one of those. It was breathtaking and graceful.
The stars were beautiful too. Since the skies were actually clear, we could stargaze. Well… I stargazed; Amy went back to the room. So, after dinner one night, I walked to the beach to check out the evening sky. While I was admiring the twinkling jewels, a Fijian man approached me. Now, mind you, I was literally a few feet from the resort and I had only been standing there for a few minutes…. Anyway, he told me he could see my torch (flashlight) from down the beach. We talked for a few minutes about my research and where he was from, etc. Then, he tried to get me to walk down to the southern point of the island with him because he said you could “see the stars better there.” I told him I could see the stars just fine. Then he said, “But I really like talking to you and I want to hear your stories.” I said, “You can hear my stories right here.” Finally he said, “I really want to stay with you tonight.” Wha?!?!? I knew exactly what he meant. He hadn’t even seen my face! For all he knew, I could have been a totally busted, 95 year old she-male with facial hair. I swear. There’s something up with Fijian men. They are seriously undersexed or have a turbo-charged sex drive. That’s not the first time I’ve been propositioned, and I’ve heard of many other accounts from girls that I’ve met here. In fact, last time I was here, a guy asked me if I would “do him a favor.” What kind of “favor” is that? I think you’d owe someone more than your life for a favor like that! Anyway, I told the stargazer that it was inappropriate for him to say that. He silently walked away.
Our trip back to Nadi on the Yasawa Flier wasn’t quite as fun as our trip to Tavewa. It was overcast and cold. I think Tagaqe knew we were coming and sent its greeting. We were also worried about how we were going to 1) get back to Tagaqe without it costing a fortune, 2) finding pizza at 7 pm (which might as well be 3 am since nothing is open after 6 pm), and 3) finding rum. Remember, we’d promised Kenyi and Akisi that we’d be back with pizza and rum for our little going away party since we would be leaving for Suva the next morning. We didn’t realize that the Yasawa Flier made all the same stops on the way BACK to Nadi. And, we didn’t get picked up from Tavewa until 1:30, so that put us back in Nadi after everything closed. We were able to solve the first problem. There were courtesy buses waiting to take passengers back to their various resorts. We hopped on the one heading to the coral coast and got off at the Hideaway Resort near Tagaqe. There are very few places to get pizza in all of Fiji, but the Hideaway happens to be one of them. Unfortunately they stop serving pizza at 3 pm. Damn. We got quesadillas instead. The most expensive quesadillas I’ve ever purchased. We were outa luck on the rum situation. I tried to convince the bartender to sell me a small bottle or a large glass or pure rum. No go. So, I bought a bottle of O.J. because we had a bottle of champagne back at the lodge. (Terry and Kirk gave us the bottle from there room when they were here). When we got back to the lodge, Kenyi and Akisi lectured us for being late and tried to give us a guilt trip because they were hungry and had been waiting “all night” for us. It was 8:30, give me a break. After the initial bad feelings passed, we had a good time. But, I don’t think any of them, Kenyi, Akisi, Jo (Akisi’s boyfriend), or Saner liked Mimosas. It’s all good; more for me! They also didn’t seem to like quesadillas very much. They must have been all messed up on the gallons of grog they’d been drinking. Who doesn’t like quesadillas?!