TIME TO GO :( Honeymoon: Day 13

THE HONEYMOON IS OVER (not really)

Sadly, it was time to leave the wonderful isles of Fiji.  Sniff.  Sniff.  It seemed Fiji was sad to see us go too. It was cloudy and cool on departure day.  It threatened rain.  We would want to snorkel anyway!

We had breakfast and checked in on Lollie.  He now had a block of wood with a really crude fin carved out of it.  Aaron and I pretty much wrote off our hopes of our one authentic Fijian craft.  I prepared by taking all the "coconut lotion" in the hotel and packing it in my suitcase.  Really, you've gotta prove you were there!!

We headed out with Paul and a boat full of new people.  Back to the sandbar.  We plopped in and almost instantly I had yet another first.  Hiccups.  Let me just say that is a really weird experience in the water.  I was trying to snorkel, hold my breath and hiccup all at the same time.  Really, not a lot of fun.  It went on forever.  I bet it was 15 minutes of snorkeling and turning blue under the sea.  Oiy!!  Meanwhile GIANT schools of BIG fish are swimming around.  Aaron and I are having a great time.  It's cold because of the clouds and wind.  Aaron snorkeled with a shirt on and that helped.   I rubbed my legs together, hiccuped, and kept going. When else will we have this chance? We saw the million little blue fish breathing in and out of the coral.  We said good-bye to the reef one fish at a time.  It was awesome and sad all at the same time.  

We kept checking and best we could tell no one was in the boat.  Then I looked up and far away was the boat full of people.   Paul saw me see him.  I got Aaron's attention and he popped out of the water.  Once again we'd be last in the boat.  A few days ago we ended up swimming a long way to get to the boat.  I don't think anyone minded because it was warm and sunny.  They just sunned themselves while we kicked-kicked-kicked our way to the boat.  Today was different. People were probably cold and sick of waiting.  Paul started the motor and boated over to us.  I thought to myself, "oh oh....no way to get into the boat".  This time in front of about 8 witnesses Paul pulled my body back into the boat.  Just a little embarrassing.  Aaron pulled himself in once again, this time pinching his tummy.  I had another charlie horse.  But like always -- it was totally worth it!

We got back from snorkeling and we found out that Lollies block of wood had cracked.  Back to the cinder block oven where we both write off the carved fish.

We spend the afternoon with one final milk shake, a walk on the beach, some serious posing for the camera (see above, hee hee), settled our bill, and finally we were forced to leave.  

One last check with Lollie and we were absolutely floored to find a beautiful (if a little chubby) of an angle fish!!  He even engraved our names in it.  It's totally cool!  Our real, live, Fijian-crafted angle fish.  We named him "Bula".  Sometimes we call him "Tub-Bula" because he's a little tubby...like us.  :) Still perfect though...very perfect!

They put us into a golf cart and drove us back to the gravel airstrip.  On our way we passed the employee volleyball next.  Paul and the other staff were playing against other resorts.  They ALL turned and waved to us.  It made me misty.  Where are the tissues?? I didn't want to go.  Fiji was just absolutely magical (if a little hot in our room).

We had to board the wee little plane again.  Aaron took my picture on the way out and it took us a second.  The airline guy said, "little bit quickly" and seemed annoyed which is an weird thing to hear on an island where we had yet to be on-time to anything.  "A little bit quickly".  We took 3 more pictures and then moved right along.

Back to Nadi. 

 

We checked in to our international flight a few hours early.  It's just how the flights worked out.  We ended up behind a photographer with a lot of gear.  When we inquired he said he was the King of Congo's photographer and he had been here touring with the king.  Well, it's good work if you can get it.  He said he's been doing it for 30 years.  Crazy!  

We tried to get "couples seats" again but no luck. This time I'd sit in the middle for 10 1/2 hours.  Aaron will sit in the middle for the next year.  That should work out.  We killed time in the airport.  It turned out for the best because a while later the line to check-in for the flight was HUGE.  I'm glad we avoided that. We tried the lounge that our travel agent set up for us.  We got massages and water before being the last people to board the plane. We sat next to a young Indo-Fijian who was immigrating to the US.  WOW! Ever meet someone who is leaving their country?  We wished her luck.  She was possibly the nicest most polite person we talked to which is saying a lot.  Hopefully she's doing a-okay. 

Then we had a harried time in customs.  Actually, the customs part went really easy.  We were told on the plane that if we had different last names to fill out two forms. We walked up to the booth and the young and very nice customs guy asked us if we were related.  Probably for the first time we said, "yes".  He asked why we had two forms and we explained having different last names and he said, "well you only need one form".  Aaron asked if we put both names on it. He says no we should just list the head of household name on the form.  I almost instinctively said, "well that would be me".  I have, after all, been a head of household for the better part of two decades.  Why stop now?  Luckily I didn't answer.  Maybe Aaron was having the same internal dialogue at the same time.  The customs guy looked at us and certainly saw the internal debate written on our faces and instead approved both forms.  As we stammered in our sleep deprived state he offered a diplomatic solution: "maybe one of you could be the head of household on the way out of the country and the other can do it on the way in".  Just like that: problem solved!

Then we found our luggage, and not without it being stressful and various agents yelling at us we did make our way out. They should have re checked us in for our Seattle flight but because we had an hour they sent us all the way out!  We had to completely re-check-in going through security and dealing with about six different lines.  It was annoying but we lived.

We were last on the plane for Seattle and 2 1/2 hours later we were home.

Collect the luggage and call the good people at Town Car. The same guy that dropped us off picked us up.  EASY!  Back home to our beautiful garden.  Everything looked even better than when we left.  My cactus plant which has always bloomed one flower at a time is suddenly full of buds -- one on each leaf.  It's going to dazzle when it blooms.  The dahlias are blooming, petunias are bushy...it's all good.  The house is great.  We've done nothing but eat homemade food and putter around out house...the one we're both head of.  

We could not have asked for more.  In a couple of days we'll head back to work and be just regular people.  I hope we can remember for a long time how wonderful and amazing this entire journey has been.  Lucky kids we are.  Yes in deed.

BUUUULAAAH! 

SHARKS! Honeymoon: Day 12

LAST DAY.

The last day was mixed feelings.  On the one hand I was ready to be in my own house on the other hand I LOVE Fiji.  I want to go back.  At the same time Aaron and I area already listing off the other places we want to go.  I decide that traveling in the style of Koro Sun quite suits me.  Aaron calculates that all I need to do is work 70 hours a week and we can do it again next year.  Where's my time sheet...

SHARKS!

We started our day like always: snorkeling.  This time Paul took us to an outer reef.  There were only 3 of us.  It was really choppy.  I don't think he would have brought new people there but we had all been snorkeling all week.  He tells us we might see "big fish" (aka - sharks) "but they just want to say Bula and swim away - don't be afraid".  

I haven't seen sharks since Roi.  It made me hopeful that we were in better snorkeling water.  It was completely different.  Colder water, choppy waves, more current -- frankly, a little more fun.  It was way deeper and there was a big drop off.  The drop off is where I usually migrate too because that's the best snorkeling.  That's where the big fish hang out.  Again we saw the HUGE star fish.  We saw BIG schools of BIG fish.  We saw different coral.  Paul boated behind us watching the three of us.  Aaron and I agreed we were a little chilly but it was too awesome to stop.  We keep swimming.  We agreed "a few more minutes".  We dipped our heads back into the ocean and just then, the real 'big fish'.  About 10 feet below us in crystal clear water a shark!  A white tip!  Aaron had never seen one before.  He didn't say Bula.  It just swam off into the drop off.  We both looked for the rest of the shark family, but no luck.  They are amazing creatures and we both loved seeing the real thing right out there in nature.  

Now for the hard part....there's no sandbar to dock the boat on and just walk into the boat. We're more or less in open waters.  I was not sure how I was going to get back into the boat since it doesn't have a ladder.  Paul took my mask and then told me to turn around.  And in the choppy, windy waves "on three" little Paul hoisted me out of the ocean by my arm pits!  WOW!! Talk about strong!!!  I got a charlie-horse on the way but was just fine.  Aaron managed to pull himself into the boat -- excellent upper body strength right there.  We were so lucky to get to go on that trip.  It was the best of of the entire honeymoon!  Thank you Patch and thank you Paul!!

For lunch I had a milk shake!!  We stopped by and talked to Lollie who best we could tell hadn't started our fish.  We were a little skeptical that it would be done by the time we leave the next day but what are you going to do. We were just nice and hoped for the best.  We spent the afternoon hanging out on the beach.

For dinner we went back to Dicks for our final meal.  I had the earth's best Pina Colada.  It was made with FRESH pineapple juice, FRESH coconut milk, and then the usual assortment of rum. It was divine.  It was everything I could do to not just slurp it right down and order a couple more!  For dinner I had something that could best be called a Fiji Pot Pie.  It was a half coconut filled with fish, cream, and butter and then covered with pie crust and baked. Gotta say --- it was delicious!  

By Bed time we realized we were both beat.  Aaron had a sore foot, backache and a bellyache.  I had a headache, sunburn, and cut foot. These are all signs that it was time to start heading home.

JUST HANGING OUT IN FIJI. Honeymoon: Day 11

JUST HANGING OUT!!

Not so much to report on Day 11.  We went for our morning snorkel.   Back to Sandbar.  This time Paul told us to go to a different side.  It's less protected and it has the drop-off.  That always means a different kind of fish.  Bigger fish!  We saw schools of bit yellow fish, HUGE blue star fish, including one with SIX legs instead of five!!!  We saw some totally incredible BIG BIG fish.  It was stunning.  We can't show you pictures and it's so hard to describe but just know that we had a great time.

The rest of the day we just goofed around.  We went on a "banana ride" which is something that you CAN talk about in polite company.  It's a giant banana that is pulled behind a speed boat. You straddle it and hang on while the boat pulls you around the lagoon. Kids love it but put four adults on it and it's a jump-a-thon to see how much "air" we can get.  It was cool and refreshing -- a great break from the oven-condo and all around good fun. Once again our thanks to That Patch that let Aaron enjoy it too!

That afternoon we stopped and talked to Lollie.  He's a wood carver that camps out on a matte on the beach in front of Lomani. We talked to him about the local work and his carvings.  He had various things for sale but Aaron asked if he'd do a special commission for us.  I don't think he knew the word "commission" but he did understand that we wanted to "special order".  We requested a small angle fish.  I have a turtle and we wanted something different.  He said he could get it done before we leave the day after tomorrow.  The order was placed.

We tried to traverse the island but were totally waylaid. We ended up going to the "art gallery" -- aka "wacky-tacky store".  We did buy a few things in the spirit of being supportive but it was a little hard.  We wandered around the yacht club. We walked the length of the gravel airstrip.  We surveyed the 9-hold golf course.  We checked out the kiddie pool, the lawn bowling and the put-put golf. We sat on the dock and watched a fabulous sunset.  Another lovely day!

We had dinner and a long rest.

DOLPHINS! Honeymoon: Day 10

DOLPHINS!

This was another stellar day in Fiji.  We went on a Spinner Dolphin Tour with Plantation Resort. I've never seen wild dolphins before.  We went in pontoon boat.  About an hour into the tour we found a pod of 15-20 dolphins.  The guide, Moses, said they have babies so they don't come out of the water as much.  I don't  know anything about dolphins.  They swam lurching out of the water so we could see their fins and then dived below and disappeared.  A few minutes later they appeared.  Hide and seek like that went on for most of the tour but after while out of nowhere on of the dolphins spun out of the water.  It was so COOL!  I'd never seen anything like that, but they were entirely out of the water spinning entirely around in a circle, their tails touching the water and their noses pointed to the sky. Later they swam next to the boat and all tolled about half-a-dozen dolphins leapt out of the water and spun.  It was just magnificent.  We just absolutely loved it.  LOVE IT!!!

SNORKELING!

After we spotted dolphins Moses took us to a new snorkeling spot.  It was very good.  It was a little further from the resort which was nice -- a little less snorkeled (a little but not much less).  There were thousands of small blue fish that bury themselves in the coral.  Even tho there are thousands of them they move like one organism.  It's like the ocean breaths and they float in and out of the coral.  It's a little hard to describe but I hadn't seen anything like that either.  It was really cool.  We'd see more of that the next day too.

SUNSET CRUISE!

This night we went on a sunset cruise with Plantation.  They have a 300 HP speedboat that six of us fit in. They served appetizers, beer and soda and then take us on a tour of the local islands. We got to see and even stop at some other resorts (giving me ideas for any additional Fiji vacations!) and eventually they idled while we watched the sunset.  It's the sort of thing where you can physically watch the sun crawl below the horizon.  Then, in order to beat the darkness they tore back to the resorts.  It was the funnest non-snorkel activity we did all week.  So good I wanted to go again but we couldn't get on any other tours.

START YOUR SNORKELS! Honeymoon: Day 9

SNORKELING!!!

Finally, we had putzed around with some so-so snorkeling on the other island, but this is the reason we came to Lomani.  We pulled out the gear and met our activities guide, Paul.  He was awesome.  Sadly he's the only activities guy on duty which I think is really too much for one person but he always was on the go and willing to make things fun.  I also provided the musical entertainment at dinner.  That's quite a job description.

We had a little wooden skiff.  It had nails sticking out of it and a 40 horsepower motor.  Off we went just a few minutes from the resort to "Sandbar".  Aaron and I were pretty much the first ones in.  This, my friends, was the best snorkeling I've experienced since leaving the Marshalls. It left a little room for improvement and my guess is if you could get away from the resort a local could take you to some truly world-class areas.  Still, this was pretty darned good!  We were both pleased.  It's just nice to be floating out there.  Paul fed the fish bread so there were giant schools going nuts.  There were big angle fish, trigger fish, parrot fish, clams and Fiji's trademark Blue Start Fish.  They were everywhere, all sized, and all dark, dark blue.  Just beautiful.  It was just absolutely wonderful.  We were the last ones to stop snorkeling and all too soon we were headed back to the hot-house.

We had our forgettable lunch and then struck up a conversation with some Aussies sitting by the pool.  We asked them what they thought of the food and in a fabulous Australian accent they said, "really quite shitty".  That would be another way of putting it.  They turned us on to "Dicks Bistro" at the Musket Cove just up the beach.  This island was made up of three resorts and that was it (no village school here).  We were more than happy to make a booking for Dicks.  

We took the afternoon to explore the other resorts.  Just a very short walk up the beach is the Plantation Resort. This is a family resort that's sort of a disney-esk sort of thing.  There's some family that owns Plantation (all 200-some rooms of it!) and their kids own Lomani (a reasonable 12 rooms).  As a result all the systems were connected and you could do any of the activities or eat there and just bill it to our room. 

Their dinning hall (and it was a "hall" not a "room".  "Room" would imply a certain amount of decorum that simply didn't exist) was something like Chuck-e-Cheese on steroids. I mean totally mayhem and completely out of control laughing, yelling, crying, freaking out little toddlers.  Holy Cows! Instant birth control right there.  Still, we totally understood why families would go there.  They have a lot of kid-friendly activities, and a shallow warm lagoon.  It was packed with Aussies.  It's only 3-4 hours for them.  Still, we would not be eating there.

We saw that they had all sort of activities that we could sign up for and a fish-and-chip hut...and I noticed a milk shake bar. Plantations was going to have some real advantages. That night we went to Dicks where it was Mongolian Grill night. We both quite enjoyed it.  

Back home...we have 10 hours of shut-eye to catch.

 

LOMANI MEANS LOVE. Honeymoon: Day 8

HEADING TO LOMANI!

Oiy!  They made us get up EARLY!  As in 5:oo freakin AM so we could make the wirily curvy 2-hour drive back to Labasa to catch our flight.  The Patch had worked miracles on our boat trips, drives, and snorkel trips.  By now I was just starting to let my guard down and think it might really be working.  We lucked out again.  It did the trick!

The trip felt long.  Our flight wasn't for hours but they want to leave a good hour or more cushion in case the van breaks down.  It makes sense but it still sucked.  We got to Labasa really early so our driver took us around town.  By then it was 8:00 and the stores and schools were opening up.  The streets were packed with kids in uniforms.  It's a town of about 25,000 people. That was way bigger than I expected.  Also to my surprise was a significant muslim population complete with a mosque and school.  We saw the hospital and women's clinic and bunches of schools and a branch of the University.  Yes indeed, this was a real city!!

We went back to the tiny little unassuming airport where we had arrived a week earlier.  This time it was packed.  Again they weighed us for our flight back.  I asked the clerk if he'd announce our flight and he said he would.  After our experience getting to Labasa we had no expectations that the flight would be on time but turns out it was totally on time.  We waited about 45 mins I think and then the flight arrived.  We knew it was in but to my surprise the clerk came over and found us in the crowd and told us this was our flight.  We were the only white folks there, I think. We went to the door.  It was like Roi where you just wait and then they flag you to walk on to the plane yourself.  On our way out the door they yelled in my ear (there was a lot of airplane noise), "Ms Charrier, Mr Barr - seats 1A and 1B."  I just love little flights!!  I love the personal attention.  And I totally dig that they called us by our names.  The Fijians are so totally awesome.  

We flew back to Nadi and then waited around and then connected for a 10-minute flight to Malolo LaiLai.  That's a little island that's only made up of resorts.  It's located in the Mamanucas - a chain of islands with excellent reefs for snorkeling and diving.   This is when Aaron and I both got to land our first ever gravel runway!  No pavement to hold us back here.  No way!  At first it took us a bit by surprise because it was a bit bumpy when we landed but maybe it helped slow us down so we didn't skid of the end of the island.  ??? Don't know, but it worked just fine.  

It's a little bit soulless after being at Koro Sun for a week.  It was a harder adjustment than I bargained for.  We stayed at Lomani Island Resort. It's a couples only resort with about 12 condo like rooms.  It had a mix of ages. They claimed to have A/C which was a major criteria for us.  We said kids would be fine - but we weren't interested in roasting in our rooms.  Turns out they just give lip service to the A/C.  They had the same little air conditioner as the last place but instead of it cooling the area of a king sized bed it was supposed to cool a cinder block oven the size of our house.  Pleaze.  We were hot and not amused.  Blech.  We had to move the bed across the room just to be closer to the air conditioner and fan.  We managed, but just barely.

We had lunch and then dinner at Lomani.  In my journal I wrote, "It took forever and was forgettable".  

That said: it had snorkeling and we planned to take advantage of that. For the first day we just settled for swimming in the water for about 2 hours.  It was that warm bathtub lagoon water.  Heavenly!!!  The sky was amazing.  That whole thing was just picturesque - just stay out of your room and the dining room.

Just like Koro Sun we had dinner and headed straight to bed for an albeit toasty 10 hour rest. 

Pearl Farm. Honeymoon: Day 7

Pearls!  I LOVE pearls!

To my surprise Fiji is in the south sea pearls business!  Justin Hunter, an American marine biologist, set up Fiji's only pearl farm just off of SuvaSuva in 2000.  We toured it on our last day at Koro Sun.  The farm looked pretty big to me.  We boated out and saw workers cleaning the oysters.  It takes months to clean the barnacles off of all the oysters.  Once the workers are done they start all over and by then the oysters need cleaning again.  

Twice a year Japanese technicians comes in and inseminate the oysters.  Two technicians can do about 1,000 a day! Workers collect the oysters and start to pry them open.  Then the techs open them a little more and check that they are healthy and then put in an "irritant".  They can also put in a little piece of a sacrificed oyster's skin to color the pearl. Afterwards I had mixed feeling about my love of pearls but not enough to skip the show room before we left.  We watched the technicians working but weren't allowed to take pictures.   

The whole process is pretty interesting. They have about a million oysters.  We snorkeled over the farm and got to see the oysters lined up.  Sorry, no pictures of that either!  About 18 months later they check the oyster and take the pearl.  If the oyster is still healthy it can grow another pearl and since the oyster is bigger the pearl gets bigger.  Turns out due to their process and the local environment these pearls grow bigger and thicker than in other South Sea countries, such as Tahiti or the Cooks.  They come in a wider range of colors too.  

Afterwards we got to go to the showroom (of course we do!).  In a side room Mrs Justin Hunter was sorting pearls.  We took a look and she had about 4,000 pearls out.  I wanted to buy a pendant or a loose pearl.  Turns out these folks have a pretty strong opinion of their pearls.  I suppose ultimately the market must supports their prices but they were a lot more expensive than I'm used to paying and the loose pearls were just plain gray.  BORING!  Not that all the pearls were boring.  Quite the contrary, but those pearls were already made into jewelry. They were in a rainbow of natural colors and they were huge!  Like Barbara Bush Pearls or Betty and Wilma Pearls, only black pearls not white.  Amazing they were!!

I asked to buy some that she was sorting and the answer at first the answer was no.  Then I explained I didn't want gray loose pearls and then she said that I could look through the "export reject" pile. These are pearls that are so deformed that they won't even export them. They put them in giant tubs and they are sold thousands at a time at auction in Japan.  People use them in art or art jewelry.  That's easy to understand because even though they are 'rejects' they are very cool!  We picked out 3 and she priced them.  I bought two really cool odd shaped pearls. I have a design for one and still thinking on the other.  My jeweler said he's on it as soon as he's done with a few other projects. Yeeehaw!  

SNORKELING!

After lunch we went on a group snorkel trip.  It was fun and there were some fish and a little bit of coral but this isn't the snorkeling part of Fiji so it was exactly spectacular.  It was certainly fun and it's always great to be in the water.

HAPPY HOUR!

By this time we had really made friends with the Koro Sun staff and the other guests.  We learned we were the oldest people there since it was all newly weds.  Aaron made some interesting observations.  First he said, "Hey, have you noticed how all the guys here are totally built?"  Well, I hadn't.  In fact I said, "No way they are little tiny twiggy men".  He told me to look at the pool and standing there was a sculpted Army Ranger type.  He was just huge!  I said, "What?  The guy with the giant guns over there?  He's nothing!"  So then I add, "Notice how all the women are little tiny waifs with perky breasts and heart-shapped tooshies?"  Aaron says, "No way!" He too was directed to the pool.  Observation confirmed thank you very much!!!  Leave it to us to be the standard deviation.  

That night Hiram hosted happy hour out by the ocean instead of in the resort.  Everyone came out for it.  It was  a little like Honeymooners Summer Camp about then.  We all knew each other because we did activities everyday together and there are only 18 people so of course you get to know folks.   The other guests were great fun.  We had a couple of drinks and the resort brought over complimentary goodies from the kitchen even though we weren't in the main part of the resort.  See what I mean?  They just look after you no matter what.

Now for how we found out how much older we were...  On the walk from happy hour to dinner one couple said something like, "We have a combined age of 43" or something like that.  I said, "Jeeze, we have a combined age of 74" and just like that the parade of couples practically stopped cold.  Suddenly 8 perky-sculpted-20-something couples were staring at us.  "What?"  Someone got brave and piped up, "Ah, well, um we're 60."  There.  Someone else in their 30's.  Whew.

Aaron and I had a great time and the kids just referred to as a unit.  I don't know why. Everyone else got names but we were known simply as "Seattle".  Could it be because that we were very outnumbered by Aussies?  (They loved our accent, by the way.)  Regardless we learned to look up when our hometown was mentioned.  We tried to represent the City as well as we know how.

That night we ask the staff if we could eat at one big table instead of 9 tables of 2.  Of course they said yes.  They made a big table in the middle of the room.  We had a great time having dinner and laughing.  It was a fabulous last night to our Koro Sun honeymoon.  In the morning we would leave before dawn to take the 2 hour drive back to Labasa to head to our next destination.  

The whole thing totally exceeded our every expectation.

WATERFALLS AND COCONUTS. Honeymoon: Day 6

WHAT'S THE PACIFIC WITHOUT COCONUTS?

Back in good health is was time for a waterfall hike.  What's a romantic honeymoon without a waterfall?  All the brochures have them!  Solo didn't let us down.  He took a group of us on about an hour hike.  It was a pretty hot and sweaty uphill.  Don't worry, we're strong.  We made it.  He showed us plants along the way. Vines you can drink from.  "Sensitives Ferns", which Aaron remembers from his childhood.  They are like Venus flytraps if you touch them they fold up.  Mother Nature's little toys.  We petted the ferns that all folded in half just like Solo said they wood.  After a bit we made it to a little ity bity water fall.  

The way meals and activities work at Koro Sun is the night before they give you a list of activities for the next day and a menu.  You pick your meals and activities at breakfast.  Easy-schmeezy.  They had said you can swim in the waterfall so of course we dressed accordingly! No one else did but we were quick to peal off our hiking duds and jump in with our swim gear!  The water was pretty chilly but after the hot hike it felt great.  And even though the waterfall was small we still dunked our heads in so we can officially say we did that.  We're like Brochure People! CHECK THAT OFF THE LIST!

Later in the day we watched a coconut demonstration conducted by Solo and TimTim.  Solo did stuff like showed us how to crack a coconut, lets us drink coconut milk, made baskets, told us about how coconut trees are all "tree of life" in Fiji.  TimTim had the hard work.  He climbed do the top of the coconut 60-70 foot tree and tossed down the coconuts!! It was totally crazy.  Barefooted -- of he went. No net.  This is the real thing people. Count us impressed!!  

A few days earlier we were to go hiking with TimTim but he had to cancel because he had cut his foot on the coconut tree.  And when I say "cut" I mean a pretty serious gouge through the thick sole of his feet.  I know because Aaron and I knelt down and took a good look right after it happened.  I recommended antibiotic.  I seriously doubt that's in TimTim's medicine cabinet.  I bet there was something herbal (if that) and a day in flip flops.  Two days later he's climbing up the tree.  Me?  I got a scratch on my food a week ago and I'm still limping around like I've lopped off a toe.   

POST CARDS. Honeymoon: Day 5

Okay, not a lot to report about Day 5.  I guess by then all the excitement of remodeling the house, moving, marrying, traveling, and a lot of strange fish caught up with us.  A bunch of folks in the resort were a little under the weather.  Aaron and I laid low and wrote post cards.  Thank goodness we were sick or we wouldn't have had time!  It really wasn't too bad.  Not fun, but not epic.  Just a day of 'not so good'.  

On the really nice side the Koro Sun team took good care of us.  Noticing we had missed meals Suka showed up on our patio and from a healthy distance yelled "BUUUULAAH" which substitutes for any sort of knocking or door bell.  He inquired about our state and brought us dinner, made sure we had special meals, gave us water and 7-Up and checked in on us for the next couple of days.  Just how many resorts have you been at where they just did that?  We didn't ask?  They just took care of us.  They are just incredible considerate.  The employees are top notch.  In now time at all we were just fine and back in the swing of things.  

BACK TO SCHOOL. Honeymoon: Day 4

BACK TO SCHOOL!

This was one of my favorite days in Fiji.   This was "village day".  And it's not some tourist trap where they have some fake made-up "village" that they haul all the tourist too and sell you Chinese trinkets.  This was a real, bona-fide small Fijian village!!  It's the village that Solo grew up in and still lives.  

We asked ahead of time if we could see the village school and in true Koro Sun fashion they said of course we could.  They'd arrange for us to see Hirem's (the bartender's) brother, who is one of the teachers and he'd tour us around the school.   We thought this was a real privilege and honor.  Not to gush too much about it but really, they basically stop everything to show the tourists around during the school day.  That's pretty generous.

So off we went --  The village is maybe 20 minutes the opposite way from the resort as the town of SavuSavu.  It's call Nagigi (pronounced: na-ning-ning).  The school is a cinder

block shell on a hill with a couple of dogs running around outside.  Well, a couple of dogs a couple of slippery kids that dashed out of their class room as soon as they saw the resort van.  They ran barefoot around and were rounded up and put back in their rooms.  There are 4 or 5 class rooms and about 150 students and 5 or 6 teachers.  The state provides 3 teachers, the 7th Day people provide 2 of the teachers and I don't know how the 6th one is funded (or if we didn't understand completely).  What we did totally understand is that the state only provides

 about half of what the village needs.

There were a couple of grades  in each room.  We met a couple of teachers including Hirem's brother who gave us the tour.  The rooms have posters and memos on every inch of them.  The desks are old and worn but are jammed in there wall to wall.  The kids are packed in.  School is not compulsory in Fiji but about 98% of kids go to school and they have an 87% literacy rate. They had a library of sorts.  It had a computer, but we don't know what it's used for or if they have Internet.  There were so many questions w

e didn't think to ask.  The library had 5 or 6 book shelves with 3 shelves on each.   They were all about 1/2 full of books.  There were two sets of encyclopedias. Needless to say, given how the Seattle Public Librarians know Aaron by name because of the frequency he's there, we were pretty moved by their little library.   Worn book neatly lined up with checkout cards sticking out.  Kids can't take books home and most don't have books at home (again, if we understood correct).  They can borrow the books and take them to their classroom.  They told us how some folks promised to fill the shelves but then backed out due to shipping costs.  

They showed us the water pump which the Rotary Club put in (a $60,000 well).  And the church folks were putting in a new class room and  a bure for another teacher. 

Class was nearly over so all the kids were dismissed to the hill. We said hi to them.  Some spoke a little bit of English, all were pretty shy until you get the camera out.  They love having their pictures taken (just like in the Marshalls).  The teacher rounded everyone up and told him that "the visitors would like to hear you sing".  They sang us their school song and we thanked them.  I thought we should sing back but no one was willing to sing with me and you know how bad I sing!  Well, that was that.  Class dismissed!  

The teacher had us sign their guest long.  He didn't say what info they wanted so we just signed and wrote a note and made a little donation.  Since then we've talked to the folks at Koro Sun.

We're planning on donating some school supplies by sending them through the resort.  One of the employees is an elder in the village who can probably see to the equitable distribution of whatever we send.  That's always the risk is that you wonder if it gets to where you intended, but from what I could tell from my tiny glimpse is that every kid could use a book or crayons or a notebook.  Assuming it gets to the school I'm sure it'll go to use.   If you want to donate just let us know and we'll tell you how.   We're excited about it besides it'll be really fun to do! Count us in!!  So that was just the first half.  Now we were off to the village.

Bula Village of Nagigi!  

Visiting the village was just as fun.  The village is made up of rudimentary houses.  They have electricity for 3 hours in the evening so kids can do homework.  Kitchens are little wood stoves outside the house.   Solo pointed out one and told us we could go up and look.  No one else went but Aaron and I tip-toed up there.  We felt a little weird just walking up to someone's kitchen  but I figured Solo wouldn't send us astray.  Out came a lady - turns out a cousin of Solo's - who greeted us with a big BULA!  She told us about her kitchen and said she had just made some "steamed pudding".  What's that???  She was more than happy to show us..."wait here, I give you some..."  Okay, now I feel really weird - rich tourist taking food from poor villagers.  Ugly American.  UGLY AMERICAN!!  I'm looking around.  What do I do??  And then

out comes the lady with a plate of  "steamed pudding" which is really what we would call sweet bread.  Like cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving the pudding has rings around it from the 

can it was cooked in.  Cool!  I can't resist it.  It's doughy goodness.  Enjoyment of doughy goodness is in my wedding vows...  Aaron couldn't say no either.  Besides, you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings so try it we did.  It was quite tasty!  We think it was plantains.  She informed us this was Solo's favorite food.  Ours too as we both helped ourselves to a second taste.  :)

We continued on through the village.  We saw the water tank where rain is collected.  And then we headed to a bright green building.  We should have asked but it must be a community gathering place.  There were a bunch of ladies, mostly adults and older women sitting outside on the porch with little things for sale.  There were shells, necklaces, and palm frawn hats.  They made some of it themselves, maybe all of it.  It's one of those things that in exchange for walking through their neighborhood and eating steamed pudding buying a few shells seemed like a fair deal to us. 

There was one lady who was like the ring leader.  She was super enthusiastic about their crafts and tried to pump up the rest of the ladies who seemed a little tired of it all.  Aaron and I were happy to check things out and select our shells and wear a hat.  The lady put hibiscus flowers in our hair.  And when we wanted to have a photo with here she insisted that the entire group pose with us.  She was just awesome!  So jolly is the best description.  When we got in the van she got the group together and  started singing the traditional good-bye song (which makes me weepy every time they sang it).  It was totally fabulous.  I'd love to go back.  I can't wait to send Nagigi a care package.  Fun. Fun. FUN!!

The Real Bridge to Nowhere. Honeymoon: Day 3

LET'S CHECK OUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD!

Sunday morning we decided to be mellow and explore the area near the resort.  After breakfast we walked about 3 miles outside of the resort. Everyone waves or says high, just like rural America.  It's very bucolic.  Bula cows.  Bula goats.  Bula chickens. We greeted all the critters running around under the palm trees.  There are various shanties and houses.  There's always the ocean. We went beach combing and mostly soaked in the sun.    Then we found a bridge to nowhere

Fiji's Bridge to Nowhere

You've heard of the Alaskan "bridge to no where"?  Ted Stevens has secured millions of dollars for it and it would serve a community of about 50 people.  I assume that it must have other vast benefits but honestly I haven't studied it.  I'm a big fan of large engineering projects and basic infrastructure so I'm assuming Alaska really needs that bridge and it's just getting a bad rap in the press. Well that said, Fiji has it's own BTNW.  Which almost certainly they may need some day.

Fiji is made up of 300 some islands with about 100 of them inhabited.  That leaves a lot of islands for exploring. Lucky for us up the road there was one for us.  Oddly, it has a really hefty looking  bridge out to a nice little island.  I bet it was about 10-12' wide because at one time it could accommodate vehicles.  

Once you're out there you can see that there's a would-be resort being constructed so we assume that trucks brought the materials out there as some point. Why else would there be a bridge, much less a really solid bridge in the middle of nowhere??? We crossed more than one bridge on the main "highway" (another term I use loosely) that did not look sound in anyway whatsoever that was being crossed all day long by island traffic. This bridge looked like the work of outsiders to me. But that's just my two cents.  Crossing it looked like a fun idea.  Sure!  Why not?  Off we walked.

Turns out the bridge was a little misleading.  What looked like a 10 foot bridge on thick beams and steal reinforcements ends about 15 feet short of the island.  The water isn't very deep you can see right through it.  It's 4 feet deep with rocks.  It's a bout a 10 foot drop to the water.  It's just far enough you can't jump down and if you fell the water is so shallow you'd probably get hurt.  So there we are just short of the uninhabited little island and the bridge stops.  It narrows to 4 boards and eventually 2 boards.  They're haphazardly nailed down, or not nailed at all.  The rest of the bridge was totally modern western style.  Now suddenly we were in the developing world where nails are for sissies. And let me say, I'm a sissy!!!  Well, I'm really not a sissy so much as clumsy and I could totally picture my demise in the 4 foot waters short of my island adventure.  Geeze.  That's not really how I want the honeymoon to go. We nearly had to turn around as I contemplated every options besides walking on the little board.  Finally there was no choice and like a 3-year old I bent at the knees an shuffled that last few feet.

Once we over there it was very beautiful (like the rest of Fiji) - we swam in the warm water, walked the beach, posed under palm trees.  It's the South Pacific it's what you're supposed to do.   

Then we turned around and made the trip back.  We played some cards and read.  Dinner.

Back to bed for 10 or 12 hours.  

Another glorious day in paradise!!!

Happy Long Life Aaron!! Honeymoon: Day 2

Aaron's Fijian Birthday!!  Finally...no more cradle robbing for me!  

Day 2 in Fiji was spectacular.  You can just know that everyday we woke up and the birds were chirping, sun shining, ocean lapping, puffy clouds,  happy people singing buuuulaaah, fun activities...I mean EVERY day.  It truly was paradise for us.

We woke up to a fine breakfast. Every meal at Koro Sun started with tropical fruit.  We ate our weight in fresh picked pineapple, papaya, and watermelon. YUMMY!  Then we'd have eggs or french toast, tea, and juice.  It's easy to get use to that.  Now I'm home, "what do you mean cereal?".

Today we went on a Town Tour.  Town is SavuSavu located about 15 mins from Koro Sun. It has a population of about 5,000 people.  About half are Fijian and an Indo-Fijian.  A fact we didn't know was that the Indians were indentured in Fiji about 150 years ago and most remain. The work seems to be split with services like taxi driving and accountant being done by Indos and tourism and farming by the Fijians. 

Back to SavuSavu,  Aaron said it reminded him of towns in Mexico.  It was a short, very walkable, strip of shops and governments offices.  Everything is brightly colored. We went into the market where they sell fruits, veggies, and kava.  We went to little stands with a few handmade good.  The Fijians didn't have a lot in the way of local crafts. A few things made with palm frowns and a few other wacky-tackies, but really much more than that.  Still, we liked saying hi to folks and taking it all in.  All the people were really nice.

LOVE/MEKE NIGHT - Put on your dancing shoes!

That evening Koro Sun was having a "lovo".  A lovo is like a luau.  Fish, pork and chicken (I think) were all packaged in palms and then cooked in an earth oven.  The great thing about where we stayed was that there was no pretense.   You just walk out to the earth oven and talk to the guys stoking the fire.  There's no "please stand behind the line" sort of stuff.  It's served buffet style with local greens, a fish soup that was really good, and there was breadfruit.  I know when I was in the Marshalls everyone gets really excited about breadfruit.  I just don't get it. It's just plain startchiness.  ??? Doesn't matter, we had some.

Along with the lovo they had a meke (pronounced: "me-kay").  It's a traditional song and dance. The cool thing about Koro Sun  is that it's not staged in anyway.  It's not a "performance" per se. Some local villagers come in and just sing and do some traditional dances.  Shelly said that they normally pick up the villagers but this week they wanted to get themselves to the performance so she was feeling a little nervous when they were a bit late.  I can understand, but I found that to be authentic.  Island time.  

They obviously are rehearsed and know what they're doing but it's not polished like a Broadway performance. It wasn't cheezy in anyway.  It's just real. Right there in the dining room with the tables pulled to the side of the room they did some soulful and impressive song and dance. The villagers were all ages including the cutest little kids every!  There were young and old alike. We were mesmerized.  

One little boy was tiny - four or five was a TOTAL HAM!  He is quite the dancer!  He got in the front of the crowd and did a solo dance totally hamming it up.  We all cheered.  He looked back at the choir and told them to sing and clap again.  They did.  He danced.  We cheered.  He turned around and told them to sing again.... this went on a for a while until someone told him his time was done.  We loved him!  

There was another little toddler who is probably too little to sing and dance but he was squeezed in between the adults.  Just adorable.

There was a song where they invited guests out to dance.  I was happy to join in.  Aaron was happy to sit and watch the spectacle.  I figure I might not ever walk that way again so might as well dance if someone gives me the chance!  It was SUPER fun.

Then they all shook our hands.  They said Buuulaaah and we said "venaka" (thank you).

Then the Koro Sun crew pulled the tables back, out came the lovo banquet and it was dinner time.  Aaron and I sat with another newly wed couple.  We had a great dinner and then at the end two waiters I think it was Shirley (a guy) and Hiram  (the bartender) came out with guitars and a happy birthday cake for my Honey!!! It was fantastic. They sang the traditional Happy Birthday song but with the Fijian lyrics "Happy Long Life to you ....Happy Long Life to you..." They are my new favorite lyrics!  Aaron seemed to be surprised.  And can I just say: delicious chocolate cake.  They use real butter.  :)

Again, another fabulous day in the booked.  We crawled into bed for another 10-12 hours of blissful slumber. 

Fiji rocks!

BULA!!!!! Honeymoon Day 1 1/2

BULA!

"Bula" is like "Aloha"...it's a greeting that's pervasive and a bit m

ore than just a simple, 'hi'.  At our first resort, the Koro Sun, the staff  said "Bula" with a LOT of gusto.  It's not just "bula", it's "BUUUUULAAAAAH!" with a bit of a sing-songy melody. Buuulaah! is how w were greeted by everyone all - day - long!  It's hard to not be happy when someone greats you so enthusiastically.

One of my coworkers gave me some pre-marital advice, 'always great each other when you get home...who wants to come home if no one is  happy to see them?'.  This point is at the heart of the Koro Sun where no one makes you feel more welcomed than the staff did during our stay.

After our coconut footie massage, Solo took our suitcases to our bure.  A bure is a Fijian style home.  It's kind of like a cabana.  Ours had a nice little walk way lined with lush tropical plants, patio in the front, a thatch-esk roof, french doors, a private patio in the back, a nice big bathroom with an outdoor shower, and  a king size four-poster with a little personal sized air conditioner directly over the headboard!  In a word: DELUXE!  We could not have been more happy with our simple, clean, and elegant accommodations.   

In our foggy traveled state we toured around Koro Sun getting to know the lay of the land.  We met the GM, Shelly, who was just as welcoming and nice as good be.  Then, on principle, we went for a star-lit swim in the pool.  We were in Fiji after all...break out the first swim suit!  It doesn't matter that the water felt cold after dark.  We took a lap around the pool, which had a tiny little island with a palm tree in the middle of it.  

We cleaned up and went to dinner and the wait-staff asked us how our swim was. The thing about Koro Sun was that the staff all knew our names on the first day, knew what we were up to, greeted us every time they saw us, and were willing to make our stay as comfortable and nice as possible. They were SO nice to us.  We felt at home instantly.

We made it through dinner and finally our long commute was over. We fell into bed around 8:00pm and slept straight through for a good 12 hours with the A/C blowing down on our beddy bed bed.

It was glorious.  We woke up to chirping birds..... You just can't ask for nicer.