Our second full day in Fiji began with “Breakfast in Bed.” Apparently that was supposed to happen our first morning there but we kinda had thought that they were joking about it. Also, breakfast in bed happened on Fiji Time so we were already pretty much awake and had made coffee by the time they brought it. Fiji Time is something that’s very hard for me to get used to! (Adela is quite at home on Fiji time) After a little while we were ready for the activity of the day – a little hike around the island. It started with a pretty decent uphill portion to get us to the ridgeline above the resort and then continued around the interior of the island until we got to a portion that was on the coast. The views of the ‘horseshoe bay’ were pretty spectacular, although there weren’t any cleared areas for a complete view. There were, however, lots of spiders. Some approached death-spider level of scariness. Luckily I was able to procure a trusty spider stick with which to clear the webs in front of us. I think I managed to avoid having any spiders actually crawl on me, but I still felt like I walked through a berjillion webs. We also encountered some local wildlife – a super awesome kingfisher, some goats, and a pig that luckily decided to run away instead of charge us.
Breakfast in “bed” – the most delicious french toast and honey, fresh fruit, and a latte/capuccino
All told the hike took around 2 hours, probably because we had to stop any time two bushes were too close to make sure that there wasn’t a spider ambush prepared. We showered up and then headed over to get some lunch before doing the onerous task of… reading on the day bed. After our bout of relaxation we decided to brave the guided snorkeling trip. And boy was it awesome! The only downside was that our masks kept fogging up so that by the end we couldn’t really see all the fishes. The coral reef itself though was absolutely stunning! It was once again really refreshing to see such vibrant reefs.
That night everyone at the resort gathered for a traditional kava ceremony. Kava is a slightly narcotic drink that is made from ground up roots. The concierge (Sireli) mixed us a batch of regular strength kava as opposed to watered down tourist kava. The mixing is down by hand in a special kava bowl that has a funny little face on it – the face goes in the direction of the chiefs. In the past only the chiefs could drink kava. Now everyone can! You had to clap before you accepted your coconut full of kava and then everyone clapped three times after you finished your kava. I had a couple of cups and it has a really weird effect. Basically makes your mouth a little numb, supposedly it makes you more relaxed and mellow too. But I am already so mellow there’s no way to tell. After the kava ceremony some families from a local village came over to perform traditional Fijian meke (I think this is the correct word) – dances that tell stories I believe. It was really cool!
Kava had everyone moving a little slowly the next day so we didn’t feel too badly about missing the Taveuni Day Trip – we also weren’t jazzed about 50% of the stuff on it. Instead we spent the morning recuperating on the beach, followed by a couples massage at the resort’s spa. During this we were made quite aware that our feet had sand on them. The shame! After the stress of relaxing in the morning we snagged some lunch and learned that a “Papaya Fool” dessert might contain some type of coconut. So… I got to eat two of them while Adela ate a homemade brownie (there are cookie jars set out with cookies and brownies. Our cookie jar had the coconut cookies removed lest Adela be too tempted). One thing we noticed by this point was the under-utilization of the beach. It seemed like most of the people spent their relaxation time at the resort pool. Don’t get me wrong, the pool was wonderful. There was just a tropical white sand beach a stone’s throw away. After a little more reading we split forces and I went on the guided snorkeling trip while Adela got a blue drink. The one activities hut guy had given me a tip to put some shower gel on the inside to reduce the fog which made this trip way better. The coral on this reef was absolutely stunning, and visible! Afterwards Adela and I went snorkeling just in the reef by the resort. We saw what I think was a dolphin-fish – by far the biggest fish I’ve seen snorkeling so far here. After snorkeling we showered in our outside shower – with a repaired hot water heater! This whole time we thought the extra-fresh showers were just part of the Fiji experience. We only had a brief moment of panic when we learned that turning the cold water on totally overrides the hot water. Dinner was giant lamb shanks – I finally learned to just order whatever it is that Adela orders to make sure I get the best meal out of the selection. Dessert was chocolate panna cotta… which I decided tasted exactly like a tootsie roll.
