Fiji

There were two unique experiences today!!!!!! At the resort restaurant here at Musket Cove (on Malolo Lailai Island) I ordered a cheese burger. I got a round bun with melted cheese inside!!!!!! After lunch, we went over to the other resort here - Plantation Island Resort - and walked around. Jim and I wandered along the more 'remote' part of the beach and discovered the Actual Raft used in the movie Castaways!!!! It is lying in a heap up by the tree line. No signs, no hoopla, just there! We both 'saw' it, but it looked like a pile of rubbish. I walked over and saw the plastic 'sail' with the wings painted on it and said Wowah!!!! The plastic part is truly an old porta-potty but the raft is not made of logs - there is an aluminum sub-structure and the rest is made of fiberglass and styrofoam, now all badly deteriorated. I have no idea why it is here - perhaps they filmed the escape from the deserted island here - there is a significant reef nearby. I don't know why that impressed me so much. Perhaps because we almost walked right by it!

Notes from Friday June 18

Another sunny day in Fiji! We went in to the resort last night to eat roasted pig and watch the local dancing. Nothing will ever come close to the beautiful dancing in French Polynesia! But last night's program ended with a choral song in harmony and that was excellent! Getting ready for our trip up the Yasawa Island chain. I spent most of yesterday working on our charts and coordinating them with our cruising guide. Today I am making a dress that has short sleeves and comes down below my knees, to wear in the 'villages'.

Notes from Today - June 21

Well, that was not the end of the Castaway excitement. On Friday we finally left that anchorage and moved to an island named Qalito, better know as Castaway Island, after the resort that owns the island. Turns out they have a raft also! This one I believe is the one they used for the scenes where Chuck was 'sailing' over the barrier reef. It has the wings painted on the porta-potty, with the circles around the rings (the other one had no circles). That night we watched the movie again, and the next day we actually got to the island where the movie was filmed - called Monuriki Island. It is definitely uninhabited, and looks just like it must have looked when "Chuck" floated up on shore, except that someone has spelled out "Castaway" with logs (coconut tree trunks) on the beach. Of course, there are some minor discrepancies. Chuck's island was all alone in the middle of nowhere. Monuriki is surrounded by many other islands, some almost within swimming distance. And Monuriki has no barrier reef. Perhaps they filmed that part on the reef west of Musket Cove.

Yesterday we traveled to Waya Island, the southern-most island of the Yasawa Group. This morning I put on my new dress, and the men wrapped themselves in sulus (pareos). We also followed the advice of the guide books and wore no hats, no sunglasses, and carried nothing over our shoulders. We went in to pay our respects to the chief. He has a very long name which I did not catch. He was in his bed, but I think that is because he has only one leg, the other having been lost due to diabetes. His room was very colorful, and he was very sweet. He did not speak much English. We gave him the obligatory 1/2 kilo of kava root (which we had bought at Musket Cove - about $15 US worth). He accepted it and said a prayer over it in Fijian, the words punctuated with his cupped hands clapping, each time a different count. And afterward he said Vianaka, which means thank you. Later we began talking to a man named Savay, who is his cousin. He took us to his home and told us about his ancestors. His father (Ratu Sir George Cakobau) was the first Fijian governor-general, appointed in 1973 when the country became an independent nation. His great-great grandfather was the chief who ceded Fiji to Queen Victoria 99 years before that! Savay is taking us on a hike tomorrow, and a lady that I met, when I told her that tomorrow is Dylan's birthday, said that she would like to make a lei for him as a gift from the village!

We were very impressed with the village. There are about 150 residents, and then a greater number of students in the 'boarding school' - the children from this and three other villages - aged 6 to 14. No sign of them - all hidden in their classrooms. Maybe we will go back in this afternoon to meet some of them. There are no streets, only paths, all well kept and bordered by yellow-leaved plants. Everyone keeps their yard clean - some people have a bit of lawn, too. Today we saw lots of laundry drying on lines. Their homes are made either of cement block or of thatch (called bures), and they are very neat and clean. Cooking is done outside over a fire on a raised platform and the kitchen sink is usually another outdoor stand with buckets of water and shelves for laying things out to dry. And then the outhouses. We wandered around and everyone was very friendly. Many of the adults speak some English and they all want to know where we are from. The little kids were a delight, fascinated by Dylan's video camera. He would turn the screen to face them as he filmed them and they could see their own faces, as if in a mirror. Only a few of the ladies had on what could be called nice clothes. Shirts with holes and faded sulus are common. They have little cash income, other than a bit here and there from an adventurous tourist (there is one backpacker's camp), and a few visiting yachts. Many have relatives who leave to work elsewhere, like Savay's wife who works on Naviti, an island to the north. We are going to carry a letter to her, since the only phone here does not work right now!

I was very comfortable in my new dress - it has an empire waistline and then a large pleated skirt, so it was very cool! I made it from some fabric I had bought in Florida before we left two years ago - a print with waves and palm trees and tropical flowers in gold and blue and green. Much better than my Tongan costumes, which were usually a frumpy skirt and a tank top, covered by a short sleeve blouse of some sort. Too hot!

Since these notes were made we have enjoyed moving up the chain of the Yasawa islands and met many great people. We also had an awesome adventure visiting the Sawa-i-Lau caves, which are limestone and very pretty. Jim and Dylan entered the first cave, with the aid of a flashlight, and had a look around. The darkness inside is unreal. Like being in the stomach of a giant whale! Only a little light from the cavern entrance can be seen under the water.

Jim retired to the main 'open' cave and Dylan continued on into the web of caves that followed. It was a series of limestone chambers. One leading into the other but linked, not by a standard open passage, but rather by one which you had to swim down a few feet to enter and then 'feel' your way through to the other side. Of course this was done as proffesionally as is possible without risking life or limb. Dylan would first descend and then check ahead with the flashlight providing a sort of map in his mind of what was required and how far ahead he had to swim underwater. Once assured that there was an airpocket ahead he would dive down and kick and pull breaststroke style until ascending in the new chamber, sighted from the last! In theory this is all well and good. In practice the following is likely to occur! And did.

Proceeding from the second cavern to the third he looked ahead as per normal and seeing an airpocket made his attempt. It was some ways under the water and without fins, as these are sometimes impeding more then an assistance, he continued on until ascending into the airpocket discovering it was barely enough space between the water and rock to allow any time before burning up what little air it contained. So with his nose pressed against the rock face, and two short breaths later, he decended again, turned around and discovered not one passage but two. In the confusion he selected the wrong tunnel but fortunately this lead to the fourth cavern and so he was able to tread water and breath in large amounts of wonderful air.

After some time to relax he headed back out the way he came. His thoughts on the matter are quite simple! Dont do it alone, without a safety line or without a spare flashlight! Any and all of these rules if broken could mean a long wait for the trapped, inside a very dark, oxygen limited cavern, hoping that the searchers would find you! "At least Jim was there to come and fish me out if I had been trapped" he says!

Anyway we moved on to Nananu-i-ra and spent a few days there. We enjoyed a very long day trip to Suva and shortly thereafter made our way to Savusavu which is a quaint little village on the South of Vanua Levu, Fiji's second largest island. Savusavu is the second largest town on this island and has a total population of 2000!

We still have another month and a half here before heading off to Vanuatu so we will have to write more on this subject in the next update.

Enjoy, and see you soon!