The Island of Fiji, in my mind, was a tropical paradise with small colorful homes and large white sandy beaches! We are in Suva, Fiji and remarkably I was half right. After an “E Ticket” bus ride (which Robin thought was hysterically funny), defined by the lack of shocks and air conditioning and the bad roads, we traveled through beautiful tropic vegetation. Not like a jungle but more like green, red, yellow and orange leaves and trees both large and small arranged in an inviting display of lush landscape. Yes there were little, well kept colorful homes aligned along the highway. I use the term highway loosely - barely a road is more like it. But we saw no beaches of note, most of the shore is muddy and shallow. We did hear that the best beaches are to the North.
However, the people are also colorful and amazing. We arrived at the Cultural Arts center, thankful to still be able to walk and headed for the small shops. We are there to see a Firewalker and Dance presentation and were led by our island serenaders to stadium seats overlooking a gorgeous river and island. The narrator was very clear in explaining the history of the Fiji Firewalkers and how this skill has been passed down each generation. Personally I felt the dancers had some coating on their feet - but that’s just me. The dancers carefully prepared the hot stones and they expected great applause and shouts of “Bula” (which means Hello) when they walked across the fire. Well we didn’t actually see the fire, we only presumed it was hot! It was fabulous to watch and learn about this ancient ceremony. They also treated us to other dancing scenes of their cultural past including a small fight with their neighboring tribe, which they won! The only problem with was that the losing guys got to “be” lunch – back in the day that is. Then our kind narrator invited us “for” lunch! First we asked what (or who) was on the menu! Apparently, human tastes a lot like pork!
Anyway, lunch was odd – the chicken??? was good and their staple is Taro Root. The root is like a potato, tastes like a soft turnip but really has no flavor. The leaf is cooked and looks like a broad spinach – but tastes smokily weird. So I noticed something slimy at the salad table and immediately told Mark as he loves that stuff and it turned out to be more of the root, in strings and mixed with coconut milk. He said it was good but EWWWWWW! We passed some KFC’s on the way home but we were so jostled that we couldn’t speak to stop. All in all it was a good trip but I think there is much more to see in Fiji. We heard that VJ Singh is building a house and golf resort here.
Robin and Maryann both collaborated together on this description. (Robin says she’s getting lazy AND she made me type this - ha ha ha – she really is just laid back like the islands we are visiting!)
Love to all – countdown is on – 12 days till home! XOXOXOXOX
