Bouma Waterfalls

We really slept well last night — didn’t get up until 7:30AM. Breakfast was great — eggs, fried breadfruit, pancakes, and fresh fruit. We also enjoyed the company of Josh, Sia’s grandson. 







As you might have noticed, we are seeing Fiji just about as economically as one can. Yes, there are 5-star resorts — maybe not as many in this island as others  — but not only are we saving money, we are experiencing real Fijian culture, actually living with a Fijian family. 

Most of us only think of the fancy resorts when we think about most Polynesian nations. The fact is that most indigenous inhabitants live a very simple life in very humble conditions. Any of you who have traveled to Central America, parts of Mexico, etc. can easily picture what life is like in rural Fiji. 

Our family’s house only has electricity from about 6-10 PM each day when the village generator is on. The construction of the homes is not to the same standards most of us are used to. There’s no air conditioning, and the windows are open anyway. 

It has been a joy experiencing a very different way of life. And … if you’ve ever heard that Fijian hospitality is good, that’s wrong … it’s amazing. 

We took the bus at about 10:30AM to Buoma Waterfalls. Buoma is a location with three waterfalls along a small river. The third falls is a 1.6 mile hike that climbs about 800 feet in elevation. It wasn’t too difficult of a hike, although the path got a little more rough the farther we went. But we made it all the way and it was worth it. With stops and a little swimming it took about 4 hours for the whole trip — we took our time and enjoyed it. We did get rained on on the way back — which was fun. 










We got back to the house in time for a coconut husking and coconut cream making lesson. We were shown the very traditional way to do it. 





We ended the day with another delicious dinner of kokonda — a ceviche-like dish made with coconut cream — and fish in tomato sauce. 



Snorkeling tomorrow!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Airlie Beach and Great Barrier Reef

Image
For some reason we are waking up very early the last few days. The advantage is that today we got to see a most spectacular sunrise. The crack of dawn, which included a crescent moon, was actually better than the sun peeking over the horizon.  Today we split up to do different activities, even though it’s not our preferred way to do things. We both originally booked the snorkeling trip at the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately, Kristi suffers from pretty severe sea sickness when on a small boat. She doesn’t do well even on the short ride into port from the ship. The reef trip is 1 1/2 — 2 hours each direction. As much as she wanted to go today she knew she’d likely be miserable the whole time.  So, Jim left at about 9am for the day-long trip and Kristi embarked on a walking tour of Airlie Beach.  The boat to the reef picked up about 120 passengers directly from the ship (it’s anchored just off shore). On the way out Jim learned that for a little extra he could have an intr...
Read more

Cruising Back to Sydney

Image
The final two days are at sea as we sail south back to Sydney. Carnival does do a good job of having lots of activities of every kind. You can do as little or as much as you want.  Day 8 — At Sea We were able to sleep in a little longer this morning. After coffee and putting the absolute final touches on our model ship, we had breakfast, played trivia, learned how to make towel animals, played cards, and had a little lunch.  Each day at sea at about noon Captain Mario comes on the PA to give a navigation update — he is fun to listen to: great Italian accent and quite exuberant.  He mentioned that we were moving along at 19 knots, which is not slow. We left Airlie Beach well after our scheduled time, sometime after 8pm. We heard that a passenger gashed his foot open pretty badly on rocks on shore. The gossip was they were deciding whether to wait or leave him to get better medical attention. We don’t know what the decision was, but we think we are moving fast today to make...
Read more

Symphony at the Sydney Opera House

Image
Our hotel for the night was a 5-minute walk from the ship. We left our luggage with them and decided to walk a little bit. The hotel is on a main artery of the city so we just started walking. Luckily, about 1.5 miles along the street, we came to China Town and Paddy’s Markets. Paddy’s Markets was a recommendation of our Aussie transplant friend — thank you Alwynne! We bought a few souvenirs and had fun looking around. We asked one of the vendors about a great Chinese dim sum restaurant we could try … she suggested a place upstairs. It didn’t disappoint. It was packed with locals of Chinese descent … always a good sign.  The lady in the pic was like a manager … she was talkative and cute.  It was very delicious.  After lunch we took the light rail back to our hotel and decided to walk on the Sydney Harbor Bridge; it is just above our hotel. Good views! We then checked in. Our hotel is a historic building, not luxurious and bathroom across the hall. It will be great for th...
Read more