Day 30 – Tuesday, February 4, 2025 – Suva, Fiji

I guess I never thought about it before, but today I learned that Fiji is not a single island but the country made-up of 350 islands. Suva is the capital of Fiji. It sits on the biggest island called Viti Levu. Like I said, I never thought about it, but I assumed Fiji was an island. I'm getting smarter every day. Just ask me.

We got up a little early. We had to be on shore by 9:00. We had breakfast brought to the room. Because in the past, when bringing the breakfast to the room, it tended to be cold, So I ordered hash Browns and then English muffin. Mary had similar.

We were to meet our tour guide, Seru, where the tour buses were. I didn't have a telephone number for him. For about four months we have communicated back and forth using chat inside of this app called Tours By Locals. All the communications were positive, but nonetheless there was a sense of uncertainty. We made it off the ship and wandered about 1000 feet to where the tour buses were. There we saw a guy holding a sign Jim W. We walked another 100 feet or so and he pulled up in behind a normal taxi. I thought to myself this is not good. Thankfully, up pulls van with a lift. We learned later it is the only lift equipped van on the whole island. Not hard to believe, I guess, Based on our history. The lift was great. The tie downs were not so great. They worked well enough, but at no time did I feel completely safe. Nonetheless, we headed down the road. Seru Introduced himself and gave us some history. Mary started asking them questions about this and that. This went on for about 30 minutes.  Our first stop was in front of the current government building. There was no convenient place for me to get out so I stayed in the van. Mary and Seru got out and wandered around for about 1/2 hour. Mary got good pictures of several important points. What was interesting is they had a presentation field there both Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria received a Fiji welcome. Fiji was part of the British Empire until it won independence in 1970.  Mary commented on how much history Seru knows.

From there we drove about 30 minutes to Fiji Museum. That first, I thought it was going to be a 10 minute thing we'll put it ended up being an hour thing. I was very impressed. So was Mary. We learned a lot about the history of Fiji from an archaeological perspective. I talked a lot about the canoes that were used to move between islands going back hundreds of years. It discussed what people would look like back then. What they wore. What they look like. Their tools. Their everyday items. Etcetera. Like my opening paragraphs that is, it's something I never thought of. I learned a great deal about the history of Fiji.  Like every museum, of course, there was a gift shop. Mary was able to find postcards there. We had a lot more to go, so we loaded back up into the van.

From there we drove another 30 minutes or so up into the other side of the island. Keep in mind that when we got off the ship it was in Suva - A decent sized city. We drove out of town into the more rural area which makes up the majority of the island. The further we went up it was more rainforest like. Seru Said we were going to an area that better represented how the people of Fiji actually lived. He called it the village. We pulled up to a neighborhood like area. Probably not neighborhood like we thank but the series of homes in an area around a common ground. At the front of this area we met some of the village leaders for lack of a better term. We worked our way up to a presentation center. We were given fresh watermelon. It was good. It was not as sweet as our watermelons. That's a comment. Not to complain. We were seated in front of stage, if you could call it that. We saw several presentations over the next hour or so. The national drink is called Kava. I'm not exactly sure what it’s made of, but they have a traditional process making up. I was designated village chief so I had to play a role in the process. They have a word that they use for various situations such as thank you, how are you and how was your day, for example. The word is Bula. As temporary village chief I had to say Bula at various stages. I've then got to taste the finished Kava. It did not have a specific taste. Actually, it was kind of blah for lack of a better term. Anyway, I played my role as chief very well. Other presentations had to do with specific dances. They had a fire presentation. There was a guy with a baton with fire on both ends. He did some amazing things with it. Actually, scary is better. It might be in the videos I attached. After the presentations were over, we were given a sample lunch. Mary said everything was bathed in coconut milk. I had fish and Mary had chicken. There were other things on the menu, but i don't remember their specific names at this point. It was supposed to represent a typical meal on Fiji. It was a very interesting visit. The pessimist in me somewhat wonders how accurate the things like the dances were. It could have been four unemployed guys from town. The job description was dance for the silly tourists. Is this being too snarky?

Our next stop was to a National Park of sorts. Going in I knew that I would not be able to too much there. Seru and Mary Walked up and down a windy path to where there were waterfalls. Mary took pictures of the waterfalls and some of the trails she had to go up and down. She said she was amazed she was able to do it. The road, if you can call it that, from the main road to the trailhead was a nightmare, to say the least. It was beyond bumpy. I hung on for dear life. My shoulders hurt the next day I'm holding on so tightly. Even if the tie downs had been working 100%, this would still have been a challenge. I made it down turn back off without falling out of my chair, minor miracle.

We had pretty much finished up the official part of the tour. It was now 1:00 and we still had to find a post office and T-shirts. Now that I think of it, we picked up refrigerator magnets at the village. We drove back into town and stopped along the way at a grocery store. I did not go in. Mary went in looking for Monster. She bought some cans. The hope was that they would have been canned in Fiji, but after looking at the cans it appears that they were canned in LA then shipped to Fiji. Ohh well, obviously not a big deal.

We drove back into the city center. We found a post office. Seru and Mary got out. For about 20 minutes or so they were just gone. Finally, we spotted them coming towards us again. They were able to find the post office so the postcards received stamps and were sent on their way. While they were out wandering, they ran across the T-shirt shop so Mary bought her T-shirts. It was getting a bit late at this point. We had to be back on the ship by 4:30 so we had time, but it was close to 3:00. We made it back to the ship. We said our goodbyes. We took pictures. They went their way, and we went ours. It was a hugely successful excursion. I would highly recommend these guys to anyone. We learned a lot about Fiji. We learned a lot more than the average person taking the average excursion. We pay more for these private tours, but I think they're worth it.

Back on the ship we chilled in the room for a short time before heading for dinner. For dinner the wine I tried was Conundrum. It is a red blend by the Caymus winery. It was OK. Not great. We both had salad for appetizers. Mary had Alfredo pasta. She had a chicken dish. I had two main dinners. I had the pad Thai and separately I had a seafood skewer dish. It had shrimp, scallops, fish with rice. The pad thai was pretty good. Not as good as we've had in the real world, but it was pretty good. It's never spicy enough. If they had served a couple of jalapenos with it, it would have been that much better. What is your color Mary had vegan ice cream I had two scoops of ice cream with caramel syrup. As always, it was a very good dinner.

We were exhausted so we went upstairs and crashed.