Well, I made it! I survived for three months in Fiji 'all on my own'. I can't believe that it is coming to a close. When I first got here three months seemed to stretch out in front of me, no end in sight. I'll admit, in the middle I was very homesick, and wanting to come home; people that I had initially been friends with had all gone home...and I felt lonely. Then I just said 'screw it, stop feeling sorry for yourself.' So I did just that...and the last month has flown by! Way too fast at that!
I should mention right now, for those of you that follow the world news that is, that I was completely fine during all that terrible weather that Fiji experienced. As usual, Nadi was hit the hardest with massive flooding and damage. Suva (where I lived) wasn't hit as hard. However, I wasn't even on the mainland during all of it, I was on the third biggest island in Fiji, Taveuni.
Last Friday, seven of us boarded the ferry for a seventeen hour, overnight ride, to Taveuni. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! In fact, it kind of felt like home because we were on an old BCFerries boat! Fiji bought the boat about a year ago...it is one of the older ones, but still perfectly fine. I did manage to get some sleep, but ended up sleeping on my back funny and it's been bothering me ever since...good thing I'm having a massage when I get home.
Saturday morning the 31st, we arrived in Taveuni to pissing down rain. We found a taxi, and we were going to go to the famous slide waterfalls, but the driver was being really pushy with us, and not really listening. He decided to take us to the furthest part of the island since he gets more money that way. We did get to stop to get groceries since we'd be doing all of our own cooking. In the end it all worked out, but it was very annoying in the moment!
Our first two nights we stayed in Levana Village in a Lodge there. It was pretty basic beds and bathrooms, but for the price we paid I'm not complaining. Two of the guys had to share a tent and we had plenty of fun teasing them about it. On Sunday we went on the Coastal Walk that the Lodge offers - through the rainforest to a small waterfall. It was overcast that day, with only a bit of rain, but that was great since it would have been difficult to do with humidity. We had to swim out to the falls...but I couldn't make it. I'm not a very strong swimmer anymore, and then I panic and my asthma kicks in...so that sucked :(
Monday we basically just packed and took the bus an hour to the town of Matei, where we stayed in a campground for our last two nights. We all got rooms though. There was an adorable puppy there, that we had a lot of fun playing with.
I was suppose to fly back Tuesday, but because of all the terrible weather all flights to the Suva area were cancelled. Thankfully I got a full refund. And I'm actually really glad that I got that extra full day there because I got to go to the Black Pearl Farm. Half of us went there and the other half went scuba diving at the Rainbow Reef. We snorkelled for a bit - again I didn't do much because of my asthma. We got to have a full demonstration of how they culture/harvest the pearls. Very cool!
As for food during that time. We had pasta almost every night with a tomato sauce that tasted like ketchup. We had fried potatoes a few times with curry. We had eggs and toast almost every morning too. It was actually a nice break from roti, rice and spicy curry! We had a couple of misses, like the sausages we bought were terrible and the curry powdered was way too salty. Overall, we had a blast with our attempts in the kitchen.
Wednesday we missed our bus and had to try and flag down a mini van, which we did eventually. We took it to the famous slide waterfall (finally). It was very hard to get there. Normally and easy five-ten minute walk. But with all of our bags and all the mud due to the heavy rain the night before it was slow going. It was totally worth it though. The falls were, breathtaking! And so much fun to slide down. After that we just hung out on the beach for a bit, before it started to pour again. Eventually a taxi big enough for all of us showed up and we went and got on the ferry.
We got there early enough that we staked out a prime spot with lots of space for all of us to sleep. I ended up taking one of my painkillers, a muscle relaxer and sleeping pill. I know I needed a good night sleep and my back was killing me. However, the pills actually got me a bit high...stupid I know! And then I ended up giving the same combo to one of the other girls who was also in a lot of pain....then a couple of the guys wanted in on the action too...only in Fiji could I become a drug pusher. Very embarassing indeed! Especially since we wondered around that boat in that state...and there is a video of it somewhere...oh dear oh dear! On the bright side I slept like a baby!
Got back to Suva later than we were suppose to Thursday morning. I didn't get to do half of the things I would have liked to have done if I had been able to fly back like I had initially intended. I tried to do my laundry...Of course right after I had put it all on the line to dry it started to rain...so I had to put it all in plastic bags! Didn't get to buy as many snacks as I liked because while in the grocery store the power went out...
I did have my last social dinner and last night at O'Rilley's. It was a ton of fun...but also very sad for me. I had to hold back tears quite a few times, especially when people started to head home for the night.
Friday, I just woke up, said goodbye to my host family, took a taxi into Suva and got on the bus to Nadi to the Novotel Hotel. I should have only done one night in the hotel - I really would have liked to have had another day in Suva to hang out with my friends and had a chance to have one last proper dinner with my host family who have been so wonderful to me the past three months.
I say leaving is bittersweet. I am very ready to come home, but not ready to say goodbye to Fiji or my friends.
I am going to write a lengthy retrospective once I'm back in Vancouver; I'll be able to go into more details without time limits on my internet time.
For now...I'll see you all soon!
