Fiji

When I first arrived in Fiji I was thinking about how my first blog entry would be a bitch session about flying there and how United is probably the worst airline, next to One Two Go! of course. But now that I've been here for a few days, I just want to say, "fuck United, and long live Fiji."

I landed early in the morning Fijian time after having slept like a baby on the plane. I waited to catch a flight to Suva from Nadi, and during that time managed to meet someone that knows someone that works with my aunt here in the capital of Fiji. It's a small island with smaller circles. Anyway, my aunt and cousin and I spent two nights here in the city, but then made a plan to escape to the east. While in Suva we checked out the Colo I Suva Forest Park outside the city. As we descended down the trail, my aunt couldn't help but play with the giant centipede on the tree trunk. Only later did we find out that these things are carnivorous and as quoted from a Peace Corps worker stationed in Tonga, "I've been bitten three times. Each time I went to the hospital. And those three bites were easily the most painful three experiences of my life." Apparently they make bee lines for people and can hightail it faster than you can walk. The only way to kill them is to sever the head... way cool.

Anyway, we dropped in on these natural and manually assisted pools. There are about 12 of them and they all flow into each other. The last of them is this giant pool with a rope swing that drops you from a good 25 feet if you swing from the top step. The pool was so deep and though it was fresh water, it was easily warmer than the air. It was great to be there though with only 2 other strangers. It was nearly a private amusement park. After that, I was given a sample of Fiji Bitter, the best beer in Fiji. I was a little put off since I hate bitter beers, but... totally worth it when you have just been swinging like Tarzan for a couple hours. To clarify, it's not really bitter and it's the bomb. Also while in Fiji I saw my first Bollywood film. The name was something like Dhamaal, but seriously people, what the fuck? It was supposed to be this comedy, but it was more ridiculous than Naked Gun 33 1/3 and it directly stole lines from Road Trip and was nearly identical in plot to It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Either way, it made me want to see it again, probably because of one scene where this guy dies and as he drops his head in the guy's hands by his side, his leg kicks out and knocks over a bucket.

On Sunday we headed for Waidalice river mouth and pulled Xiomara out of school for the first half of the week. Our destination was a small island of Caqalai (pronounced: Thungalai). There we basked in the sun and snorkeled in some of the clearest water I've ever seen. The mental images still astound me. We did some diving off of another little island off of our little island. It's aptly named snake island and though we didn't see any of them in the water like was reported, we'd seen one earlier in the morning by Caqalai. Also while diving we saw a small shark, moray eel about 5 feet long, and some giant fish that we could never identify, but presumably Cod.

I feel like my words can't do Fiji justice, so I promise next time, I'll just post some pictures.