around the world in 180 days

            We have started getting friendly with public transportation. Today we took buses ½ way around the island (3 hour round trip). It was a lot of time on a bus, but what the hell else were we going to do?

            We rode down to the south side of the island, to an area called the “coral coast” that has lots of nice beaches (like everywhere else) and lots of fancy, expensive resorts. We went down to take a look at an “eco-park,” which is a fancy name for a zoo. It was a nice zoo, though, with many large enclosures and focusing on preserving the indigenous wildlife of Fiji. It was fun, but probably not worth the time we spent in the bus, but again, what else were we going to do?

            When we were leaving, we were walking down the road back to the bus stop, wondering what we were going to do for the hour and a half until our bus came to take us back home. A golf cart pulled up with a Brit, a Kiwi and two Fijians. They’d come from the Outrigger, a super fancy and expensive resort along the Coral Coast, and they offered us a ride back to the bus stop. Before we got there, the resort employees asked if we’d be interested in taking a look around the resort. We said sure, and they dropped us off at the pool.

            There were signs all around the pool that told us that we weren’t allowed to use the pool or the lounge chairs or the towels, because we were dirty backpackers, but since they were only signs, we knew we could safely ignore them without hurting their feelings or having them raise a fuss; it’s the people you’ve got to worry about. Lucky for us, the people (like most of the people in Fiji) were friendly and helpful and offered us drinks as we swam in the resort’s pool, dried off with their towels and sat on their lounge chairs. It was just the ticket, cooling us off during the hottest part of the day and giving us something to do until our bus came. The only downside was that I had to ride on a bus for an hour and a half with a wet swimsuit (Anna brought a change of clothes). It was worth it.

Tomorrow is our last day in Fiji. We’re planning on doing nothing. The buses don’t run, so we can’t go into town without taking a cab, and even if we did, everything is closed. These people take their Sabbath seriously. I finished both my book and Anna’s book, so I’m going to need to find something to read or it may be a long day.

Oh well. I can handle long days like these, I suppose.

hello all,

I have more to say about our stay in Fiji, but I don’t have my little gadget with me at the moment. I’ll post the rest when we get to Auckland on Monday, but I wanted to give you a quick update.

We’re still alive. We’re a little sunburned and ready for NZ, but we’re still alive and that’s what’s important.

I went back and replied to some of the comments today. Sorry I was so slow about it, I just don’t have that much time in front of a computer and there are so many things to take care of. I wanted to reply in LA, but it seemed to make more sense to get the photos up. I enjoy hearing from all of you (we both do) so keep writing and I’ll try to do better in responding.

Anyway, we’ve got to catch a bus back to our hostel. Stay tuned for further updates.

            We made a good decision yesterday when we left Mana Island. The mainland is much larger and consequently much more diverse, so we were able to find something to do, which for us means we found somewhere to go on a hike.

            We knew there was a national park nearby, but the Lonely Planet said that there were no buses that ran up there and only on guy that you could call to take you there, without going with a large tour group. We tried to call the visitor center but didn’t get an answer.

            Mama, the owner of the hostel we’re staying at, was kind enough to make a few calls to a travel agency, and they suggested that take a bus to Lautoka, the nearest city, and then hire a carrier, which is a pickup truck with a tarp covering the back, to take us up to the main village in the park, Abaca (which, for whatever reason is pronounced ambartha).

            By some strange miracle, this was no more difficult than it sounded. We wandered around in Lautoka for a few minutes, wondering if these gentlemen with pickup trucks were legit or not, and then spoke to one, who agreed to take us immediately. He waited at the visitor center while we did our hike and then took us back down.

            The roads up to the place were terrible. They were rutted and washed out, due to a huge flood Fiji had about a month ago. I think even in the best of times the roads would have been rough passage, though.

            The hike was unbelievable. We walked through thick jungle on the hillside above the river that went over the falls we were going to see. It was wet and slippery and muddy and hard to follow at times, but it was great fun. It felt good to be wandering through the woods again, getting lost, finding our way and looking out over huge valleys that widened until they reached the ocean. The falls themselves were great too. They fell 80m (sorry, I don’t know what that works out to) in 3 stages. Up close, we only saw the bottom third, which we thought was the whole thing, it was so spectacular. It was a wonderful hike and a wonderful day.

            I can’t believe I’ve forgotten about this unti just now, but when we were on Mana Island, one of the girls staying in the same hostel as us was wading in the ocean out front of the place and was bitten on the finger by an eel. The village doctor, who used mostly traditional methods, told her that she was lucky, because usually the eels take the whole finger, instead of just a nibble. We asked her how bad the injury was and she said, “Well, in England, they probably would have given me stitches but here they just put some leaves on it.”

Priceless.

            We left Mana Island today, getting a full refund for the three nights we’d already paid for. We’re staying in at the Tropic of Capricorn, a backpacker in New Town Beach, just outside of Nadi. This place isn’t much and in the states, I’d call it a shithole, but we ain’t in the states and it’s better than the place we just left. The bathroom has hot and cold water, the power stays on all night, and we pick the music. At the place on Mana Island, they had 2 CDs they played again and again. It drove us both nuts.

            I think tomorrow we’re going to try to go up to a National Park not too far away that has a couple of hikes. We need to call in the morning and find out some of the details, but as long as we can work things out, that’s where we’ll go. Otherwise, we’ll head south to the Coral Coast for a couple of days.

            Fiji would be a wonderful place if we needed a relaxing vacation. As we haven’t done anything more stressful than flying since we moved at the end of January, we don’t really need much of a rest. We both just want to get to New Zealand and get on trail for a few days. We’ve had enough relaxing, we want to see something amazing, something that you can’t see unless you work for it. It spoils Fiji for us, because we have nothing to relax from, We can’t begin our trip until we get off these beautiful island beaches. Another time, maybe, and we’d enjoy this more.

            The other major problem with Fiji is that it isn’t in any sense of the word a budget destination. We paid $115 (FJ) for a room with a bed, shared bathrooms, a shower that was a hold in a PVC pipe, and three meals a day. Without the food, I would’ve been pissed. The food was delicious. The rest was crap. All of the activities, be it scuba diving, island hopping, or just sitting in a bar, cost a fortune. Fiji is a fine country, it just isn’t what we’re looking for right now.

            Most of the backpackers we’ve come across here have been on their way home, at their last stop before going back to the US, or, much more commonly, their last stop before going back to the UK. Almost everyone we’ve met on Fiji was from the UK. They all talk in their UK accents and I want to mimic them. I’ve resisted so far, but we’re in for a long stretch of accents. It’s really only a matter of time.

            So. Yeah. Sorry to complain so much about what a bummer Fiji is, but we’re just not really feeling it here. I’m hopeful that we’ll enjoy the Nat’l park and getting out and stretching our legs a bit. With a little luck, it won’t even be intolerably hot like it is everywhere else on Fiji.

            A man named Moses took us fishing today. It cost us $30 each and we went with 5 other people, but it was great. Anna caught a blue-finned Travoli (??) and I didn’t catch anything. One of the guys we were with, a retired teacher, caught a big barracuda, which was as ugly as sin but tasted delicious.

            The fishing trip turned around what was otherwise a fairly crappy day. We were both still not really feeling Fiji too much. We decided to try and leave tomorrow, so we spent a good chunk of the morning tracking down a phone card and a telephone. You’d think something like that would be pretty basic, but this is a small island. We haven’t even been able to find sunburn lotion for the burns we got yesterday.

            We never managed to get a hold of the lady at the travel agency that booked us here. Anna talked to someone who worked at the same place, but she said we needed to talk to the same person and that she wouldn’t be in until 3. It sounds a little shady to me, but who knows. We’re going to try again tomorrow morning and hopefully things will work out.

            It also seemed for a while today as if I might be getting what Anna had in Guatemala. Things started the exact same way. I’m probably not out of the woods yet, but my stomach is feeling much better. There’s not really any point in worrying about it, so I’m not going to.

            So today: better than yesterday, still not New Zealand.

Cheers!

So, it probably sounds retarded, but we’re not too keen on Fiji so far. I know how this sounds, but all it is (at least where we are) is beaches and sun. I’m cool with beaches and I’m cool with sun, but when you put on SPF 45 sunscreen twice a day and still get a pretty bad sunburn, I start to think maybe that’s too much sun.

            Also, the owner of the place we’re staying at is a little psychotic. He means well, I sincerely believe it, but he’s strange and overbearing and reluctant to just leave us to our own devices. I’m not five, I don’t need constant attention.

At this point, I’m not really sure why we came here. I think it’s because the flight was free.  So, yeah, it’s stupid to complain about sitting on a beach in Fiji. I know. Sorry. I’m just hot and sweaty and sunburned and some frickin’ bug bit my foot and it’s swelling up something fierce. I think if we could get off this island and go somewhere else, we might not be so unhappy, but we prepaid. I know, I know, we never should have done that. We won’t do that again. The lady that got us to prepay for the week assured us again and again that we could get a refund if we didn’t like the place we were going to, but I have my doubts. Four other people staying here got rooms that weren’t what they paid for (they paid for 2 bed dorm rooms and got a regular dorm room) and the guy wouldn’t refund their money. We’re going to call the lady that booked this for us tomorrow and see what she says. If it’s good, we’ll leave. If not, we’ll stay and suffer through another 5 days on the beach. Torture, right?

ok, photos are up on flickr. Here’s the link:

Aaron and Anna’s travel photos

A few have explanatory titles, but the rest are just the photo and an inscrutable name. Sorry. I’ll label them later if I have time. These are all from Guatemala.

We’ve been in LA now for three days–tonight we fly out for Fiji. We leave at 10:30 pm from LA and arrive in Fiji at 8 in the morning, Monday. We don’t get a Sunday this week. In a few minutes, I’m going to try to put up some of our pictures from Guatemala. We’ve got them on a computer and should be able to set up a Shutterfly or Flicker site for them. I might post some of the best of them here, if I have time. It’s a beautiful southern California day and we want to go to the beach before we leave, and we still have a bunch of things to get done today.

Took a little haitus from writing while we were in LA, there wasn’t much to really write about. I’ll be back to regular posts when we’re on the road again. I’m still planning on putting together that fair trade coffee rant and I’d like to do sort of a final Guatemala post. We’ll see. I’m going to try to sleep on the plane tonight, but if I can’t I’ll write and post from Fiji.

            These travel days are rough. I mean, sure, we don’t have to work and we don’t have them every day, but travel days always start at an ungodly hour and involve trying tto get around in an unfamiliar place, a task that isn’t a cakewalk even when you’re not exhausted.

            We got on the plane in LA last night at 7 pm Fiji time or 11 pm LA time. Anna and I had a row to ourselves, the middle four seats in a 747, and so we actually managed to get some sleep. Still, the airline started breakfast service around 2:30 am Fiji time, and we’ve both been up since then.

            We didn’t know where we were going when we got here, despite picking up a copy of the lonely planet guide for Fiji. We had an idea though, and when we’d cleared customs we were ushered into the office of a travel agent who took those ideas and shipped us off to Mana, a small island not far from the main island.

            It’s the first day and we’re wiped out, so I guess the jury is still out on Fiji. It seems like a nice place and the people seem friendly, but I feel like we’re paying a fortune for a crappy room, decent food and a great beach. Whatever, I guess. We’re here until next Saturday and then it’s on to NZ. There are plenty of worse things to do than sit on a beach and  get a little bit fatter.

            We drank some Kava today. Kava is a traditional Fijian drink made from the root of some plant that only grows here. It takes six years, but then the dig up the root, grind into a consistency like fine sand. This “sand” is mixed with water and viola! Kava. It’s supposed to be a mild narcotic, but I quite honestly am just feeling exhausted.

Goodnight!

            Our last day in San Lucas has ended. We both wish we’d planned to stay here longer. We’re just starting to get our head around Spanish, just starting to get to know the town, just starting to get to know the people and we’re leaving. Oh well. There were reasons why we didn’t plan longer here, and those reasons are still valid. New Zealand awaits.

            Anna and I went up to the clinica today on the suggestion of two of the longer term volunteers at the mission. They said that Anna might have amoebas and that she should go up there and get tested for free. The price was right, so we went and found out that Anna did have amoebas (which won’t go away on their own) and also a bacterial infection (which the Cipro would have taken care of). The two volunteers, Josiah and Kathryn, also recommended a specific ameoba medicine, which we spent half the afternoon tracking down. Anna seems to be mostly back to normal at this point, not in much pain and using the bathroom at a normal frequency. Thank goodness this seems to have passed quickly. I hope that holds true.

            As for the rest of the day, we mostly hung out at Bartola’s again, playing with the kids and starting our goodbyes. Bartola’s husband and the kids’ father ran off to the US and lives in LA now (I think I mighta mentined that before) and when we told the family we were flying to LA next, the look in their eyes was heartbreaking. We should have thought more about it ahead of time and said we were going to Santa Monica or Beverly Hills or something like that, but we didn’t. It’s hard to grow up without a father (so I hear, anyway), no matter where you live. On one hand, I hope tha someday he comes back, but on the other hand, he’s abandoned them for this long. Coming back might only allow him to break their hearts again.

            And so tomorrow we begin another leg of our journey, first to Antigua. then to LA, then to Fiji. This leg will also begin in the middle of the night, as we leave Antigua at 4 am. So it goes.

Anyway, enough for now. I’ve a fair trade coffee rant that I feel brewing (i’m sorry), so stay tuned.

Goodnight!!