Adventures of Beth and Dan: “We wander for distraction but we travel for fulfillment.”-Hilario Belloc

Suva, Fuji is our next port and last one in Fiji.

Sugar is the foundation economy of this area. There is a nice museum here with the history of the area. For a cultural immersion into their life visit the Sawanu Village. There is a scenic farmers market which you reach on a leisure drive. They offer long boat tours to Nailililili which captures the local flair.

This island has zip lining also. Suva is the capital of Fiji and home to half their population. The population here is 175,000. We dock at 8 and leave at 4:30 unless the tides change. The port is a cargo port with lots of available tourist information. They have beautiful botanical gardens. The original town was burned in 1843 and it was a bloody canabalistic event. The handicraft market is buyer beware and you can do friendly bartering. Watch out to make sure the item is what they say it is and worth it. If the price they ask is $100 offer $25!

There is the Sacred Heart Catholic Church who’s architecture is very colonial. Many places shut down around 1-2 for lunch. Don’t expect punctuality!! They run in “Island time”. Wear insect repellant especially around your ankles. Bring your umbrella to be safe. “Lo” means yes...

Our tour here is a city tour. Our bus has Wi-Fi and finally a microphone. We pass many public elementary schools and city offices. Along our route we passed the the presidents White House that was gated and guarded. They stopped there for us to take a photo and we were told the guard would not talk. We next stopped at the My Suva Park that was all decorated for the holidays. There was a stream running through the park with huge carp in it jumping for food!! The grounds are lovely and well kept. There are about 32 on our tour and we paid $35 pp to take this tour. We pass the squatter settlements and they tell us new apartments are being constructed for them. Garbage is still a huge problem here with debris dumped everywhere. We travel into Nabua. It looks very old and poor. All the buildings have iron gates over the windows to prevent burglary. They are in the midst of upgrading roads and our guide says it is because election is just around the corner so you will vote for the current politician because you think they are fixing things. We pass the Army Barracks where the soldiers live with their families. The police also live like this and their housing is paid for. The apartments look fairly nice and tidy. We pass tunnels where during WW2 the US troops hid their weapons.

Squatters Pay $500 to build a shack on a piece of undesirable land outside the city but this doesn’t let them own the land just use it. They get metered electricity and water but dig a hole for their sewage and sometimes share it with others. Our guide says they are very happy and are lucky that the hurricanes didn’t destroy their fragile homes. They grow a lot of taro which is like a sweet potato. Next is the Colo-I -Suva Rain Forest. It’s the road to the waterfall. The road is windy and curvy to get us there. Bird of Paradise line the roadway and are huge growing at least 15 feet tall!!! There are giant trees with bright orange flowers called Vau ...another name is Pasi. There are 14 provinces in Fiji with their own dialects.

Up on the top of the rainforest are beautiful large homes with exquisite views. We are on the way to the town of Nasawani along the river. It is small. The trash is collected here with no charge but still people choose to just dump it anywhere. Our guide says they are getting more strict about people doing this and beginning to fine them.

We walked down to the waterfall amidst beautiful ginger and bird of paradise flowers. It smelled so fragrant and the cool mist of the waterfall felt wonderful. The name is Emily’s Falls names after the land owners daughter. The land owner and his daughter are there and collect a few from our tour guide to let us enter.

After the falls we head to Colo I Suva which means interior of Suva. Many are unemployed in this village that will serve us a meal and entertain us with traditional dances and costumes. . The people here plant their own food. You can freely take photos. But ask if you want to take a photo inside their house. The meal is very simple consisting of fresh fruit, fish, taro leaves baked with a coconut cream filling and sweet potatoes. The grounds at nest and tidy and each small home has a lovely well kept flower garden in the front yard. There are a few shops set up with ladies tops, dresses, hats, t shirts and men’s shirts along with carved items and souvenirs. We spend about an hour and a half here and then head back to the bus and into town where folks can shop a little or take the free ship shuttle back to the ship.

Presidents White House guard