Sailed into Suva in a monsoon – dark and rainy. It’s definitely the South Pacific though – hot and steamy! Got off around 8 am so we could explore the market which is supposed to be really great – especially on Saturday mornings when it’s the local shopping day. As soon as we left the ship, the skies opened. We ran for the market and weren’t disappointed – it was an amazing collection of seafood and produce vendors – the most incredible looking pineapples, taro, herbs, odd looking vegetables, coconuts, just incredible sights and smells. And teeming with people. Really amazing. We were looking for the “flee” market (kid you not, that’s how it’s spelled on the Fiji visitor map) that was supposed to be in the same area, but never really found it so we went over to the “Republic of Cappuccino” for Cappuccinos and to find out about the internet service they have there.
Left there and headed back toward the ship to see about getting a taxi to Colo-I-Suva, the rainforest park about 11 km outside of Suva. Ran into a cabbie outside the market who agreed to take us to the park. His name was Johnny and he was as friendly as can be and talked our ears off about Fiji, the Fijian people, the government, etc. A wealth of great information for us to get an insight into the Fijian life. We headed up to the rain forest – got to the park and it was closed with a huge number of police doing training exercises. Couldn’t find anyone at the park office to talk to, so Johnny suggested he take us to a waterfall and then we’d come back to see if it was open.
Long story short, we ended up with Johnny for a half day tour to a waterfall – really cool on the side of a road in the hills! – and then through his home town of Nausori – where he offered to take us to his house and cook for us! We politely declined as we didn’t want to offend him if we didn’t like his Taro and Cholo root boiled in water and sliced – he was so sweet we didn’t want to be rude, so we just told him we really wanted to hike the rainforest, and he headed back to Colo-I-Suva. Along the way learning, Johnny told us about the farming, the Chinese immigration, how friendly the Fijian people are (they are too –more about that later) and different things about the government and the military take over that occurred.
Made it back to the rainforest and found the park management folks, paid our entrance fee, then Johnny drove us down this muddy track to the entrance of the forest. At that point we were very glad we hired him to stay with us since we would have had to walk down the mile and a half of muddy gravel, hike the forest, hike back up the muddy gravel and then try to catch a local bus (which were all packed to gills because it was market day). Good decision!
The rainforest was a great decision too – it was like being millions of miles away in some deserted forest – we only saw 2 other people the whole time we were there. Walking through the dense forest listening to the waterfalls was just amazing. (For all you Lost fans out there – this was just like walking through he jungle in Lost – including the waterfall and pools like at their first cave, before they found the hatch!!!) Hiked down to the lower pools and the up to the upper pools of the waterfalls. Can’t even begin to describe this place – it was just amazing – and only a few Kilometers from Suva – simply incredible and remote and deserted. Hope the pictures do it justice! It wasn’t hot enough or sunny enough to take a dip in the pools – so even though we had come prepared in our bathing suits, we decided to stay dry (well, stream water dry, not perspiration dry!) and head back up to Johnny and our waiting cab.
Headed to the Rainforest Lodge for a quick bite to eat. The Lodge is situated right on a lagoon, and the restaurant is all open with incredible views. Ed had his first “Aussie” burger – guess Australian’s cook their burgers this way – burger patty, fried egg, mayonnaise, bacon, lettuce and tomato. I stuck with Tuna salad! Then Johnny took us back to Suva town and we left him at the pier, looking for another fare (which he found, as we saw him later dropping off another couple from the ship!).
We dumped our packs, changed out of our swimwear and headed out to just walk around the town. There was a little craft market close to the ship as well as some gardens further down we wanted to see. Suva is not exactly a tourist mecca – it’s a fairly large city that is extremely busy – and especially on Saturday Market day – clogged with honking cars and lots of pedestrians. There aren’t too many sites around the city, a few museums, the parliament house, etc. nothing terribly noteworthy at least about which we heard. Tours outside the city encompass the rainforest and swimming and some interesting sites, but the actual city is so filled with hustle and bustle, that it can be a bit much for the senses. We were warned to watch out for petty crime, pick pockets and the like (what you’d find in most cities, quite frankly), however, we honestly have to say that we never felt threatened or afraid. Everyone you passed, even the most serious, somber or frightening looking people would say Bula (hello in Fijian) to us. Virtually every single person we encountered said hello – and not just trying to sell us something or get us to take a tour – they were just extremely friendly.
As we walked, the temperature kept creeping up – so after walking through what looked like abandoned gardens attached to the Fiji Museum, we headed back to the ship with a pit stop at an Internet café to catch up with the world. Back on the ship we relaxed in the air conditioned splendor of our cabin and the Lido Deck buffet for our afternoon cookies and coffee. Sailed right on time – heading to Pago Pago, American Samoa.
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