Bula from Fiji!

Bula!  Today we were in the town of Suva on the island of Fiji.  Fiji consists of over 300 islands ranging in size from 7,000 square miles to tiny coral atolls that barely break the surface of the sea.  Two islands, Vita Leva and Vanua Leva, make up 85 percent of the land mass.  Suva is on Viti Leva.  Mel Gibson’s island “Magu” is in Fiji, which he purchased in 2004 for $17.2 million.  Part of the movie Blue Lagoon was filmed on one of Fiji’s islands, as well as the movie Castaway.  Cannibalism was practiced here for thousands of years, up until the mid to late 19^th century.  It was considered the ultimate revenge upon one’s enemies.  Thank goodness that practice died out!

“Bula” is the greeting said in Fiji by pretty much everybody, and the louder and more boisterous you say it, the better!  We had a lot of fun practicing our “BULA!” on everybody we met. 

Today we signed up for an independent tour (not sponsored by the cruise line) that would take us down a river on a traditional Fiji raft.  The tour folks drove us about an hour outside of town where we hiked 20 minutes up a trail to the river.  The rafts were basically 8-10 pieces of bamboo strung together with vines with another row of bamboo on top of that.   All of that is fine and dandy but there are only two rafts and we’re twelve people.  The rafts definitely don’t look like they hold that many people!  Five people got on the first raft and somehow it made it okay downriver.  That leaves seven people to get on our raft and as soon as we get on, we immediately flip over!  Everyone is in the water (brackish water too – yuck)!  One lady in our group volunteered herself to go in the regular boat with our cameras and gear (smart woman!).  Somehow the six of us that were left got back on the raft – it’s precarious though;  we were all constantly trying to balance ourselves on the bamboo to keep it from flipping again.  About 100 yards down the river we were doing okay when Daron said, “I think it will balance better if I just move an inch.”  Before any of us can protest, Daron moved and we flipped AGAIN!  Back into the water for all of us!  The other gal and I scramble back on and so does Daron.  Three of the guys just stay in the water and float downstream while hanging onto the raft.  Even with only three of us on the raft, it constantly feels like it’s going to flip.  It’s a balancing act the entire time.  Finally a couple of locals come paddling by on their own six pieces of bamboo strung together (I can hardly call it a raft) and offer to take two of the guys with them, so they don’t have to swim the entire time.  The last remaining swimmer from our raft is able to get back on and we keep the balancing act going.  Our guide barely speaks English and our two groups are really spread out – the other group being way ahead since they didn’t flip over and have to reposition themselves like we did.  The locals who came by gave our guide a better paddle, so then Daron volunteered to help paddle us with the stick of bamboo our guide was using before.  We are traveling on the river FOREVER and have no idea how far we have to go because we are having trouble communicating with our guide.  To top off the whole experience, it starts to rain.  By this time we were all thinking “we paid money for this?” (thankfully not much, which reminds me of another saying:  “you get what you pay for” J).  It was quite the ordeal!  Even though it sounds like a recipe for disaster, it turned out to be a good time.  Our entire group stayed very upbeat and had fun with the experience.  Of course we told lots of jokes about cannibals and wondering where they were taking us!   With all the time we had on the river we told jokes about all kinds of things! 

We found out at the boat landing that this was the first time they had done this tour, so we were their human guinea pigs (thankfully guinea pigs weren’t on the lunch menu that day! J).  I was inspired by the main person who put it all together.  He had graduated with a business degree from the local college (which is subsidized by the government, so all Fijians can attend) and was being entrepreneurial.  This was the first time tourists had ever been on that river.  He really wanted to introduce tourists to his culture and also to introduce the locals to tourists. He was a good guy and I liked that he was trying – even though the tour may need some modifications for next time!