Crusoe's Retreat

I am writing to you from the porch of our beach bungalow. Our flight to Nadi, Fiji was a piece of cake compared to the first. We once again had an empty seat in our row; we must really be living right! We made it through customs with only one minor hitch- Kyle’s first international purchase was getting his boots cleaned by a customs agent to get the dirt off! We were then greeted with shell necklaces and a private shuttle to Crusoe’s Resort. It was a two hour ride through the heart of the island. What we learned upon arriving was that just one week ago the entire island was flooded with five feet of water. They have had 13 straight months of rain- literally every day. Although this is normally their “wet” season, this is far from the norm. And to add a little excitement to our trip, there is a cyclone predicted to hit the island in the next few days. What this meant for our journey was that the roads were in poor condition. There have been landslides and the roads are sinking in many places.

To describe Fiji takes one word: green. Every surface is covered in incredibly lush foliage that extends all the way to the sand. Fiji’s main crop is sugar cane but they also grow trees for pine chips and mahogany. It is sort of bizarre to see pine trees in such a tropic environment. The main religion is Christianity but Hinduism has a large presence. On the drive we saw huge temples with vibrant coloring. The locals live in bright tin houses on stilts. Driving by gave me an old world island feel as their laundry hung out in the rain with smoke puffing out of the tin roofs. Their main form of transportation is their bare feet or horseback. For pretty much any and everything they use a giant machete. As we have been sitting on the porch taking in the view, the gardeners came by and Kyle was instantly jealous of their foot-long knives. They literally trimmed an entire bush with one swipe. They sharpen them daily and they are sharp enough to cut through a tree. The locals walk around with them at all times…

As soon as the luggage was in the room we raced for the beach. We went straight for snorkeling and discovered a great reef right off of the private beach. Tomorrow we are going on a boat to a bigger reef for even more snorkeling. It is beyond surreal to actually be here and there is no way we are letting the rain rain on our parade! We will probably leave Fiji as pale as we came but the rain only adds to the exotic beauty of Fiji.

Off to Happy Hour for some Fijian Gold beer!

(Unfortunately internet access is not readily available given the remote location of the resort making it difficult to post regularly. We will try posting again when we arrive on Smugglers Cove.)