Bula! Hello from Fiji!

Bula!!  Hello from Fiji.We made it even though we weren't sure that would happen halfway through the long flight!

We got on the plane at 11:30 PM after a really long wait, bus ride to the plane itself, and then another wait. We were a little keyed up so I watched a movie before I tried to sleep. And "tried" is the operative word. Although the seats reclined in a different way than we were used to -- better, I thought -- it was still really difficult to sleep for the length of time necessary. I got a couple of hours in but watched 2 1/2 movies as well! When we arrived at the Fiji hotel, we were exhausted (7 in the morning) and couldn't get into our room right away. Once we got into the room, we slept for a couple of hours and then bought a bus pass to tour the "island". Our part of the island was small and the bus -- called the Bula Bus, complete with thatched roof and open air sides -- was a great way to get around.

Everyone here is so friendly and I've been reading about the culture. Very interesting philosophy here and I hope they can maintain it through so many dealings with outsiders. We ate dinner in the town of Port Denarau rather than in the resort area. It overlooked the water and was beautiful to watch the setting sun and the clouds rolling in.

After dinner, we walked over to the place where they were preparing a fire for 4 men to walk on the coals. They make a big production of it and it takes about an hour in all. They start with a short ceremony of the drinking of the yaqona vakaturaga ( which I still have to research to see what it's made of). Then they stoke the fire, talk some more, and then walk and sometimes stand on the hot rocks waiting for everyone to clap at their bravery. There is a lot of ceremony involved in this culture and I'm finding it very interesting.

   First impressions:  as we got off the plane, the FIRST thing we heard as we walked through the ramp was an incredible sound of birds!!(Anne Marie and Janet: I thought of you both!!) Turns out they are Mynah birds, mainly, and are everywhere. At the hotel, they roost in the eaves of buildings and you hear them first thing in the morning. I'm loving this! On our walk back from breakfast, we saw a tiny Peale's-Fiji Parrot Finch. Hopefully the uploaded picture came out!

I could also get used to these breakfasts. Incredible buffets with assortments of everything! I tried all the fruit even though I don't know what half of them were! The bread is delicious and they don't even but butter out. There is a little bar that has small glasses of all kinds of smoothies using local fruits and you can pick the fruit combinations you want for a breakfast juice!
   Today started with a little rain and that's why I got this posting done. The sun is up now and we'll be heading out to the beach and pools for a more relaxing day. Tomorrow, we plan on taking a tour of the islands since we have to get up at 4 AM on Tuesday to head to the airport for our 8 AM flight to Brisbane. Hope you enjoy the pics. . .  that's Jay's job (to upload).