Bula, Fiji!!!

So since I am back in the Southern Hemisphere it seems time again to start blogging... and so it goes.... I love Fiji, absolutely love it!!!!! Love the food, the people are the friendliest people I have ever ever met, the weather is amazing, the scenery is gorgeous, and there is so much fun stuff to do. Granted I have not seen that much of Fiji, I mostly spent the last week in a paradise called Mana Island, staying at Mana Lagoon Hostel which was phenomenal!!! I could not imagine a nicer place to be... here is an excerpt from my journal on the island to enlighten one of the tranquil beauty of Mana...

"The sky is a light with a thousand colors of the sunset, slightly morphing every moment, giving one the impression that they are watching a symphony made by mother nature. The travelers and villagers alike have come to watch the giant orb slip below the horizon in a brilliant cascade of colors only brought by the winds of hurricane season on Mana Island. The wind caresses us all as we watch, laugh and love the sun down. Children are playing tag with the foreigners... 'run me, run me!" they demand in a jovial manner. And their game of tag brings joy and laughter to them that is as colorful as the scenery. This scene makes on happy to be in the presence of such beauty and in the company of friends, albeit it newly made ones. One would not know it form the familiority we all have with each other. Here away from family, we are each others' families, away from ones' best mates, we all become best mates. Away from our lovers, if we are willing and lucky, we find new loves. Newly made lovers caress each other as gently as the wind that blows in our hair, as softly as the pastels that light up the sky. Thoughts of home are far off in this surreal paradise. There is a truth I have found here in Mana and everyone, the locals and travelers alike, seem to realize it: the moment is now, and it is all that we have.
As the colors fade, and the stars struggle to make their entrance against the cloudy sky, the dancers get ready to make new light. They don their costumes and grease up their bodies. The travelers play with children, the lovers sigh, the villagers relax, the kava begins to flow, and the magic continues. It is all around us; blowing in the breeze, within us and before us. Experience the magic..."

Obviously, I was a bit ridiculously romantic in that passage, but Mana does it to you. The subtle blues of the sea and the sky, lull one into a sense of peace that one only finds in an island paradise.

My days consisted of a very flexible routine that follows: way up on my tent on the beach to clouds tinted with the sunrise, read until breakfast, each a delicious meal, then go swimming, do yoga, snorkel, explore the island, scuba dive or sea kayak, then eat a scrumptious meal, then another afternoon activity possibly making jewelry out of coconut shells, go for another swim, eat a delicious dinner, then some kind of evening entertainment frequently hula and Polynesian dancing followed by fire dancing, then us dancing, or cross-dressing night (so, so, so... funny), or card games and talking. Lots of kava drinking as well, bitter concoction that numbs your mouth and gives you a bit of a lulling buzz. The occasional midnight skinny-dip, you know the usual.

Probably the biggest highlight of my trip was when I was diving with sharks solo with an instructor cause no one else signed up... so there we were seeing an unreal amount of sharks. One came five feet away from me and just starred at me, no worries though, they are not dangerous. Anyway, after a stellar dive we resurfaced only to have the driver point out a pod of dolphins swimming by, so we quickly got into the boat and chased after them. We caught up with them and ran with them for a bit, they were doing flips and tricks with their babies (so adorable) and then we killed the engine and dove in and swam with them for a bit. Definitely my highlight. I felt like the sea just gave me an enormous blessing, and to top it off my dive instructor told me that in his 7 months working on Mana I was only the second person besides him to get to swim with dolphins that he knew of. I felt pretty special....

OK enough typing I must go eat delicious, delicious curry... there is a huge East Indian influence because the British brought over East Indians in colonial times here. Which has resulted in an unique blending of Polynesian, African, and East Indian culture, language and cuisine. mmmmm....