 Going into it, I was extremely nervous for Fiji. Nervous, anxious, excited- I was full of emotion. I'd never left the country, let alone by myself. As my 16th birthday crept closer, my emotions grew even stronger. Summer flew by and I woke up one day and it was July 24th. At midnight that night, I would be getting onto a 11 hour flight with hundreds of kids I didn't know. After a horrible night's sleep on the plane and a difficult experience getting through immigration, I had made it. I was in Fiji. Once we'd all gotten our luggage, the hundred-or-so kids all split off into their 5 programs. It was not even 6am when we walked out of the Nadi International Airport to meet our program leaders and the other students in the Rustic Pathways Marine Service & Adventure program. As the sun rose over the Fijian Highlands of Viti Levu and we drove off towards the port, we began to get to know TJ, Katie, & Leba as well as the other 13 students on our trip. We arrived at Port Denarau just around breakfast time and hopped on the Yasawa Flyer for a 2 hour boat ride toward the picturesque island of Kuata.  Charter boat from the Yasawa Flyer to one of the many islands in the Yasawa Island Group. We arrived at Barefoot Kuata Island to a welcome orientation and live music. Afterwords, our group split up and headed to the bures that would be our homes for the next 3 nights. That afternoon, we did our very first snorkel out on the reef between Kuata and the neighboring island. After a quick shower and filling dinner, we got to watch a "meke" and drink kava during a kava ceremony with the local Fijians that work at Barefoot Kuata. A meke is a traditional performance that is a combination of dance and story-telling through song. A kava ceremony is performed during important or social occasions, especially when there are guests in the village. During a kava ceremony, the powdered root of the pepper plant is mixed with water and passed around, typically in an empty coconut. The next 2 days at Barefoot Kuata were spent almost entirely in the water either snorkeling, free diving, swimming with sharks, or searching for Crown of Thorns starfish (deadly to coral). The little time we had leftover was spent doing beach clean-ups, sunset hikes, lounging around in the multitude of hammocks, learning about Fijian history & culture, and enjoying "fiji time". Before leaving Kuata on Day 4, we went on a sunrise snorkel at 6am. After breakfast, we hopped onto the Yasawa Flyer again for another 2-hour boat ride north to Somosomo village on Naviti. Barefoot Kuata Of all the places we visited and stayed during this trip, the village of Somosomo is by far my favorite. It was the most "rustic" place we stayed- sleeping in tents and using compost toilets & outdoor showers- but I found it to have the most culture and it holds my most favorite memories of the trip. After we got off the Yasawa Flyer, we were given "sulus" to wear around Somosomo. Our base camp was set right across the stream from the actual village of Somosomo, but the tide is too shallow to bring in the boats. Therefore, we had to wear our sulus to cover our knees as we waded through the shallow water with our luggage up towards the beach and base camp. After lunch, we put our sulus on again and headed towards the village where we met the 92 year-old chief during "sevusevu". A sevusevu is a Fijian ceremony in which you bring an offering to the chief and introduce yourself, asking permission to be in the village.  After sevusevu, we took a boat out to Dollar Beach for a late afternoon snorkel. We got back to base camp just in time for afternoon tea. That night, we had a kava ceremony of our own before heading to our tents for the night. Day 5 started off with breakfast and a morning snorkel at Tiger Shark Reef where we did more Crown of Thorns removal. The Crown of Thorns starfish (aka "COT") is a large, poisonous, spine-covered starfish that feeds off of coral polyps. The reason they need to be removed is because they are overpopulating the reefs in Fiji, eating the coral at a faster rate than it can grow. We arrived back at camp with time to play a game of volleyball with some of the locals before lunch. Later, we collected rocks, shells, and sticks and made concrete as building materials for Fish Houses. The rest of the day was filled with intense volleyball games, frisbee, and slacklining. Day 6 started out the same as the previous morning had, with breakfast and COT removal at Tiger Shark Reef. We then went back to Dollar Beach to do some coral farming, which is the process of collecting coral fragments and bringing them back to the nurseries to plant them. The purpose of coral planting is to restore reefs and start whole new reefs. After lunch, we went behind base camp to the large, dried-up mangrove swamp to plant mangrove propagules, expanding the mangrove swamp that traps sediment. Without mangroves, islands like Naviti wouldn't even exist. Later that afternoon, we headed back into the village to learn how to weave bracelets out of dried leaves. While we were there, we also got to play around with the local kids and their slew of roosters, chicks, cats, and kittens. Somosomo That night, one of the cats (who we named Shane) followed us all the way back to our camp and ended up sleeping on a cot in our tent with us! Day 7 was a very busy day. We jumped onto the small boats after breakfast and went out about an hour to another Barefoot resort, Barefoot Manta at Drawaqa island. There, we got to swim with 12-foot manta rays! Afterwords, we also got to go scuba diving along the reef at Drawaqa island (and take advantage of the resorts wifi and snack bar!) We arrived back at base camp just in time for lunch and an afternoon snorkel out in the bay in front of Somosomo. After tea, we went back to the village to watch another meke and then shop around the shell market that the locals open when there are guests visiting the village. We ended the night back at base camp with dinner and a bonfire. Day 8 started off with a grueling 5am hike up an extremely steep mountain.  After packing up our tents again, we walked back to Somosomo one last time to visit the kindergarten. We spent about an hour playing around with the kids and listening to them sing songs.  Somosomo kindergarten Once we arrived back at base camp, we loaded up our plates for lunch before jumping back on the Yasawa Flyer for a 4-hour boat ride southeast, back to the main island of Viti Levu. Somosomo village, Naviti We arrived back at Port Denarau on the main island of Viti Levu just before sunset. That evening, we shopped around the port and grabbed dinner before getting into the bus and driving 45 minutes south to the Rustic Pathways Eco Lodge in Momi Bay. I think Day 9 of this trip was the best day I've ever lived. The morning began with our first meal at the Eco Lodge by the pool. After eating, we hopped back into the bus and drove down to ocean. From there, we kayaked up the mangrove channels. Deep within the mangroves, there is a bridge that a plantation train crosses. When there was clearly no train coming, we all dragged our kayaks onto the bank, climbed up the bridge, and jumped off into the channel.  Susan kayaking the mangrove channel After eating lunch back at the Eco Lodge, we got back into the buses and drove down to Nabila jetty. From this jetty, we got into boats and rode out 45 minutes until we saw a white line moving along the horizon. As we got closer to the line, we could tell it was a wave. Well, more than a wave, it's the wave: Cloudbreak. Ranked as one of the world's top 10 waves and home to WSL's "Fiji Pro" surf competition, Cloudbreak is a left hand break with a shallow reef bottom with waves that range anywhere from 2-20ft. As if seeing this insane wave wasn't incredible enough, TJ (one of the program leaders) had rented a surfboard and we got to watch him get out and ride it!  Cloudbreak And as if Cloudbreak wasn't rad enough, it was actually only a stop along the way. After watching TJ ride a few waves, we took off towards another reef that we were going to go snorkel at. From the distance, it looked like there were people just standing on water. Once we got closer, we saw that it was actually a sandbar! An hour out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, we jumped out of the boat and snorkeled around the fish-infested reef before walking up onto the sandbar. We even saw a jellyfish! Once we arrived back at Nabila jetty, we took the opportunity to use Fiji's beautiful landscape as a background for a quick palm tree photoshoot :) Seriously, best. day. ever.
Day 10 was the only day of the trip that we didn't spend time in the water. After breakfast at the Eco Lodge, we drove south to Sigatoka Sand Dunes National Park. We hiked over the lush green hills, through silent forests, back up over sand dunes, and down by the ocean. After hiking around the dunes for a few hours, we were starving. We stopped at a Chinese restaurant in Sigatoka before heading back to the Eco Lodge. That evening, we planted mangrove propagules down at Nabila jetty and watched some of the other programs that were staying at the RP Eco Lodge perform in the talent show before packing up our luggage once again.  Day 11 began with our final breakfast at the Eco Lodge before jumping in the vans for a short little roadtrip back down south. Four hours passed before we reached Navua, the town that we were leaving for Beqa Island from. After another 3 hours on a sailboat, we arrived at Lawaki Beach House on Beqa, and just in time for lunch.
After eating lunch and dumping our luggage into our bures, we hopped in the water for a quick reef-check snorkel, where we saw an eel! The rest of the evening consisted of more volleyball games and chill time. Day 12 started off with a morning tide pool walk where we found a variety of cool tide pool creatures. After lunch, we split into two groups and did different snorkel assignments. My group did a reef check, which required us to count how many of a certain species fish we saw every 5 meters. The rest of the day was spent playing volleyball, kickball, and doing some variation of yoga on the lawn at the Lawaki beach house. Day 13 was another very chill day, we did another snorkel but this time my group was doing COT removals. Later, we learned about how the sea level rise is affecting the island and we build a sea wall to reduce the erosion occurring when the tide rises. That evening, we took a bunch of photos at sunset.  Lawaki Beach House, Beqa Island Day 14 was a biiiig travel day. After breakfast at Lawaki Beach House, we took the sailboat back to Navua on Viti Levu. From there, we drove 4 hours back to the Eco Lodge in Momi Bay, stopping at the Chinese restaurant in Sigatoka for lunch. We hung out at the Eco Lodge for a few hours and ate dinner before heading back to Nadi International Airport to come home :( I had such an incredible experience traveling with Rustic Pathways this summer. If you are interested in traveling with RP next summer, feel free to contact me to get 25% off the program of your choice!
xxEmily
2 Comments
sydney merchant
10/22/2018 10:51:04 am
damn girl ur talented or whateva
sydney merchant
10/30/2018 07:40:06 am
hey girl im back and this is sick af so yea good job proud of u- also on friday im not driving with you to cotillion but i am going for photo Leave a Reply. |
