Day 18 - 10/20/22 - Suva, Fiji

 In the early morning the ship slowly weaved its way through the narrow channel amongst the many small boats and a narrow reef passageway.  Ever so slowly we pivoted clockwise and ever so gently nestled up to the pier.  As we ate breakfast, we enjoyed renewing our memories of visiting Suva back in 2016 on the Maasdam.

We met up with our group of 10 in the Ocean Bar at 8am and shortly the ship was cleared.  We had to use the forward exit as the exit midships below us was reserved for HAL shore excursions. After a bit of delay, our guide, Eli, found us and we were underway.  We drove out of town past the prison and women's prison (now called correctional facilities), past the Australian and American embassies, a Mormon temple and college, and reached the entrance to the Colo-i-Suva forest preserve.  

The hike down the side of the hill was classified as "moderate", but with the recent rains, fallen leaves, steep & root infested terrain, it was challenging.  There were periodic stairs either cut in the stone or fashioned with wood and gravel.  Initially the handrails were steel, but this soon turned to sketchy wooden handrails.  We forded the creek multiple times because the bridges were either washed out out or I wouldn't trust my footing on stones lined across the flowing water.

After about an hour we reached the final waterfall. I was in front of the group and our  guide pointed me up a trail while he went back for the others. I reached the top of the trail and waited for the others.  But nobody came and I could hear voices below me.  So I started back down the trail and met the guide who was coming to find me.  He said this is the trail back, and I replied. "You specifically told me to go up this trail." It was a misunderstanding and this happens when communicating in a different culture.  And 'sometimes' it happens in our own culture and relationships. We continued down and I joined the others at the waterfall pool.  While the water was initially chilly, it quickly became refreshing in the heat.  I had brought my snorkel mask as it has corrective lenses built into it.  I snorkeled a bit but the water was too murky to see anything.  The high point of being in the pool was standing under the waterfall.  That water was a bit warmer than the pool, or it seemed so. All too soon we were done and faced the steep climb back on the shortcut. But I was practiced at it.  

So I bounded up the 200 plus stairs and waited for the guide.  Soon he caught up with me and as the others reached us, there was a brief rest break.  I noted to the guide that he needed to set a pace that the group was capable of maintaining and not my speed.  Otherwise, I'll just keep pace with you which I was fully capable of doing. At one point he stopped and we were alone and waiting for the others.  He, out of the blue, asked me my age and I told him.  His reply sort of stunned me.  He said, "It's so nice to see you all out here at this age  hiking and enjoying nature.  In my culture when the women turn 50, they stay at home eating and watching grandkids and encouraging their kids to have more babies.  They are not active at all."

Within 20 minutes we finished our forest trek near a small collection of houses.  There were some really pretty flowers there and I took the opportunity to take pictures of them.  During our tour another couple had joined with us for the jungle walk, and we ended the tour at a different location than where we started and where their taxi was located.  Our driver and guide spent some time sorting that out and in the end we drove back to the entrance and let them off.  

We continued our drive back to the port area and made a stop at a lookout point to take some pictures of the ship in the harbor. I asked Eli if there was a place along the route we could wash the mud off of our shoes.  Shortly after passing by the two correctional facilities, there was a service station with a water spigot.  A few of us got off of the bus and cleaned our feet and shoes or sandals.  The water from the spigot came out lukewarm which was a new one for me.

Back at the ship, we re-boarded and changed into some drier clothes and headed back out to explore the downtown area.  We were especially in search of some Fijian Indian curry.  The money changer on the ship was away so we used a money changer on the dock.  It turned out he had a terrible rate, but we took it for a $40US exchange.  We found some Indian curry in a food court in the BSP building.  After the fairly bland ship food, it was so tasty with all measure of spices tingling our taste buds and yet not so spicy hot that it burned.  We made a pact with each other that we would repeat this tomorrow.  

From there, we just wandered the downtown area checking out shops and reminiscing about our previous visit in 2016.  Much of the area was the same but there was new construction underway.  We even walked to the cathedral and enjoyed the solitude sitting there in the coolness of the shade with a light breeze flowing through the building.  This cathedral is very plain inside but has impressive stained glass windows. It's located right beside the Reserve Bank building which has a really nice wooden sculpture in front of it.

As we made it back towards the ship, we visited Taboola City which is a 4 story department store quite close to the ship and not unlike a Macy's department store in the US.  I spotted a shirt I liked, but decided to think about it overnight.  This store is laid out with an elevator system and escalators that force one to walk through each floor to reach the next escalator.  The merchandise here is high quality.  On the top floor of this complex is another bigger food court with two Indian restaurants:  one for North Indian food and one for South Indian food.  Perhaps this would be a worthy location for tomorrow's lunch?

We continued our walk and wandered through the produce market.  It's a pretty big one and I don't understand how all of these little merchants who are selling virtually the same produce can make a living.  It was certainly a beehive of activity and the sights, sounds, and smells were very pleasant.  We re-boarded the ship and met our friends in the Lido pool area.  While we weren't hungry for a full dinner, I did snag a bowl of melon pieces and enjoyed that light dinner.  During the day, we had had a difficult time reaching the internet on our T-Mobile service.  Erik gave me a tip to turn off the automatic carrier detection.  With manual deletion of carriers, we were able to select Digicel, and that seemed to work.  Erik & Marilyn wanted to see the BBC Earth 2 performance on the Main Stage, but we declined.  Eventually we began a conversation with a Canadian couple at the next table from north of Toronto, Jim & Donna.  Initially the conversation started around discussion of his and Angela's common Dutch heritage and also encompassed much discussion about cruising and particularly why all 4 of us like cruising in inside cabins.  It turned out they are 2 cabins forward of us.  It was a fun discussion and we talked at least an hour before retiring to our stateroom.  

Initially, we wanted to watch the movie, Castaway.  But both of us were too tired, so we kept the TV off and read in bed before falling asleep.  Our latest pact was that no alarm would be set.  We're berthed here in Suva overnight, and we have some more exploring to do tomorrow.  But we didn't need to get up a 7am to do so!