Suva was an added stop since we were turned away from Samoa. We picked up a pilot on the way in, as is usual in most ports. Good thing too, looking at the wrecks we sailed right by. We never saw any channel markers either.
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| Couple of wrecked ships in the channel |
We took a tour out to Pacific Harbour which is a development of nice houses, a golf course, and a small shopping center and has a firewalking show. The bus ride took an hour and the bus was pretty comfortable considering it had only windows to open for air conditioning. Fortunately, one side had a bench seat for 3 small people so we had room to spread out a bit. Beautiful countryside along the way.
The fire walking show lasted about an hour. The rocks had been heating on charcoal for 3 hours and judging by the charred pieces of wood on top, they were very hot. The firewalkers come from only one tribe and used to have to abstain from interactions with women and eating coconut for 2 weeks. Since they give a show 3 or 4 times a week all year long, they have lightened up on the no women rule. Guess they still don't eat coconut. After the walking, they put on a cultural show of dances and music. We were seated in the shade, but it was still quite warm with no breeze. My Vietnamese hand fan came in handy. And they handed out small bottles of Fiji water.
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| At the firewalking venue |
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| Exposing the rocks |
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| Walking on the rocks |
There was a supermarket there where they sold lamb neck pieces complete with the spinal cord. Mmmh, I'll have to see if Allrecipes.com has a recipe for lamb spinal cord. Outside was an ad for the various beverages one could purchase. My personal favorite is Woodstock Bourbon Cola (aka "Woody"), but I also like the personalized cans of Coke, especially My BFF. We saw some with common Fijian names also. Interesting - wonder if this trend will be coming to a Safeway near us soon.
The bus ride home seemed to go faster, as is always the case, but it was still long. We decided not to stop in town to do any shopping and just returned to the ship for a late lunch with Diana and Michael at the buffet.
Trivia was a banner day with a score of 14/15. Didn't know that Bannister was the first man to run the mile in under 4 minutes. We, along with Jan and Tom, were invited to dinner with Andy, the cruise director. It was nice to get to know him a bit better when he wasn't "on" in his role.
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