This last weekend, we went out to the Mamanucas, a tiny cluster of islands on the Western side of Viti Levu. The Mamanucas and Yasawas are extremely touristy islands - very few villages were there before tourism set in, since none of them have fresh water available - and they are very beautiful, like what people think of when they think of Fiji. They are immune to the rainy weather that befalls most of the mainland. We spent 2 nights on Mana island, at a backpacker resort that was filled mostly with annoying gap year Europeans that were looking to get drunk and spend all of their day on the beach. I've grown to have a real distaste for tourists here; spending a lot of money to get all the way to Fiji and then not seeing anything real seems like a waste. The island had 2 backpacker places and a giant 5-star resort, which despised the backpackers. It was funny when we first got there - the backpacker director told us to go into the resort grounds and poke around as much as we wanted, swim in their pool, go to their restaurant, use their laundry facilities, etc...they really didn't like the resort either. Some of my friends got kicked out from the pool the second day we were there. There was also a settlement that sprung up to house the families of the workers at the accomodations, which mostly surrounded our hostel. They had many stray dogs (including an adorable tiny puppy that lived by the building we were staying in) and a fat black and white pig that surprised me by walking through the "internet bure" one morning after breakfast. He was very friendly and mostly snuffled around making little hog noises by the sand, although he was a little too eager to nibble on my fingers.
On the first night a few of us went to the western tip of the island to see the sunset. It wasn't that great, but we got to see some of the other islands nearby. Fun fact: the one on the far left is the island where the movie Castaway was filmed. I went diving on a reef break near here on the second day; the site was named Seven Sisters, after the seven coral heads that you drift around on the dive. There was nothing special on the dive - just a bunch of coral and fish. I've definitely been spoiled by the diving here. I didn't have any issues with my head exploding this time though, which was a definite plus.
A little white wedding chapel in the big resort, looking right out onto the sea. The garden next to it had metal plates engraved with the names of everyone who had been married there. Very sweet. The resort had special honeymoon bures out on stilts over the water, and a grass airstrip and helicopter pad, so I'm guessing a decent amount of people get married here.
On the second morning there some of us decided to hike up the tallest peak on the island (there were a few steep hills). A few of us girls ditched the boys, but couldn't find the path, so we bushwhacked our way to the top through six foot high grass. It was really funny trying to get a group of four girls to scale a steep hill covered in thick grass but we succeeded. The cross was on the top of the peak. After returning from diving on the second day there, I could see the little winding path we made from out at sea and burst out laughing by myself on the boat.
The view from the highest peak. We were extremely gross and sweaty when we got there, but the view was worth it. It wasn't an especially sunny morning so the colors aren't too vivid, but you can get the idea of how beautiful it was.
After hiking up the mountain/large hill, we followed a real trail this time to the other side of the island were Survivor: Fiji was filmed a few years back. This is the set of where the tribal council would meet to throw people off. It was trashed inside - probably locals from the only settlement on the island taking materials for building. There were a lot of other structures all around the area, which was pretty cool. It seems strange that they set up the show on an island with resorts on it already instead of one of the hundreds of uninhabited islands in Fiji, but whatever. The backpacker director kept referring to the beach on this side as "survivor bitch" because of his accent, which had a lot of us snickering during our welcome speech.
On the second day I ran with a couple of the boys up one of the smaller hills to get a view of the sunset. Unfortunately a line of storm clouds was stopping the sun from touching the water, but it was still very beautiful.
More sunset. So pretty.
That night we decided to pass on the birthday party being held for one of the backpackers and opted instead to take some drinks and sulus out to the survivor bitch to have a bonfire right by the old survivor set. It started out as a little fire, with everybody just chilling out. After a little while some british kids from a rival bonfire across the beach started drunkenly yelling about yanks and iraq. We decided to do the American thing and build it into a 30 foot bonfire to let them know the business. They shut up after that. We spent the night drawing artwork in the sand, scampering around and exploring while the stray dogs on the island lazed around, occasionally tearing down the beach barking or starting fights with the crabs scuttling around at night. We stayed out until around 3 or 4 in the morning, letting the fire die down and cuddling up on our network of sulus. I fell asleep listening to the sound of little crabs clicking at each other from their holes in the sand. I woke up when everyone else was packing up our few materials to head in since it had gotten windier and a bit chilly. I think this was one of my favorite times spent in Fiji so far.
This is the last week of classes, so there's a lot of work to be done before the end. Then we have a week off for "study break", which will be spent traveling around Fiji. We've got a lot of great plans, and we'll see what falls through and what ends up actually happening. I can't believe we have only a month left, and there's so much more that I want to see and do...for now though I've got to do work for the first time all semester (it actually feels good being in a legitimate routine rather than lazing around).
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