Sunday, March 7, 2010

Tuesday Feb 9th in Fiji

Tuesday was the start of my second full day in Fiji. It was an early morning start to hop back on the bus and hit the road. The type of bus tour I was on was the kind of hop on hop off tour where you can leave with the bus each day and stay traveling with the same tour guide and driver or at each resort you stop at you can decided to stay for a couple more nights and just jump on the next bus that arrives. I didn't have much time in Fiji so unfortunately I had to wake up early almost every morning to get on the bus. This morning there was only 3 of us continuing on instead of the packed bus of 15 the day before. (its a tiny bus) A tour is always fun with lots of people, but a small group can be quite nice as well as long as you get along with the other people in the group. I was left with myself, Kurt from Singapore and Hanna from Sweden two great people to be stuck with! haha
The first thing we did this day was go on a trek through a rain forest to a few waterfalls. Typically on this trip you would also visit a village however the village at this time was currently in mourning because of their chief who had just passed away. We were trekking with a particular guide company and they always trek with 2 guys, one for the front of the group and one for the back of the group, however since we were a group of only 3 and our tour guide came with us as well there were 3 people to 3 guides, you normally have to pay alot more money than we had to get that kind of service. It was a great trek, very muddy and slippery in parts but it was worth it to get to the waterfalls which were unbelievable, and the trek ended with a boat ride through mangroves. I did get a bit scratched up on the walk but part of it was due to the sensitive grass, a weed that grows in Fiji and the leaves on it are sensitive to touch.
Following the trek we headed to our resort for the night called Uprising Resort. It had to of been one of my favorite places that we stayed, the staff were very friendly, it was right on the beach, great dorms and a beautiful place all around. At the uprising resort we were shown how to make our own hats out of coconut palm leaves, taught how to open a coconut with a rock and then I had a full body massage for $30 Fijian, that is around $15 Canadian definitely worth it!
Aside from having more problems with my VISA card it was a very fun & productive day.
#5 New & Different thing that I did today was, jump off a waterfall, see sensitive grass, and made my own coconut palm hat!
Check out the video below to see a quick recap of my whole trip to Fiji.

Travel Yourself - Fiji from Cailin O'Neil on Vimeo.