TAVEWA, YASAWA ISLANDS, FIJI
Early this morning, Chris and I took the steep and muddy "sunset trail" from our resort, thinking it would be a shortcut to the west side of the island. Actually, it just leads to the highest point on Tavewa, which offers a bird's-eye view of the entire island, the fringing reef, and the sea beyond. It was impressive enough on a cloudy morning, but I'm sure it would be an amazing view at sunset on a clear day. We then hiked back to the main trail and walked south along the beach to Savutu Point. On the way we saw mudskippers on the shore, crazy bug-eyed fish that hop out of the water to sit on rocks like little frogs. Mudskippers, you amuse me greatly.
The snorkeling off Savutu Point was pretty much the same as in front of our resort: shallow coral flats inshore, and a dropoff further out with large coral heads and ledges. This time I saw bird wrasses, lemon peel angels, schools of striped cardinal fish, a pair of sharp-nosed puffers, rabbitfish, a herd of convict tangs feeding on algae, and an electric-blue juvenile emperor angelfish.
After lunch we joined about 20 other resort guests for "reef jumping," which meant we all piled into a small boat and were taken out to several offshore reefs to do some more snorkeling. The scenery wasn't really any better than off the beach, although some people saw sharks.
Tonight as part of "bula time" the resort held a crazy hat competition. Lord, kill me now. But the rule was "no hat, no dinner," and everybody was taking this very seriously, so at the last minute I slapped something together out of four large leaves and some dental floss. Two Canadian girls told me I looked like something out of Ferngully--I told them that was exactly the look I was going for. Which was, of course, a lie. When I lost the contest to the same girls, I was completely inconsolable, and ran back to my bure to cry myself to sleep. Or something like that.
People met today:
Early this morning, Chris and I took the steep and muddy "sunset trail" from our resort, thinking it would be a shortcut to the west side of the island. Actually, it just leads to the highest point on Tavewa, which offers a bird's-eye view of the entire island, the fringing reef, and the sea beyond. It was impressive enough on a cloudy morning, but I'm sure it would be an amazing view at sunset on a clear day. We then hiked back to the main trail and walked south along the beach to Savutu Point. On the way we saw mudskippers on the shore, crazy bug-eyed fish that hop out of the water to sit on rocks like little frogs. Mudskippers, you amuse me greatly.
The snorkeling off Savutu Point was pretty much the same as in front of our resort: shallow coral flats inshore, and a dropoff further out with large coral heads and ledges. This time I saw bird wrasses, lemon peel angels, schools of striped cardinal fish, a pair of sharp-nosed puffers, rabbitfish, a herd of convict tangs feeding on algae, and an electric-blue juvenile emperor angelfish.
After lunch we joined about 20 other resort guests for "reef jumping," which meant we all piled into a small boat and were taken out to several offshore reefs to do some more snorkeling. The scenery wasn't really any better than off the beach, although some people saw sharks.
Tonight as part of "bula time" the resort held a crazy hat competition. Lord, kill me now. But the rule was "no hat, no dinner," and everybody was taking this very seriously, so at the last minute I slapped something together out of four large leaves and some dental floss. Two Canadian girls told me I looked like something out of Ferngully--I told them that was exactly the look I was going for. Which was, of course, a lie. When I lost the contest to the same girls, I was completely inconsolable, and ran back to my bure to cry myself to sleep. Or something like that.
People met today:
- Neal and Charis, a super-nice couple from Oxford, England.
- Two goofy dudes from Edmonton, Alberta. I can't remember their names, but I kept wanting to call them Bob and Doug, eh?
- Chris and Cynthia from Sacramento, CA. He's a laid-back surfer type. She's completely the opposite, and had to complain to me about every conceivable aspect of their vacation. Typical American. :-) (She also appeared on an episode of Blind Date, which might tell you something.)
posted by John Kuge at 7:19 PM
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