RTW: Exchange in Chile

Feejee Experience

Now I finally got to an internet cafe that has what it takes to update the blog with pics and all.. So, my time here is about to end and I will head back to the already-so-familiar LA and tierras Mexicanas, I can hardly wait for it.. I do not know why, but the left-hand driving system is driving me nuts, or I am getting used to it. Curse on Her Majesty's Kingdom for introducing that to so many parts of the world (that being for me the whole of this trip so far). Next I will be driven over as I look the wrong way crossing the street in the states. How sad would that be?

Anyway, here I did the so called Feejee Experience tour. It was a 4-day tour of the main island of Viti Levu and I stopped by at one of the beautiful islands next to Viti Levu (called Nananu-I-Ra) as I had an extra day to spend somewhere. And though I was a little scared by the price, in the end the tour was totally worth it. The first day took us to one of the top five beaches in the world (presumably), Natadola Beach. Midday there was not designed for Nordic meat so I kept in the shade for the most of the time not to redo the damage of Koh Chang.. From there we continued to Sigatoka sand dunes where we got to sandboard down one of the steepest dunes. The speed is not like in the snow, but quite enough still.. Between all the activity during the day we got loads of information on Fijians, their ways of living, history, culture, etc. and this kept on for the whole trip so I could say that I know more about Fiji now than an average Finn.

Second day of the trip was totally awesome. We headed to the mountainous rainforests for a three-hour walk, of which the last 40 mins were knee-deep in a stream! This led us to the upper parts of one of Fiji's rivers, so we chilled downstream on some tubes. And to top it all off, we went for a swim in a waterfall.. We had a chance to jump from the top of the waterfall to the pool below (anyone seen the movie The Beach?), a little under 7 meters drop -and as a sucker for dares I did it, of course. Not to worry, I swam in the pool first (another one for mom). The night we spent in the capital of the South Pacific, Suva partying with the Feejee Experience people (AKA the green bus family, see lower for why).





Third day was the time for our cultural stuff. We visited a village in the mountains for some MORE kava (that stuff is drunk apparently in every possible occasion) with the local chief (NHL shirt guy in the pic above preparing the great stuff). Also, we got to donate (what a great opportunity!) some stationary to school kids -no, seriously, it was impressing to see how things are done there in the middle of nowhere and helping them out with some pens, rulers and writing pads we got earlier from town was really no trouble at all. Especially as they later took us bamboo-rafting (known locally as bilibili-rafting) on the local river. One peculiar thing about the village was that everyone had to wear a skirt (or sarong or sulu) in the village. Here you see me pose with one on in front of our spectacularly ugly green bus.

posted by Kassu @ 5:44 PM