Roadtriiiiiip

I had another great weekend adventure. Two of my new friends wanted to rent a car and cruise around the main island of Viti Levu for their last weekend adventure before they went home to Bermuda and Wales respectively. They invited me and three others to come along. When they came to pick us up on Friday night, I was shocked to see an ancient Toyota Corolla hatchback with a cracked windshield waiting. Then, I remembered that I was in Fiji and this car was perfectly acceptable. After squeezing into the back, we were on our way.
Our first stop was the town of Lautoka. That is the second largest "city" in Fiji. We found a massive old hotel. It appeared as though we were the only people staying there. At a nightclub around the corner we ran into some Japanese tourists we befriended at Beachcomber Island the previous weekend.
The next morning we got up bright and early and continued making our way around the island. It was interesting going through the different villages. Everybody gave us a friendly wave as we passed through.
Now is a good time to write something about the roads in Fiji. First of all, there are not many paved roads to begin with. The ones that are paved have some pretty serious potholes. Every time we hit one, the car would bottom out because there were four of us and all of the bags in the back of the car, not to mention the fact that the car, whom we named 'Tony,' had no suspension at all. At certain times, the road just ended and we had to drive on gravel or dirt.
We wanted to stop near the village of RakiRaki because it has nice beaches. Our guide book sent us to the 'circular road' in order to find good beaches. This road was extremely hilly and the gravel was more like small boulders. I do not have the time to write how nerve wracking that drive was. After 30 minutes of bumping around, we arrived at a small place called the Voli Voli resort.
We took a short swim at their beach and immediately decided that this was where we wanted to spend our night. Before we settled in, we went back out the road because we heard that there were some nice waterfalls in the area. Without having a clue where we were going, we stopped to ask some kids walking home from school where the waterfalls were. Without skipping a beat, one of the boys hops into the front seat bringing the total number of people in the car to 7. At this point the car barely cleared the ground on the even pavement. After 10 minutes of driving down paved roads, we were back onto a gravel road. This one was significantly worse than the road to Voli Voli and I was so certain that Tony would not make it. Driving further into the mountains, we had to cross the river three times. If you think we crossed three bridges, you are wrong. The river just ran right across the road and there was a slab of cement under the water for traction.
After a while we reached the end of the road and ended up in somebody's driveway. Our guide got out and a man said we could pay him to show us the way to the water falls. After some bargaining, all parties were satisfied.
We reached the waterfalls and they were amazing. We slid down some and jumped down others. One of my friends had an underwater camera so I will steal the pictures that he took.
We left the waterfalls just as it was starting to rain and the family who guided us made us stay for Kava. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kava)
We had to hurry through the ceremony because if it rained for any longer the river would get to high to drive through.
We made it back to the resort slowly but surely and had a very relaxing night watching the lizards catch moths as the sun set.
The next day, we set off towards the capital city of Suva. As we were driving down the road that splits the mainland in half (basically the second most important road in the country) we encountered a detour. We thought it was strange that there could be a detour from a road that was barely a road before. At the other side of the detour, we ran into some very rocky mud. We were signaled to stop by a man with a red flag. In front of us was a large machine that resembled a transformer. After sitting in the mud for a few minutes we realized that they were actually building the road right in front of us. This is not a joke. We waited for them to smooth out the mud enough for us and we made our way out of the mud.
Arriving in Suva, we had lunch in the mall. I had a delicious lamb kebab.
We had to have the car back to the rental place by 5 PM on Sunday. Before we went home, we wanted to see the sand dunes of Sigatoka. We got to the national park and walked through the forest and realized that we would have at least an hour long walk to find the dunes. We did not have that much time, so we just came home.
It was a bizarre, fulfilling and relaxing trip.
It is now time to start another week at work.
I am quite sorry to hear about the Terps Tragedy but I am now looking forward to the Orioles season.