Over the long Easter weekend I, and seven others, took a four-day cruise up to the Yasawa Island group. We left early Thursday morning and spent the majority of the 4 hour boat ride re-enacting Titanic on the front of the boat. Once, we stopped next to a tiny island to snorkel around the reef. It was beautiful weather and the reef was wonderfully colorful.
We spent every night on the same island. Its Fijian name is Drawaqa Island, but after the cruise line appropriated it, it became Barefoot Island. It lived up to its name as I didn't wear my flip flops for the entire four days.
Barefoot Island served as our home base and we stayed in little double bungalow thingies right on the water. Ours was on "Sunrise Beach." Some of the others were 100 meters behind us on "Sunset Beach." It was beautiful. I woke up early on the last day to catch the sunrise.
We went fishing on a little boat. Out of the 8 of us, two fish were caught but it was a lot of fun.
We also visited a village on another island. We had a Kava ceremony and were treated to a dance performance. The village was very cool but it was sort of just a very elaborate tourist trap. As my supervisor reminded me, the entire country is a tourist trap.
My roommate, Caleb, and I hung out mostly with the staff on the island. They were so friendly and were very excited that we were hanging out with them. The feeling was mutual and we drank Kava long into the nights.
On the third day, Bio, the man who organized everything for us announced that one of the German couples on the cruise with us was getting married. It was a perfect setting for a wedding but it was very strange because they only had a handful of friends with them to witness the marriage. The crew set up a nice altar on sunset beach and timed it perfectly so that the sun did indeed set behind them as the groom kissed the bride. I later found out that it was the groom's third wedding and the bride's fourth. I guess it was the ol' 'boy cried wolf' scenario and that's why nobody wanted to go to the wedding.
The crew was a very talented group. They made our suppers, played classic Fijian and American love songs, played some stellar volleyball and made our massive sailboat glide gracefully through the Pacific.
All in all, it was a great trip. Although I did feel bad about missing the Hallelujah Chorus at church on Sunday.
Now, its back to the workday grind.