Fiji & Vanuatu

As we continue across the South Pacific heading almost due west, our last two ports before reaching Cairns, Australia were in Fiji and Vanuatu. On Tuesday, October 20, we sailed into the port of Suva, Fiji to a rousing welcome from a Fijian marching band which greeted us on the dock. Fortunately, we were on the dock side of the ship, so joined many out on our verandahs and outer decks to watch the warm welcome. Suva has a population of about 250,000 and is the largest city in all the Pacific islands. It’s a bustling port with a large commercial dock near a busy shopping and market center (more on that later).

We chose to do a rainforest walk as our shore excursion. Barb was a bit reluctant to do it because the description said we had to descend about 30 steps without any rail. With two knee replacements since 2007, she wanted to take no risks, so asked Kevin, the shore excursions manager, if she ought to do this one. Since the description implied that the walk started from a lodge, and Kevin found that we walked a loop and would return to where we started, she knew if she thought the trail was something she didn’t want to attempt, she could bring a book and wait at the lodge for the group to return. The information gave this tour a rating of 2 on a scale of three (with 1 being very easy and a 3 being quite rigorous). Having done 2-rated excursions many times in the past with absolutely no problem, we anticipated that the walk would be acceptable. When we reached Fiji’s Forest Park, we unloaded the bus and set off on our walk. We expected there would be a short walk to this nice lodge, but found out too late that we were off on our hike. As we started, I decided to make a “pit stop” when we were told it would be our last opportunity until the hike was over. That should have been our clue that there was no nearby lodge. Barb said she would go on with the group since she walked slower than I. As I returned to the trail, I was just ahead of the last part of the hikers, including one of the guides and Kevin (shore excursions manager) who had never done this tour and wanted to see first hand what it was like.

As we continued to walk, people were stopping to take pictures of the magnificent rainforest scenery, but soon the trail went from a neat trail of stones to a dirt trail, and began to go down, and down and down many uneven steps, some very high and others quite low. Steps were often rocks and there were frequently damp, slippery leaves, with tree roots sticking out. One had to watch his/her step very carefully. We passed pretty waterfalls, crossed wooden bridges, with some railings made of tree branches. None of these branches could help a person who needed them for support if they started to slip. I was thinking over and over again that I couldn’t imagine how Barb had successfully gotten past certain very high steps and obstacles, but she was nowhere to be seen ahead. That, I thought, was a very good sign, but I wondered how she was managing to get there. I had images in my mind of her sprained ankle on the Inca ruins in Peru and I thought of our friend Hugh Mosher, who broke his ankle climbing down a difficult area while in Oregon a couple years ago. His wife, Susan, had to climb back to the roadside and flag down help to have Hugh evacuated.

While the scenery was beautiful, and especially at the start of the hike, I took a lot of pictures, I stopped enjoying it as the trail continued on and on and on. By now, I was just hoping Barb would make it. I saw one woman, lose her footing on a wet stone used to cross a creek, and slip and fall in the drink. She was unhurt, but another lady was struggling to get across. Still no sign of Barb. I couldn’t imagine how she was staying so far ahead of me. Finally, I came to an area where I looked down and saw a pond with a few people swimming and the rest along the side. I could see Barb standing there (a very good sign). But I couldn’t imagine how she had made it. When I got down there, she said she was tired but was OK only because one of the local rangers had seen her struggling and he stayed with her the entire way even to the point of telling her where to put her feet and giving her a supporting hand in difficult places. She said she absolutely never would have made it without his constant attentiveness to her. The trail back to the bus involved a climb but was not as difficult as coming down. He stayed with her part of the way going back as well, but I saw the lady who had had so much trouble crossing the creek literally clinging to a tree on the way up, her arms wrapped around the tree, and crying. The guides and Kevin helped her up to the top. We later found out that that lady had heart problems in addition to knee problems. At the end of the walk, Barb tried to tip the park ranger, but he absolutely refused to accept it, saying it was just part of his job.

It was fortunate that Kevin could see firsthand that what the company had described for Holland America was not the actual situation. Holland America does not visit Fiji frequently enough for them to have tested out all the shore excursions and this may have been a new one. Kevin commented the next morning that he had spoken to the company in strong terms and they had already revised the description for this tour! We didn’t blame Holland America because since they visit some of these places so infrequently, they probably didn’t have the feedback that would be present for Europe and Alaska. Needless to say, when we all got back safely to the ship, we were thankful there had been no serious injuries!

Briefly stated, after having lunch, I went out to see the shops and markets, but as many of you have experienced in other countries, merchants would stand outside and try to coax you to come in to buy things you didn’t want or need. I might have browsed but merely looking at a shopkeeper would encourage him to want to bring you in to see what he was selling. As we prepared to sail from Fiji, another band, a concert band, serenaded us for an hour and half before departure. Barb went down to the dock and took pictures, including one of the ship captain who was also playing tourist by taking pictures of the band. As the ship pulled away, they continued to play and people waved at us from the dock.

Activities on shipboard continue, particularly on the at sea days. For example, the other night, there was a pirate theme at dinner with servers dressed as pirates and some elaborate pirate decorations throughout the dining room. On sea days we have been listening to lectures about Australia and the Great Barrier Reef which we will visit on Monday.

A couple of days ago, we made our visit to the country of Vanuatu. OK. I wonder if I have been living in a different world because admittedly before this trip, I don’t recall knowing about Vanuatu. We learned that it is the former New Hebrides, which was its name until 1980. Some of you may know that New Hebrides played a major role the defense of the Pacific during World War II. Until 1980, it had had a most unusual government as it was run jointly by the British and French and it had what was called a condominium government under which, like a condominium association, both Britain and France had its own rules that they expected people to follow. Naturally, they had different rules. The best example was that the French wanted drivers to drive on the right and the British wanted them to drive on the left! One can only imagine the confusion.

Here Barb and I each chose different shore excursions. She selected a two-hour tour which focused on the capital and port town of Port Vila. On the other hand, I took an all day, eight-hour tour that circled the island. After her difficult tour in Fiji, she thought it best to have a shorter, easier, excursion in Vanuatu. She commented that their guide had profusely thanked people for visiting the country because without people booking the cruise, the ship would not have come and tourism helps their poor economy. They saw local sites including government buildings, religious sites, and saw a demonstration with one person splitting a coconut with his bare hand.

I did the full circle tour of 140 kilometers around the island and enjoyed every minute of it. Vanuatu has a population of about 300,000 people (maybe like the population of Buffalo) and are, like Fiji, Melanesians and not Polynesians. Melanesians are dark skinned and resemble Africans, unlike Polynesians who look more like native Hawaiians. If I had to describe Vanuatu in a few words I would say it has amazing beauty and immense poverty.

We started our in our eight-person vans with our guide explaining that much of the island beyond Port Vila lacks electricity although many now have solar panels and wind farms are being established on the island to generate power. (A couple of pictures are included that show the homes in one village. Some homes, as you see, are made of corrugated metal and many have no windows. They have a wooden flap which they can open for light during the day.) There is an effort to pave the road around the island and we saw much evidence of the construction of that road. We were there on a bright, sunny day but temperatures were pleasant. The blue sky and sunshine enhanced the sparkling blue waters on the beaches that any of us would enjoy. Vegetation was green and lush with a blanket of green so dense that the treetops seemed almost carpeted with green vines and leaves (the largest of which were the elephant leaves which we had also seen elsewhere). We stopped at what I think was a banyan tree and walked among the roots and gazed up at the snarled branches of the huge tree.

One place we boarded eight person dugout canoes and were paddled a short distance of the Epule River by some of the villagers and were greeted by the chief who chanted a welcome to us his native language. On disembarking the canoes, we were divided by gender as is still the custom there and without warning and with some loud screams and chants, “warriors” jumped out of the dense foliage and nearly scared our wits out of us. The men and boys did some ceremonial dances and posed for pictures with their mostly North American guests.

As we departed and continued our drive around the island, we noted the tropical fruit and palm trees. In some areas, cattle grazed under the coconut palm plantations. Chickens wandered around as they do on many of the islands (similar to Kauai). I never saw so many huge Brahma bulls as I did in Vanuatu. The cattle (cows, bulls, and horses) looked very healthy and strong. Traffic is light as most people walk. About the only services that we expect are in Port Vila so villages pretty much just have homes and maybe a church or two and nothing else. Many of the men carry machetes as they walk and we would see groups of people walking or congregated along the dusty roads. As elsewhere in the islands, people waved friendly greetings at us. Unfortunately, I was unable to take good enough pictures as the speed of the van didn’t allow me to compose pictures adequately. I was grateful for the opportunity to have a complete, visual education about a country about which I knew virtually nothing, but I now have a real sense of appreciation for these people and left with a warm feeling for them.

So now it is on to our next destination, Cairns, Australia on Friday night. By the way, as I finish this, it is 2:15 PM on Friday. In Chicago, it is 10:15 PM on Thursday. We receive a daily newspaper and initially I thought we had missed a day and that the paper was old. But it is published at midnight New York time and it is for the previous day. So on October 23 we are reading the current news of October 22 in North America.

Chuck