FIJI!!!

Bula!
Just wanted to drop another quick update. First and foremost, I'm still loving Fiji!!! It's so nice to be in this hot and humid weather....big change from the snow we left on Sunday. I'm still having a blast to say the least.

Tuesday night we were both in bed and asleep by 6:30!!! It had been a long day. Yesterday, Wednesday, we had our white water rafting trip. We are staying in Pacific Harbour, which is the adventure capital of Fiji and an adventure we did have! We met our transport at 6:45. We met up with the others rafting at the main office and piled into a little bus. The guide was Rob, who I was convinced was my soul mate. He is American and I could easily move to Fiji and help run a white water rafting place!!! Rob told us that it was an hour and a half drive to the put in place on the river. The 1st thirty minutes were smooth, the last hour was a little rougher. Rough was an understatement. We turn onto this gravel/clay one lane road....oh, but it wasn't one lane because we passed 2 other vehicles. It's through the mountains so the majority of it was extremely steep. I thought we were going to have to push as some points. The first part was through the logging area, where they log mahogany trees and take to town to sell and mostly ship overseas. Mahogany is not natural to Fiji though. We then get to the River Fiji conservation area, where they roads weren't kept up as good as the logging roads. WHAT!!

We get to the drop off and have about a 15 minute hike down a hill, which was steep and muddy and then back up another hill, which was just as steep and muddy. No worries...I didn't fall on the walk in!! We get our guide Stevie, who is from one of the local villages in the mountains. He was a wealth of knowledge. We were in the raft with two Aussies, Sarah and Ashley. Ashley is actually from L.A, but went to study abroad for a semester in Australia and never came back. My parents were lucky that I came back after my 7 months in Australia!!! Most of the villagers have to take a boat to town, which can take up to 2 days and then walk back to the village! Crazy. The quote of the trip was when Stevie asked, in all seriousness, So, do any of you guys hunt wild boars?!?! WHAT!!! Yes, Stevie, we do!!! Such a random questions. I wanted to tell him no, but my family kills pigs for meat once a year, but didn't have the energy to explain all of that. They hunt at least once a week to eat the wild boars on Saturday. They use only a knife and dog....no guns! And, sometimes when they chase them, they jump into the river and then they have to jump in after them! No thanks!

The river was beautiful. We did 16 miles in about 4 and a half hours. It takes us 2 days to do 16 miles on the Buffalo. It was through a canyon wall and everything was so lush and green. I imagine it would be like rafting the river in the Grand Canyon with the the scenery of the Amazon. So beautiful. You could even see the fall of the river. I always know when we are rafting we drop, but it was crazy to actually see that you were going down hill. In the currents, Stevie would have us do doughnuts and it was so much fun! The Ocoee is going to be boring after this trip!!!

The biggest adventure when we stopped for lunch 1/2 way through. They reminded us of the slippery rocks. Well, I had to pee, so I bebop out to the water and I'm walking, walking, and then I'm not!!!! The ledge ended and I was under water!!! Well down I go!!! I come back up and was like, ok, this water is calm, I can just climb back up...NOPE...it was a pretty strong current and mind you, I had taken off my life vest and helmet for lunch. So, I decided to grab onto the boat and pull myself up...NOPE...the boat wasn't attached and started floating with me. So, I decided since I was by myself I should probably call for someone. I called for Rob and my knight and shining armour came to my rescue!! He pulled my out and I told him that I was pretty clumsy and he said he was too. I'm sure he was trying to make me feel better. I then told him that we needed a little Rescue 911 on this river!!! I realized later that I had lost my sunglasses, but we found them down river, minus a lense. So after this email I'm off to buy new sunglasses.

The trip was amazing. It rained off and one, so when we got to the village where we take out, the bus had gotten stuck and could not make it down to pick us up. We had to hike about 10 or 15 minutes to the bus...what they didn't bother to tell us was that it was straight up the side of the mountain!!! Every turn I expected it to get flat...but no, it just got steeper. It stunk....but I reminded myself, at least I'm climbing a mountain in Fiji!!! It was so steep...I don't care who you are!!! My legs are pretty sore today!

We got back and we stayed up til about 7:30 and went to bed. Today we are doing the zip line. I'm really looking forward to this. Hopefully there won't be any mountain hiking on this trip. Afterwards we are transfering to Mango Bay, which is where we'll stay for New Years Eve. The 2 girls we rafted with are staying there and said it was completely booked out. We got spoiled with our first hostel with a room to ourselves, so it's not going to be fun giving up our privacy...but, we are in Fiji, so it's ok!!!

Still an awesome trip. Looking forward to the many more adventures to come. Keep us in your prayers for no more Rescue 911 scenes and for perfect weather. It's been raining off and on, but luckily it doesn't last long and at least it's not snow!!!

Love you all!

Becca :)