To get to Taveuni we had to take a ferry. The bus ride alone to the ferry was over two hours on a dirt road that seems to never be maintained. The ferry looked like a shanty on top of a little old fishing boat. There was about a four foot clearance from the floor to the ceiling inside:
Our friend Rob from New Zealand told us about this little backpacker lodge we could stay at that he said is pretty affordable and accommodating. It was difficult to find since none of the taxi drivers knew what we were talking about when we told them we were looking for "Mary's." We eventually made it there and realized it wasn't a lodge or a hostel of any kind; just some lady's house with an extra bedroom. A crazy person's house at that. All I can say is that I hope it's the most disgusting place we have to stay on the whole trip because I don't know if I could sleep in much worse than that.
The next day we took a trip to the waterfalls. It took almost all day to get there, hike around and get back to Mary's. The waterfalls were amazing. The largest had a cave behind it that you could climb up to and go inside and walk behind the fall. It was the only day in weeks that it didn't rain which made it perfect for swimming in the pools of fresh Fijian spring water. The same water all you pay $4 a bottle for back home. But I would have to say that wasn't my favorite part of the trip.
That evening Alex and I walked down to this beach just a couple hundred yard's from Mary's. As I was sitting there I realized it was one of the first times in my life that I could see nothing that was man made. There we were on our own little white sandy beach with no other people, no boats, no buildings, no buoys, no lights, no airplanes, no sounds... nothing. Just us. I wouldn't doubt if it will remain my favorite part of the Fiji experience.
For those of you who are curious about what Alec meant when he said he hopes Mary's is the most disgusting place we have to sleep in, let me describe it a bit. First of all, Mary was insane. She made strange high-pitched noises in response to everything we said, and she seems to have spent much of her time memorizing the names of everyone in her guest book, which we too signed. Now, Mary aside, the room she gave us was far from appealing: One small window in a stark room with peeling yellow walls and a musty smelling bed with damp sheets and a traditional piece of foam atop a "box spring" in the corner. Sounds nice, right? (I suppose it could have been worse; we peered into another bedroom to see a rotting piece of foam and torn sheets. And I suppose there are places that are even worse than that somewhere...) The bathroom was even better. The sink was rusted over and full of dirt and a clogged drain (clogged from what? I'm not sure since it clearly hadn't been used in what seemed like decades). The shower (no hot water) and the toilet... well, you get the picture. The bathroom was disgusting. And the worst part was, NO ELECTRICITY. For 3 hours a night we had electricity from a generator, but the rest of the night we had to venture into a dark, nasty, who-knows-what-lives-in-it bathroom with only a flashlight.
Our ride back from Bouma falls with a friendly Fijian family:
Coconut tree rope swing just across the street from Mary's place:
Sunset from our favorite Taveuni restaurant:
One last thing (not related to Taveuni): For anyone who has never spent four hours in the hot Fijian sun using a hoe to pull knee length weeds from a large patch of sweet potatoes, that shit is HARD.
No comments:
Post a Comment