July 31, 2010 by jcollins.

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July 31, 2010 by jcollins.

Sorry for the lack of postings, we really haven’t been home-bound for 9 months. In fact, John’s heading to his 5 continent, in the last 3 months, today. It’s about time to crank up the Allegro Buss for another big RV trip, so keep checking back… Who knows maybe we’ll go back and plug in some missing trips as well.

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October 30, 2009 by jcollins.

After spending all day on October 29th in Fiji, we got on a plane at 10:30pm for our flight to Los Angeles. We arrived in LA at about 1pm - get this - on October 29. Weird huh? Well we had to wait until 10:30 still on October 29 to catch our flight from Los Angeles to Tampa. That’s right two red-eye flights on the same night. There is just something not right about that. I guess our bodies agreed with us, because we didn’t sleep a bit on the flight. We arrived in Tampa at 5:55am on Oct. 30. No more Fiji time, no more bula, no more rest; now it’s time to get to work….

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October 29, 2009 by jcollins.

Time has gone by so quickly, I can’t believe it’s almost over. This morning we walked on the beach, saw the last of the beautiful blue starfish.

Joe the taxi driver showed up right on time to pick us up for the 2 hour drive back to the other side of the island. We watched the sugar cane being moved.

Joe wanted to share a couple of special places with us, so he stopped by the Outrigger Hotel to let us enjoy their view.

For lunch he took us to the incredible new Intercontinental Hotel. Their infinity pool looks like an extension of the water from the ocean.

In this photo you can see there really are people sitting on the beach between the pool and the ocean.

We took a quick walk on the beach before lunch. Joe snapped this photo for us.

After lunch it was back to the town of Nadi for some shopping, then a quick stop back by the Westin to enjoy one last sunset. The real question is: Do we look rested and relaxed?

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October 27, 2009 by jcollins.

This morning we visited the Warwick’s sister property 10 minutes down the road in Naviti. We were able to go out bay fishing. I haven’t done alot of fishing in my life, but I’ve certainly never gone “line fishing”. But when in Fiji, do as the Fijians so line fishing it is.

We discovered that if we were Fijians and had to count on our fishing to eat, we would be very skinny. Between the four of us, we caught enough for 3 fish sticks. Oh well, maybe next time we’ll go deep sea fishing.

On our way back to the shore, we saw a sea turtle. When we looked closely we noticed he was tied up. Now in the US, we can’t even turn our lights on at certain times of the year because we might disturb the sea turtles sense of direction. Here if Fiji they don’t have to deal with same environmentalists that we do, so when this turtle kept coming up to the village, they wanted to let him know his home is not on the shore, so they tied him up to keep him in the water.

The time on the water took it’s toll on us, so we visited the small village next to the resort.

The small huts usually contain handicraft for sale, but this village has discovered that people that stay at resorts like to get massages. The price was right so Kristi and I both got an hour long massage.

I’m not sure the American Massage Therapy Association would consider these therapeutic massages, but they sure felt good.

We also played a quick round of putt putt golf at the course right outside of our window.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in hammocks and by the pool. We sipped our drinks from coconuts that we broke open. We learned that the brown coconuts have very sweet meat too.

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October 26, 2009 by jcollins.

Every morning I wake up at about 3:30, most mornings I go back to sleep, but this morning I rolled out of bed and when the sun came up, I was ready. Here is a Fijian sunrise.

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October 25, 2009 by jcollins.

The beauty of sunsets can be difficult to catch on film, but I think we have done a decent job here. Enjoy the Fijian sunsets:

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October 24, 2009 by jcollins.

Before departing the lovely Westin resort, we stopped to photograph this tree. The root structure was really neat.

We called Joe the Cabbie, a long lost relative of Joe the Plumber, and spent the balance of our day driving across the island to the Warwick Resort. During the course of the 2.5 hour drive we learned all about the history of Fiji, the culture, the politics and the their Christian beliefs.

This is just one view of the country side.

We saw houses that were fit for kings and some that showed much personal expression.

As in most under developed countries, the road is filled with many roadside stands where the farmer’s try to sell their harvest to passerbys.

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October 24, 2009 by jcollins.

At breakfast we decided we would rent a car today and drive up the to capital city of Suva.

We drove up the coast, stopping to visit an art village that was really nothing more than a tourist trap. It was quiet pretty though.

Getting a bit thirsty, we stopped at a roadside stand and picked up a coconut. Kristi loved drinking the coconut water straight from the coconut. We did find out that you don’t eat the meat of the green coconuts though. Yuck!

Rugby is HUGE here. We had no idea their team is the world champions and all the players are all major celebrities here. While it wasn’t the national team playing, there was a match today, so people decorated their vehicles and headed off to watch the match.

The coast line is filled with beautiful views, or as my spanish speaking friends like to say, linda vistas. This is just one of the lagoons that we passed.

We passed alot of various styles of homes.

Yes there are still some homes that have the traditional Fiji roofs:

Lest you think that all of the homes in Fiji are small, this one could in on Clearwater beach in Florida:

When we got downtown, we visited the Fiji Museum. Which told the interesting story of Fiji’s history. We learned about the Christian missionaries who came and how they were accepted. One of the top missionaries was meeting at a village, and he touched the chief’s head - a major taboo - the bodyguards killed the missionary and the village ate him. We saw the bowl and fork they used, along with the missionaries Bible and shoes. So if you ever get to Fiji, don’t touch anyone’s head.

By the time we finished our tour of the museum, the city was pretty well closed down, evidently they close at about 3pm on Saturdays. Who knew?

There was a youth rally going on at a local park. It was neat to see that youth rallies in Fiji aren’t that different from youth rallies in the US.

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October 22, 2009 by jcollins.

Early this morning, we grabbed our swimsuits, sunscreen and wallet and headed for our “own private island.” Yep, that’s right, us and about 50 of our closest friends. We climbed aboard the large catamaran and set sail for South Seas Island, a short 30 minute ride from the marina. When we got close to the island,

the water taxi’s pulled up to take us the rest of the way.

Upon arrival we were briefed about the days agenda, a dive trip was offered to see a sunken Viking ship, too good to pass up. We spent the next 30 minutes getting geared up to go see the ancient boat. We boarded another water taxi for the two minute ride out. Hopped off the side of the boat and started our descent. Kristi’s ears bothered her, so she had to return to the surface and take the boat back to shore. I continued the dive and saw the boat along with lots of beautiful fish.

After the dive, we relaxed on the island for a while before lunch and the Meke Show.

The show was part song

and part warrior dances. The Fijians were fierce cannibalistic warriors and they love to dance and show off the weapons of yesteryear.

When the show completed we boarded another catamaran to tour several islands. Pretty much we were playing taxi to the passengers heading to other islands, but it gave us a close up view of beautiful scenery. Enjoy!
Fiji Waters:

$2350 per night huts over the water

Very friendly people here in Fiji, they always great you with a song and a cheerful BULA!:

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