no man is an island but what about an archipelago (fiji pt. 6)

the weather is hinting at letting up this morning but has yet to yield that beautiful fiji sunshine that greeted me so few days ago. i had the option of staying a final night at long beach but opted to pay about $20 more to visit a third island at the furtherest edge of the yasawas, nacula island, home to blue lagoon (made famous by a very young brooke shields). i can only hope the weather will be kind and make it beautiful.

although i tried to play the mysterious loner for the majority of the trip this last island felt particularly lonesome. at least on other  islands i had 2 nights to make insincere, short lasting relationships. what ya gonna do with a night?

if waya lailai was the prettiest location and long beach had the friendliest staff then safe landing resort was probably the most backpackery of the bunch. the grounds were pleasant, positioned on a tiny peninsula and surrounded on three sides by water, and the activities were plentiful. it had the most polish of the three and that insistence on fun that most backpacker hostels seem to have.

despite my best efforts to do nothing i found myself playing volleyball again in the afternoon and making friends with a table full of australian travel agents, doing what is called a “familiar” in the industry. we were treated in the evening to a lovo feast where food is prepared in a pit that is buried underground. the spread featured fish, chicken, pork, taro, cassava, salad, pasta, and a banana bread with this delicious mint cream sauce. i would have dripped it on everything had i not waited to sample it until last.

dinner was followed by traditional dancing, alternating by turns between the mens and women’s group. a lot of stomping and hip swaying, a mix between the haka and hula dance. eventually we were all invited to participate in a snake line, which, you know, white people dancing, but also, when in fiji.

underground pit

revealed