A Fijian Village & Kava Ceremony

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

This visit to the Fijian village was a highlight of our trip and an experience you shouldn't miss.  The village Chief was presented with a Kava root as a gift from the ship. The Chief then allowed us into the village and participate in a Kava ceremony. When drinking kava it is customary to give a hollow clap once, hold up the bowl, say "bula" and drink. You then hand the bowl back, and do three more hollow claps.



There are etiquette rules when visiting a village.Women should  keep their shoulders covered and having your knees exposed whether your are a man or woman is a sign of disrespect.  Long pants or Fijian sulus (wraps) should be worn.  There are so many beautiful ones sold you will probably want to buy one anyhow!  And both men and women wear them.
We had a great dinner that was cooked in a lovo or earth oven in the ground.  When the sun went down and it got increasingly darker, a generator kicked to life and some lights came on in the area where we were eating.  Otherwise they don't have electricity...and it gets dark early in Fiji!
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Henrique, the Cruise Director with the kava root.

Walking towards the village at low tide...

 

Village life (above and below) 

The market

Tomorrow we visit a Fijian school on Yasawa Island. The students will be our tour guides.

Our First Scuba Dive In Fiji!

Tuesday June 26, 2012 

Bula everyone!  In case you didn't know, that is a warm hello in Fijian. We have learned some other Fijian words - Vinaka means thank you and thank you very much is Vinaka Vakalevu. Boat is Waqa (pronounced wonga) and the city Nadi is pronounced Nandi - actually anything with a "d" is pronounced nd!

This morning we set off to Tivua Island.  Here is our second video blog but keep reading below.

Tivua Island, a gem in the South Pacific, where we enjoyed snorkeling in the beautiful water. 

I was in heaven here...Tom our driver on the mainland said you need to keep one eye open  to make sure you are really on earth...

Camera Guy finally let me take a picture of him...his blue eyes matched the ocean... (and his Blue Jays Hat hahaha).

Our new friends from New Zealand - Hilary and Gail.

Everything about the place is romantic!

When the light touches the blue water or the green hills, everything just bursts with colour!

Camera Guy and I about to go scuba diving with Will, the dive master.  It was fun!

Will leading us into the deep blue sea...YIKES!!! I didn't let go of his hand the entire time. We actually went to a depth of 30 feet and were under for about 40 minutes. 

Everything is magical...Camera Guy was loving his new underwater Panasonic Lumix camera, but I think he was more concerned about breathing & equalizing than he was about taking dozens of pictures. Even so, the underwater pictures look pretty good.

Tonight is the Captain's dinner and tomorrow Drawaqa Island and the Gunu village...