Suva to Makogai

We said good bye to Cassie in Suva. The ninety mile run back to Nadi by boat just wasn't appealing (for any of us). Options were, rent a car (What! Are your crazy? says Romina the Royal Suva Yacht Club assistant manager)- the roads and drivers make that a NO!, hire a taxi from Suva to Nadi - too expensive, take a coach - very good alternative - you can see lots of country side and don't have to do the driving - but the schedule was too close to her flight time to allow for any hiccups, so she caught a flight from Suva to Nadi and we were all happy. She has confirmed her safe arrival to Calgary. I think she had a good time. She got to see Fiji by land and sea, drink kava with the Fijians, eat some great Indian food (Mom's cooking was still the best - that's me!), do some fantastic diving and she even got a few days of sun. It was great to have her here.

Suva is a very un-glamorous port city. The yacht club is very welcoming and a nice "normal" place to hang out for a few days. We did find some awesome Indian restaurants and ate out as much as we could (Mystery Ship cook took a holiday!). We stocked up on our fresh produce at the extensive open market and picked up some "give away gifts" for when we visit more villages from the multitudes of discount "knock-off" stores.

After an 8 hour cruise from Suva to the north east, we arrived at a lovely little island/reef called Makogai ("Makonguy"). We wove our way through the rocks of the reef and anchored off the small village on the west side. This was once the site of a leper colony - upwards of 5000 people, now they have an aqua-culture station for giant clams - very impressive. The "headman" Cameli, is charming and informative and was very happy to explain in English the blessing over the "sevusevu" (a gift of Kava roots from visitors to the village) and the "whys" of some of the village etiquette expected of visitors - skirts for men and women, no sunglasses or hats, no bags or gear slung over your shoulder - funny stuff like that but when explained make sense. The whole deal is much like taking a bottle of wine with you when you go to somebody's house for dinner. Just manners. He told us where we might find some good diving on the reef too. So once we were done with our formalities, off we went to dive and I must say - This the most fantastic diving we have done to date on our travels. I think I've said that before, but this is it, right here. There was so much underwater life - corals/fishes - that your head can't turn fast enough to take it all in. we dove twice in one day and if we get more days here, we'll go again and again. This is why we travel!

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com