Robinson Crusoe Island, Wednesday 6/25/2014

We woke up for an early breakfast, and the bus picked us up right on time, 5 minutes to 9:00 (not Fiji time!).  We had a nice ride out to the dock, and waited for more people to arrive.  The boat ride through to the island was rather slow, and the boat was rather full, through a lovely canal system.  But the island was right outside the canal system, in the open water, guarded by barrier reef, we could see waves breaking all around us.  

We arrived to the island, where Kev and I started with a short kayak ride out past the boats and back.  Kayaks really are quite nice, aren’t they?  We think we might buy a set for ourselves one day.  

There were several demonstrations throughout the day, including a coconut demonstration, where we learned how to husk coconuts, braid leaves to make baskets, make brooms from the fronds, etc.  We even got to try some fresh coconut and to drink some fresh coconut milk, which was surprisingly salty.

We also participated in a crab race, which was surprisingly more exciting than you’d expect!  You pick a number, drop all the crabs into the middle of a circle, which was drawn in the sand, and the first crab to make it to the designated ring wins!  I was number 3, which was the first place winner for about a third of the way through, but then he turned and took the long way out.  I lost out to Alvin’s crab, number 30…  but it’s all in good fun, and in the end, they didn’t even get the winning crabs’ numbers right.  I imagine in some venues, the audience might get very upset with that!  

Ah, Alvin…  we’ll have to tell you about Alvin.  He’s a very precocious little boy of about 5 years, from China (Hong Kong specifically), there with his Mom, and I assume his aunt.  We actually met Alvin the day before at the Eco-Park, and were pleasantly surprised to see him again today on the Robinson Crusoe tour.  Kev was able to bond with him by showing him the beach-combing crabs, amongst other things.  

We had some lazy time at the island, where we read our books and enjoyed the sun.  After lunch, they took us out in a boat to go snorkeling.  We enjoyed the reef and the fish, though we felt the snorkel trip was too short in general.  I kept trying to convince them to take us to another spot for an encore, but to no avail.  We will definitely try to snorkel again before we leave.  

Looks like Kev's doing what Kev does best?!

Kevin, me, and little Alvin, coming back in from our snorkel.

Back on the beach, Kevin was able to catch one of the little crabs after several minutes of chasing. He then dutifully waded out into the water to give it to Alvin, forgetting at the time that his iPhone was in his pocket. I guess we won't be seeing any of the pictures he took today.

Right around sunset, they dropped off another boat full of people for the evening shows.  (We had signed up for the combo day pass and evening shows.)  We witnessed a kava ceremony, then we all drank some kava — which smells and tastes like soapy water.  However, if it’s strong enough, it’s supposed to make your lips and tongue numb.  It may also have an intoxicating and mellowing effect if you drink enough of it, which we didn’t…  

Before dinner, there was a fire walking show, where the natives walked on the hot coals which were used for the lovo — basically a pit where the food is placed to cook all day, buried underneath hot rocks and embers.  Apparently very similar to how Gene cooks potatoes when camping.  We bumped into a couple of ladies from Germany, who just couldn’t understand why they would need to walk on hot stones.  What purpose did it serve?  We couldn’t answer their question, other than the obvious:  they didn’t have rulers to measure whose cajones were bigger back then…  Or possibly it was a meditative, religious type action.  Either way, we didn’t have a definitive answer.  It might be interesting to look up one day, although I’m sure if Kevin stumbles onto the information on reddit, he will certainly let us know.  

Then the dinner buffet, which was probably very good, but the food was a little bland - but at least it wasn’t overly salty, which we have found most of the food here to be.  (Someone bring these Fijians some spices!)  My favorite food on the banquet line was the Fijian spinach, which is actually elephant leaf mixed with a few other veggies.  It was yummy and not too salty.  Unfortunately, I was absolutely put off when I saw this annoying kid open his mouth and show the disgusting mix of food inside — that kid was NOT Alvin — I suppose pregnancy can make you a bit more sensitive to these types of things…  

After dinner was the dancing and fire shows!  Awesome!!!  But after all day in the sun, we determined that the dancers had a bit more energy than we did.  They danced for probably an hour and a half, but it certainly felt like 6 hours. It was hard to keep up with all the clapping and shouting and hoo-hawing, but we tried.  We’ll add some pictures from the show, possibly tomorrow.  However, we’re rushing to catch up with our blogging, since we’re writing this a day after, and we assume that everyone wants to hear about the 26th!…

Actually, we have some videos to share, but it's taking forever to upload!...