Village Trip, Day #6

Today has been so sunny and beautiful, I hope the rest of our stay here is like this. We woke up to get the continental breakfast and then got ready for our all day trip up the Navua River. This is the same river that the movie Anaconda 2 was filmed, but there are no snakes in Fiji. Our driver picked us up at the hotel around 9:45am and drove us 15 minutes up to a house up by the Navua River. The driver ended up being in charge of the whole trip and her family lived in that house. We got lucky that it was only a 15 minute drive, because there were 23 other that came from as far away as Nadi (3 hour drive). They all came in two different shuttles and showed up at the house about 1/2 hour after us.

Once everyone was there, all 25 of us got into 3 different tiny wooden boats that took us about an hour up the river. At least the boats had motors on them, or it would have taken us all day. We went up stream the whole way there and there were spots so shallow that we hit the bottom a few times. I thought we were going to flip!! Our first stop on the way up the river was at a small water fall, where we could swim in the water below it. It was pretty cold, but nothing compared to the Yakima River. Everyone swam a bit and then headed back to the boats. We made our way up the river to the Namuamua Village and all got out of our boats. We were greeted by the family of the village and I had to put my Sarong on (to cover my knees) before we headed up to the village.

We walked up to the first building to join the traditional Kava Ceremony. The men sat in front with there legs crossed and the woman had to sit behind all the men with there legs together knees to the side. Wes was made the 2nd chief, so he was served Kava at the main part of the ceremony. When the appointed him 2nd chief, he walked to the house right behind the chief and I had to carry all of our bags (Wes really like this.. haha). After everyone sat down there were 3 men surrounding the big Kava bowl and one main guy mixing it. A man came in behind him with a huge stick that had leaves on the end where the Kava dripped off into the big bowl where they were mixing the drink. Everyone sang and a few guys spoke in there native language.
They served the Chief (a guy from australia) and then the 2nd Chief (Wes) and a few of the village people and then the ceremony was done. They were then able to serve the rest of us Kava. When they came up to us with a cup, you had to clap once, they would give you the cup and then you say Bula (hello) and then drink it. The Kava drink is suppose to relax you. It's a narcotic, so it made my mouth and nose all numb feeling. The feeling only lasted about 10 minutes.

Once everyone finished their drinks, 6 guys did a Warrior Meke dance, which is a traditional dance and then we all got up and joined them in the Taralala and the Tuiboto (snake dance).

After dancing we walked to a building across the lawn to eat. The food was all set up for us on the floor and they gave us a plate and cup before we sat down. Everyone sat around the food and started digging in. We had chicken, tuna sandwiches, pineapple, bananas, cucumber and tomatoes, Terra Root and the leaves as a spread. Wes and I both loved the Terra Root, we wanted more after we left. I'll have to find some online and figure out how to prepare it.

They played songs and sang while we ate and when everyone finished we walked around the small village and saw their tiny health center. Some people travel 4 hours just to get to this tiny health center. That's how far out they live from the main highway and the little cities.
We walked back to the main building where the they had souvenirs all laid out for us to purchase. I bought a really cool photo frame that said Bula Fiji on it.

The village family then lined up outside the house and sang their national anthem. They had everyone sing their own national anthem. There were people from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and then USA. There were luckily 6 of us, so Wes and I didn't have to sing by ourselves!

Everyone headed back to to the boats and headed down the river. We stopped about 10 minutes down and got on some traditional bamboo bilibili rafts. Some of us floated on there and some decided to float down in the river and swim. The river was a brown green color and I had my camera in my hand, so I didn't want to jump in. There were tons of spiders on the raft and there was a huge one under this lady and a guy luckily saw it and flicked it into the water. It just floated in the water and got close to the other raft. The guy driving the boat picked up the spider... it was so gross!

We jumped back onto the regular boats and made it back to the house where we started. She dropped us off at the hotel, we showered and then went down to happy hour. We met a few of the big group of divers that are staying at our hotel. The one we talked to the most, name was Sara and she was from Denver, CO. She mentioned that there was a traditional fiji dinner buffet going on in the upstairs restaurant. So after happy hour we wondered up there and asked if we needed reservations and they said it would be okay.
Wes and I both ate way too much food. They had Kava and Terra Root again and lots of other foods. At the end of dinner the Pearl Resort dance team came out and performed and then had everyone get up to do the snake dance. Twice in one day, Whoa man are we lucky ;)
That was a long day for us, so we headed back to the room for the night right after the performance was done.

Village guys doing the Meke Warrior Dance:

Can you see Wes under the waterfall?


Ready, set, JUMP!


Wes and I outside one of the village houses: