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Bula!
Fiji is both the transit and cultural hub of the South Pacific. Probably the main reason we came here is that it is the cheapest place to fly to in the area (relatively of course). The country lies just about in the middle of the thousands of islands that cover this vast region. There are over 300 named islands that are part of the nation of Fiji. Basically, a few big islands surrounded by many small ones. Viti Levu is the main and largest island where the international airport is located (Nadi, pronounced Nandi) and the capital Suva. Fijian culture is an interesting combination of native Melanesian and Polynesian peoples, and the descendants of indentured servants who came from India during the 19th and early 20th centuries. There is definitely a bit of racial tension between these two main groups, mainly related to property laws that restrict land ownership by native Indians (and anyone else). Probably one reason there are frequent coups here, the latest in 2006.
We were a bit worried that Fiji might be too similar to Hawaii, i.e. volcanic islands, coral reefs, coconut palms and general tropical paradise. You know, the usual boring stuff 
Shortly after we landed we figured out that our worries were unfounded. About the only similarities are floral print shirts and a ubiquitous greeting. Just substitute Aloha with an even more vigorous Bula! The first thing we noticed was that the people here are crazy nice. Within 30 minutes of landing we were invited to stay at someone’s house and have received several similar offers since. We are definitely in a foreign country now.
Our first stop was with a local Indian named Eddie who we found through couchsurfing. Eddie lives inland, about a 10 minute cab ride from the Airport and Nadi town. Eddie’s place is an odd combination of unofficial hostel, home stay, bachelor pad, and local party spot. We stayed for 3 nights. During our time there, we were cooked fabulous meals, partied, hung out, and then hung-over with locals and fellow travelers. Should probably mention here that Fijians have a peculiar method of drinking beer, probably influenced by the kava tradition. Drinking is done communally. One small glass is filled and passed around in a circle, each person finishing the glass in one gulp. Usually one person does the pouring. It may sound inefficient but this is surprisingly effective, especially when some local 120 proof rum is thrown into the mix. Eddie’s place is also home to a cat, 4 dogs, 2 goats, some chickens and roosters, and a horse who apparently comes and goes as he pleases (he never showed during our stay). We were given frequent rides into town by Eddie’s neighbor Reggie (bastardized English version of his Indian name), who informed us a bit on local politics and culture.
While getting the downtown tour of Nadi from Reggie, we passed by a tourist booth where they give away free trips for going to a timeshare presentation (ah, another thing in common with Hawaii). Basically, sit through a 90 minute presentation on the great virtues and economic sense of buying magical points for $40,000 loaned at a 14% interest rate (hey but no prepayment penalty!) plus $1000 in yearly maintenance fees for the right to stay at one of Wyndham’s resorts for a couple weeks a year until you drop dead or talk some schmuck into buying it from you. Ummm………neh. We will take the free cruise though. And we did.
The next day we took the local bus to Denarau Island (where the fancy resorts are) and took our free cruise. We boarded a big double-masted sailboat, along with about 40 other tourists of higher income tax brackets than ourselves, and set out for Tivua or Mystery Island about an hour and a half from shore. En route, we were treated to a tourist friendly kava ceremony (much tamer than the scene at Eddies) and incessant singing by the crew. The island is a tiny coral sand outcropping that took no more than 5 minutes to circumnavigate on foot. After a short nap (still feeling the effects of the previous night at Eddie’s) we helped ourselves to the free buffet lunch and open bar, then did some kayaking and snorkeling. All in all it was a decent trip but we feel sorry for the people who actually paid $100 for it.
Moving on from Nadi, we set out for the Coral Coast on the southern shore of Viti Levu. Took the local bus to the Beach House resort. This place is set up specifically for backpackers. Accommodations range from private bungalows to camping, our preferred method. It’s mostly full of young travelers, but is surprisingly nice and immaculately kept. There is a communal area with a pool in the center surrounded by a kitchen, tables, a bar, a pool hall and the beach in front. Cheap activities abound including snorkeling trips, horseback riding, jungle treks, massages, and kayaking. Tomorrow we plan on taking advantage of the F$20 hour long massage ($13 US). Life is hard.
P.S. Relative to home, we’ve moved from 6 hours in the past to 16 hours in the future. In the process we completely lost Saturday June 28th. That’s right it never happened. We got on the plane Friday night, passed out, woke up 6 hours later and it was 4 am Sunday morning.
P.P.S. We have a local prepaid cell phone here and we can receive text messages for free if you want to send us an update or make us laugh. From the US, dial 011 679 947 9953. We’re charged to text you back though, so it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re ignoring you if we don’t reply.
Peace out, Hawaii
It’s been a while since we’ve updated the blog so here’s the quick recap before we set out for Fiji. The Big Island was bomb diggity. Thanks to the nice peeps (Bear, Zack, David, Shaun) that provided sleeping space for us. Good times included chillin’ in Waipio Valley, lounging in natural heated pools in Puna district, hiking in a crater, seeing lava flow into the ocean, getting lightheaded at 13,000 feet elevation, outdoor showers (although few and far between), and snorkeling with dolphins in Kealakekua Bay. Our last stop in Hawaii was on Maui. We surfed some fabulous couches here (thanks Jess and Chris!), camped at some sweet spots, and even spent a couple nights in the Garden of Eden thanks to John’s Aunt Amy. We pretty much stuck to our usual activities of swimming, snorkeling, hiking, and hanging out in our hammock. We know, stressful. But it hasn’t been ALL fun and relaxation. We did wake up in the middle of the night with 2 centipedes inside our tent, poor us.
Now it’s finally time to go international. We’ve sadly decided to send our nice camera back home (along with several other items) in order to lighten our load, but we still have a small camera and will hopefully be able to keep posting pics. We just added more to all the Hawaii albums if you’re interested and have 2 weeks or so to look at all of them So we’re heading to Fiji for a few weeks before moving on to Australia. We decided to put off New Zealand for either the end of our trip, or maybe a different journey altogether. Stay tuned for more…
Hawaii so far
It took 14 hours, 2 delayed flights, 4 Xanax, 2 Bonine, 1 Dramamine, and 1 Cinnabon, but we finally made it to Hawaii. We spent 3 days couchsurfing in Honolulu and exploring the rest of Oahu. We snorkeled with sea turtles at Hanauma Bay, checked out the big surf on the North shore, and attempted to get a tan.
Took a quick flight to Kauai, hitched our first ride with a native Hawaiian, and spent the night at Kapa’a beach house hostel. Some nice peeps from the hostel took us snorkeling the next day and dropped us off to camp on the north shore. Unfortunately the campground at Hanalei Bay was closed for maintenance, so we commando camped across the river. We soon realized that our tent was right next to the Princeville Resort so we went up for a few drinks and hobnobbed with the elite guests at the resort. One couple even asked us how we had chosen the Princeville Resort over other resorts on the island. We’re not sure that they believed us when we told them we were actually camped on the beach.
We got as close as possible to the Kalalau trailhead the next day and headed out on the trail at 6am the next morning. Considering all of the warnings we had heard about how difficult the trail was and how scary some of the dropoffs were, we were prepared for a tough hike but ended up being pleased to find that most of it was hype. Sure, the entire 11 miles is strenuous (we lost count of how many ridges and valleys we climbed and descended), but it’s full of amazing views and even though John hurt his knee, we still made it the entire way to the valley on our first day of hiking. We spent 4 nights there, most of it relaxing in our hammock or on the beach, with a brief hike up into the valley to explore around. We met several people that live in the valley, even helped build a fire for a potluck they had on the beach. We also made some friends. We had met Bear (from Humboldt but now WOOFing on the Big Island) while hitching a ride to the trailhead, but got to spend some more time with him in the valley and disgust his vegan tastes with our steady diet of Cream of Wheat and Ramen punctuated by the occasional beef jerky. We also camped next to Karen and Ryan from Seattle and we’ve latched onto them ever since. We knew we were going to be friends when we discovered that Ryan was drinking rum and Crystal Light in his water bottle. We also seem to have led somewhat parallel lives. We have the same hammocks, the same utensils, and have hiked to both Havasu Falls and to Kalalau Valley within a month of each other.
To avoid the intense midday heat, we started our hike out of the valley by moonlight. We met a really nice couple, Cliff and Yvonne, on our way out and they gave us a ride (and 2 Snapples each). To afford ourselves a little more freedom, we decided to rent a car. There are places here that specifically rent beater cars so the renters are supposed to look like locals and not be targets for theft. We called a guy named Steve from a number on the wall at a hostel. He picked us up and took us to a parking lot behind some real estate office where we made the deal. Handed him a wad of cash for some car keys. We ended up with a fabulous Scooby-Doo-esque Astro van. There’s no radio, no seats in the back, and both of the passenger side doors don’t work. It’s perfect. We’ve been taking it easy since, snorkeling, hitting up some cool swimming spots in the north, and eating well.
Jazzfest
New Orleans
After an epic drive across Texas, with a stop in Austin to take a quick nap at Jess’ house, we pulled into NOLA in the wee hours, early Sat. morning. D and L-dog were still out on the town but we were pretty done from the long drive so we crashed out ‘early.’ Durl had managed to secure a massive 2 bed 2 bath suite with a full kitchen and living room at the Residence Inn, a block from the Howlin Wolf. Spent the first two nights there before we got our own place on Sunday night. Saturday night we caught Eric Krasno, Russell Batiste, and Joe Krown at a little bar down the street from the hotel. Ivan Neville even stopped by to sit in. Sunday night was the first of our 2 shows at the ‘Wolf. Like last year the lineup was pretty stellar. PBS opened followed by the ‘Fest Allstars’ which included George Porter, Russell, Ivan and Ian Neville, Kraz and Skerik. Then late night was the Duo with Skerik and Kraz. Guests included the drummer from Sly and the Family Stone. We had our own place from Suday through Wednesday night and managed to avoid most of the insanity that has characterized Jazzfests of yore. While I had plenty of ‘work’ to do, setting up gear, coordinating w/musicians etc. it was a much mellower Jazzfest overall. Also, since this was my third ‘fest I felt much less pressure to be everywhere and see everything. Our next show was Thursday. That lineup included some DJ sets from Logic, then Russ’ band with a whole slew of guests. At one point I counted 17 musicians on stage. Sit ins included Bernie Worrell, Page n Mike from Phish, Kraz (again), Oteil (yep Vida Blue reunion), and many others. Then came Global Noize, a project featuring Jason Miles (Miles Davis), DJ Logic, Bernie, Oteil, Karl D, Billy Martin and others. Pretty sweet night overall. Thursday also, marked the arrival of Brad, Beth and Ben. We moved into a hotel with them for the rest of the weekend. Friday we hit up the fairgrounds for some food, music, shopping and daylight. Stevie Wonder was the headliner that evening but we found ourselves pretty much crowded out from the stage he was playing. After only a couple songs we gave up and went over to watch Franti and Spearhead instead. Other shows we hit up second weekend included New Mastersounds (sounds like greyboy without karl D) at House of Blues Parish and Greyboy (w/Karl D) and Dumpstaphunk at Tip’s. Kelly pretty much fell in love with NOLA and would definitely move there if she wasn’t certain she’d gain 50 pounds.
Southwest
Well since it’s been over a month, I guess its time for some new posts. While we’ve been procrastinating on doing any writings here, we have done quite a bit of moving around. We’ve mostly kept the photo gallery up to date so if you’ve been checking the site you’ve probably seen plenty of pics. We spent some time in the southwest, mostly exploring southern Utah and Northern Arizona. Then we drove all the way back across Texas (800 miles!) to New Orleans for Jazzfest. From NOLA we returned home for about a week to regroup and say goodbye to family and friends. Then on May 13th we took off for 6 weeks in Hawaii (life is tough sometimes). Anyway, thought I’d share some of the highlights from the past month:
New Mexico
Spent Kelly’s birthday at White Sands National Monument. Very cool place where we did a loop hike through the dunes. The trail was marked with plastic stick markers that obviously we’re adjusted frequently due to the shifting nature of the dunes. The sand is made up mostly of gypsum (think drywall) and is blindingly white. I did most of the hike barefoot and ended up with blisters on my feet. Taking pictures here was tough, especially during the early afternoon when we did most of our hiking. As the day wore on and shadows became more pronounced, the scenery became much more dramatic. The park seems to be a popular local hangout spot. I guess this is about as close as people from New Mexico get to a day at the beach. That night we camped at a KOA in Northern New Mexico. It got down to 24 degrees. We were not prepared for this. Apparently, it gets cold in the desert at night. Who knew? FYI, no stores in New Mexico or Utah sell long underwear after March, this is a fact that we learned the hard way. We did have wireless internet in our tent though.
Southern Utah
In all of my travels (although not nearly as extensive as some I know), I have not come across a place more dramatic and varied as Southern Utah. While we plan to cover many more miles over the next several months and see many more beautiful places, this area is home to some of the most consistently jaw dropping landscapes in the world. The entire area is basically one big canyon with a few snow capped mountain ranges and the occasional river thrown in.
We drove through the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona en route to Utah. Very strange place. We stopped briefly at Canyon de Chelly on our way through, a beautiful canyon, with ancient puebloan ruins, that is still used by Native Americans for farming and grazing. The surrounding area however, was quite depressing. Lots of trash, loose livestock, and some very erratic driving behavior. From the Reservation we headed north through Monument Valley into Utah up rt.191 toward Moab and Canyonlands National Park. This is a truly spectacular drive.
We didn’t spend a great deal of time at Canyonlands. Mostly because the park is vast and it is probably best explored via 4WD vehicle. There are miles and miles of unpaved backcountry roads to be explored, in some of the most remote wilderness in the lower 48. We covered all of the paved roads and accessible trails in the northern (island in the sky) and south eastern (needles) sections of the park pretty quickly. The south western portion of the park is entirely unpaved backcountry. This is definitely a place to come back to for an extended 4WD backcountry excursion. We did find a pretty sweet free campsite just outside the Needles area.
From there we headed to Capital Reef National Park, driving through our first sand storm to get there. Apparently the winds can get pretty crazy in the spring. Cool drive getting to the park, very badlandesque. Lots of unusual colors in the rock formations. Camped at a little oasis in Escalante where we got pizza, beer, and a campsite.
We then backtracked 30 miles to the town of Boulder where Laurie lives, population 180. When Laurie told us she worked in a restaurant in Boulder, we didn’t realize it was the ONLY restaurant in Boulder. Hell’s Backbone Grill turned out to be an awesome place to eat so we had breakfast and dinner there our first day in town. All of the food was incredible, bread made in the restaurant, eggs from their farm, sweet sweet bacon, mmmmmmmmmmmm. Stayed for a couple days in the house for the restaurant and farm employees. As Laurie put it, it’s kind of like the Real World, but everyone gets along. I think the highlight of our visit was perusing Laurie’s weaponry catalog our first night there, you would have to see the catalog to understand. A close second was our venture to Peek-a-boo and Spooky canyons. It was a long, dusty drive but more than worth it to see these amazing slot canyons. Definitely two of the coolest places we have been.
From Boulder, we headed to Zion National Park where we scored another McFabulous free campsite just south of the park. We still weren’t overly impressed with Zion. We thought our last trip there was tainted by the over 100 degree temperature, but it turns out we’re just not in love with this place. Seems like the real adventure here is to hike the Narrows, but they were closed due to high water while we were here.
Our last real destination in the Southwest was hiking to Havasu Falls. After hiking 8 miles through dry canyon, we arrived in the town of Havasupai. The only way in is to hike or ride a horse. What we didn’t realize was that most of the people visiting Havasu Falls have a mule carry all of their gear down and they hike comfortably carrying only their water. We were amazed when we hiked the additional two miles to the campground and found people sleeping under massive tents and eating tasty meals from their coolers. Our amazement, however, did not impede our sleeping for almost 15 hours after our hike in.
Overall, this place is pretty f-in sweet. Bright blue green water running through a red rock canyon, can’t beat it. The only thing that tainted this trip was the squirrel that chewed a hole through John’s pack and ate our breakfast.
More to come….
Carlsbad Caverns (April 11th, 2008)
We finally made it out of Texas. First stop in New Mexico was Carlsbad Caverns. Wasn’t quite sure what to expect, as we have been to some underwhelming caverns in the past. This place was pretty amazing though. We took about 1000 pictures too many.
Big Bend National Park (April 10, 2008)
After leaving Jess’ house in Austin at crack ass a.m. and then a 7 hr. drive, we arrived in Big Bend. West Texas is pretty remote and desolate, lying at the northern reaches of the Chihuhuan desert. The park is huge. We did some hiking down at the Rio Grande river, which could hardly be called grand at all, more like a large creek. John tried to ‘escape‘ to Mexico by wading across it. Highlights included St. Elena Canyon, our sweet campsite in the Chisos Mountains and Victor the singing Mexican.
Wildlife sited: road runners (more like jogger), wild boar, lizards, goats (mexican), horses (mexican)
Austin, TX (April 7-9, 2008)
Who knew? Texas kicks ass. Well, Austin does anyway. Likely a case of an oasis of cool in a sea of suck. Spent 3 nights here visiting Jessica B. and Joey R. Jess just bought a cute little house not far from UT and Joey lives in a sweet apartment complex on the southwest side of town. Binge eating was a frequent activity during our stay. Mexican and BBQ seem to be the cuisines of choice here. Breakfast tacos in the morning, BBQ brisket for lunch and maybe pulled pork for dinner. Feels like we gained about 40 lbs each in 3 days. Between meal activities included drinking, canoeing in the ‘other’ Colorado river, turtle hunting, swimming at Barton Springs, ‘losing’ my credit cards and license, seeing some live tunes and rockin’ out with Joey and Tim Dyer.
Wildlife sited: Armadillo (smashed), turtles (thousands), Longhorn cattle (in the CITY of Dallas), weird sounding birds.
On the Road Again
To kick off our long ass trip, we went for a long ass drive. Fairhaven to Austin, TX with a brief stopover in the Dallas area to visit Pete Skjold. Not much else to say about a 25 hour drive, so here’s a map.
