Jun 26 - After our adequate breakfast as supplied by the B&B, we drive north into the hills north of Suva. Here we pay the F$ 11 to gain entry to the Colo-i-Suva Forest Park. The ranger at the parking area is chatty, wants to talk about his kids and their accomplishments in the field of rugby (both sons and daughters). This is where I learn that Colo-i-Suva means the interior of Suva, with ‘colo’ pronounced like ‘tholo’.
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Main draw of park is the series of river pools and waterfalls. We wade around in them and Odette tries to pick up water striders. At one of the lower pools the rubbish bin has been raided by some animal, and trash is strewn about. I am retrieving some glass bottles floating in the pool when a group of young Fijian men show up. They charge on through to the upper pools, but first one of them scoops up most of the trash by the bin and tidies it up.
We don’t see much bird life (too late in the morning), but can always hear the sound of the barking pigeon. Walk back along a dirt road to the parking lot, chat with the ranger some more, then head into downtown Suva.
Like in Nadi, the roads meander everywhere, with numerous traffic circles. But the driving is not bad, few people are in a rush. Park by Albert Park, where rugby and tie-kwan-do practice is going on. Eat at a nearby restaurant, it is expensive, but I am expecting that.
Across the street is the Fiji Museum. It is brief, but then the island’s known history is also brief. There is an interesting discussion of the Vanita people, who are thought to be some of the original inhabitants arriving on various islands in the South Pacific. Their origin was Taiwan.
There is a room dedicated to the Girmitiyas, the people brought from India by the British (once the island was ceded to them in 1874). Since slavery had already been abolished in England before this, the replacement form of labor was called indentured servitude. It wasn’t much better, as to get out of their work assignment, the worker was expected to pay his own way home. From Fiji this would have been a financial impossibility. As a result, most stayed, now forming a significant part of the population, at least in cities like Nadi.
There are trees outside the museum, in Thurston Gardens, that are full of fruit bats. They squeak and squabble in the branches. There are many hundreds.
Puzzle our way out of downtown Suva, passing the bus station where it seems like every bus is leaving at the same time. Many of them contain schoolchildren, and most of them are graced with the logo JESUS LOVES YOU. I’m guessing they were donated by the church.
Stop at a playground in Tikaram Park by the shore. The tide is low and the mud flats extend for some distance out. We walk out to the waterline. There is some garbage out here, not a particularly nice place to walk on the beach. There are many crabs, each periodically raising its dominant claw.
Back to the hotel by sundown. Tonight there is electricity.
Fiji