My final week in Fiji was spent in the former Fijian capital of Levuka on the volcanic island of Ovalau off the east coast of the largest Fijian island, Viti Levu.
Levuka was the brief capital of Fiji for about 8 years in the 1800’s (just before it moved to Suva), and it continues to resemble a wild west town from that period — with many of the old colonial buildings still intact. Like most of Fiji, the locals were extremely friendly and hospitable, but very poor. It was nice to visit an area where you didn’t have the burden of merchants hawking their wares to you continually (like in Nadi). Nobody hassled you at all over there. Virtually everyone would just give you a big smile when they saw you and say “Bula!” (Fijian for “Cheers!”)
It was an interesting experience to go to the east coast, away from most of the tourist sites. After spending a few days in a rain forest north of Suva (Fiji’s capital today), I opted to take the cheap route to Lavuka and ride the ferry with the locals to get out on the island. A mere 50 mile route became an arduous six hour journey in a packed, cramped school-like bus, with everything imaginable sans livestock on board. All on a narrow, dangerous, bumpy road.
I was expecting to be on a ferry for most of the journey, but instead they bused us half way up the coast for an agonizing 3 hours ride to get on a short ferry that runs out to the island (on the shortest stretch across the sea). We had to wait an additional 2 hours for the ferry to arrive, empty, refuel, and fill up again, and then drive another hour after the ferry ride on a bumpy bus that took us around the perimeter of the island, stopping at each village along the way to drop off the odd passenger. I chose to fly back to Suva this morning to cut the aggravation, and it only took 12 minutes!
I stayed in the South Pacific’s oldest continually used hotel while in Lavuka. It was pretty well preserved from the colonial period it was built in and dirt cheap as well. I only paid FJ$20 a night (about US$12). Lavuka was a taste of the real Fiji, but that also made it a bit frustrating as a short term tourist. It was hard to do too many activities due to the slack attitude of many of the tourism businesses there (which were often run by Europeans who would just tell you to come back tomorrow).
The most memorable excursion out there was probably the visit to the head village of Lovonie (in the center of the crater in the middle of the island) and the treacherous hike back up over the crater rim and back down into the coastal town of Levuka. The journey was led by a local guide who’s been doing this tour for ten years and and involved trekking through dense jungle on an overgrown track. Like every other hike I’ve had in Fiji, the guide had to rely on the use of a machete to hack through overgrown jungle throughout the hike. There were only three of us doing the hike that day, and the guide explained to us that he usually cancels if there are less than four — but agreed to take us for the hike if we agreed to take public transportation (the back of a truck) to his village for the included traditional lunch and history telling. Only problem was that the delay caused by having to rely on public transportation forced us to get a late start. In addition, the three of us chose to do a more strenuous, longer trail that our guide hadn’t been used in months. As it turned out, we reached the peak at sunset, and ended up having to hike down through the dense jungle in the pitch black. The trail was quite treacherous (especially at night) and I was sure at times we were going to have to sleep out up there in the jungle that night — but our guide came through and built torches out of dried banana leafs to illuminate our way through the pitch black dense vegetation. He was actually quite embarrassed about the whole affair and was keen to sneak back into the town without letting the locals know what happened. He kept trying to buy us dinner and beer afterward to make up for it.
I also managed to get a bit of cycling around some of the perimeter of the island (where the only road goes) and do a bit of snorkeling off the coast. The snorkelling as quite good with lots of colorful tropical fish and coral — when you got away from the polluted villages. The locals seemed a bit baffled at what the tourists get up to: Snorkelling? Why would people do that? We use the ocean to fish, but otherwise just throw our trash in there. Adults on bicycles? A scene that makes the local children point and laugh.
Fijians consider it rude to just rock up to a village without an invitation. You are supposed to ask to see the village chief when you arrive in a village and give them some gift, like Kava, in exchange for passage through the area. Needless to say, it gets a bit awkward trying to explore very far because you’re always stumbling across villages and it’s time consuming to continually have to meet with the chief to ask for permission. As I’ve said before, the people in the villages are very friendly, but very poor. Most every home consists of a hot tin shack with no furniture. Entertaining is done by sitting on woven mats on the floor. And despite this lack of wealth, they will offer you their food — which you are really expected to accept.
Unfortunately, many villages are not the most sanitary, so you really have to be careful with their generosity. While the water is safe in the resort areas and big cities of Suva and Nadi, it is not safe in these small villages. I had to keep pointing to my Fiji water bottle every time someone tried to offer me water when I cycled through their villages as a way of getting out of drinking their local water (and getting sick).
It was quite distressing to see how the locals regarded their beautiful ocean and reefs. I can’t tell you how many times I saw Levukians bundle up big bags of trash and just throw them into the ocean. The coast along the villages and towns was just full of accumulated trash. There were also plenty of other serious health concerns around the area. I spent some time with a retired American public health worker who pointed out all kinds of problems to me including lots of raw sewage just draining untreated into the sea and half the kids running around with ringworms (which you can evidently see as a fungus growing on their forearms). I think the whole sanitation of the place caught up with me yesterday when I came down with a bad bout of food poisoning and couldn’t get out of bed for most of the day.