Fiji is quickly becoming one of my favorite stops along our route to Australia. We've been in SavuSavu Bay on the southern end of Vanua Levu since Tuesday and we are planning an end of weekend departure. I could stay another 2 weeks - there is great Indian food here. I have to admit that the main attraction is not the food (did I mention the great Indian food!??), but the warm and friendly Fijian people. "Bula, Bula!" is the greeting, quickly followed by a handshake and their first name. Of course, people want to know our names too, which they don't forget and which they use when we see them again on the street. The other greetings are "Namaste" or "Salaam Alaikem", among the Hindus and Muslims, but when in doubt, Bula! is the safest bet and universally accepted salutation.
There are two distinct Fijian populations, the native Fijians and the Fijian-Indians. I recall last year when I visited Lautoka on Viti Levu at the start of my training sail from Fiji to New Zealand, the Fijians and Fijian-Indians lived very separate lives. It was less than harmonious. In a much smaller town like SavuSavu the lines are not so stark and the two cultures seem to interact and work together in a more seamless way: our Indian cab driver spoke fluent Fijian, the boys on the rugby field were from both cultures playing on the same team, some of the shops have an integrated staff. However, Fijian-Indians and native Fijians rarely live in the same villages. I asked a Fijian-Indian man about this and he told me the "simple reason is the meat, we don't eat beef or pork and sometimes we don't eat any meat at all. Fijians love beef. It doesn't work to live together." Eric and I were talking about this very simple reason and suspect it points to the much more complicated issue of religion. Most Fijians are Christian; the missionary history is quite strong here. Most Fijian-Indians are Hindu, Muslim or Sikh.

Thursday we hired a car and driver, Mohammed, to take us up across the mountains and into the town of Labasa (pronounced Lambasa.) We stopped in a Fijian Village, visited an Indian temple, took in breathtaking views from the mountain tops and ended up at a wonderfully peaceful resort called Palmlea Lodge. Some day I'd like to come back to Palmlea and spend a week sitting on a lounge chair overlooking the sea.

Today we went to the farmer's market for fresh produce and Eric took the kids to a local hotel for some swimming (the harbor here is a bit too dirty for that with so many boats and traffic.) A couple local men are waxing and polishing our fiberglass today. It got pretty dirty from the sea miles since Seattle and we want to look sparkly bright when we arrive in Brisbane to sell our boat.

We were looking over our route so far and realized that we have now been in all 4 Hemispheres. We left the Big Dipper somewhere along the equator and have been following the Southern Cross ever since. Orion is also high in the sky and right on top of our boat each night as we take our final look around before going to sleep.