We are ready to go to the Lau group, a more remote area of the Fiji archipelago, and the "Allmighty Weather Master" is cooperrating, for a change. However, the gremlins are at work again and the generator stoped working. We really don't need the generator if we have sun as our array of solar panels provides us with plenty of power. There is, if we have sun, which has been more off than on. In the meantime I went to Savusavu, in the Island of Vanua Levu, to renew my visa. It is not very far, just 30 minutes flight if one existed from here to there, but it took me 6 hours. First, I had to take a 45 minutes taxi ride from the anchorage to Wayevu where the ferry landing is. The road is not paved and it was a bumpy early morning ride. The small passenger ferry was overloaded but it was a very joyfull 1.5 hour ride accross the Somosomo straight to Buca Bay. A large group of young girls were going to camp somewhere in the Island and their excitement was as large as their luggage. I and another tourist girl were the only foreigners in the boat and the only ones without luggage. The amount of bags, boxes, bundles of kawa, sacs of roots, and even a duck which was neatly wrapped in a towel, were stacked high on the aft deck. At the landing site in Buca Bay we waited for the bus, the only one, that would take us to Savusavu. What I didn't kow was that almost all the people and their luggage had to fit in the bus. The bus, as it is common in Fiji has no glass in the windows, which is great as the air flows freely, and also provides for the passengers to throw their luggage inside, assuring them a seat. I sneaked my way thru the crowd into the bus which at that time had only 2 or 3 seats left. The most interesting thing was that no one pushed or stepped on your feet. The Fijians are very well mannered. The bus was overloaded and a woman with a child was standiing next to me. I was going to ask her to give me the child but this one had ice cream dripping down his mouth, mixed with stuff coming from his nose. I thought twice and gave my seat to her instead. The road is unpaved, winding and bumpy for the first 1.5 hour of the ride. The scenery was picture perfect, by the seaside at first, then up the mountain, down to the seaside again, passing by small isolated villages, very clean, landscaped with root and fruit gardens. To take photos was out of the question because I could barely move. Then my good karma came into play and the 2 girls in the seat where I was standing by got off the bus and I took one of the seats. The little bus struggled up the hills and I kept wandering if we were going to have to get off and push it up to the top. Sometimes I could tell that there was a general concern as all became quiet and I could hear the sighs of releif when we made it to the top. Half way thru the ride, there was a 5 minutes road stop where a few vendors circled around the bus selling snacks. Those did not look very appetizing to me. I wanted fresh fruit, green coconut to drink the water or something local made with taro or cassava, or a cafezinho. They sold large pieces of cake topped with bright lime green or orange icing, chips and other fried stuff. Almost 3 hours later we arrived in Savusavu. I really enjoyed the ride and the next morning I did the entire trip again but this time the bus and ferry were almost empty. Not nearly as exciting but I had a seat all for myself. It was a cold ride and I didn't have a jacket. There was no place to hide from the wind. A large Fijian woman sitting in the seat in front of me provided a buffer. Unfortunately she got off half way thru the ride and the next passenger was a tiny kid. Back in Taveuni I had to get groceries, pick up the packages with parts at the landing strip, and then take the taxi ride back to join Mauliola. Now we are hoping to solve our generator problem so we can leave to the Lau group of islands in a few days. My Aloha to all and until next time.