No sunny pictures. It was overcast yesterday and it's overcast again this morning. This is the view from the Royal Suva Yacht Club (I'm now a member -- but no burgees till after we've gone).
All the officials came out to the boat to check us in -- Health (who asked a few questions then issued our Pratique thus ending our quarantine), Bio-Security who checked for plants and animals (our green bananas and pineapple were fine), Immigration, and Customs. All went smoothly and by 1300 we were checked into Fiji. Unfortunately, here were no mooring balls available at the yacht club. The boat that checked in ahead of us took the last one, so we moved and anchored just behind the mooring field.
Dinghied into the Yacht Club, paid their fee for arranging the check-in and the fee for the use of their facilities, dropped off laundry, and then headed for the ATM -- about a half mile toward town. As we walked out of the yacht club, I looked across the street (they drive on the left) and noticed high walls with razor wire on top and the sign "Fiji Remand Center," And on this side of the road next to yacht club is the large compound for the Fiji Corrections Center offices. In Grenada, the prison was on the hill overlooking the marina and the ocean -- here it's on both sides of the road next to the yacht club just off the water. It's a good thing we weren't trying to hitchhike (there were plenty of cabs). The area is quite industrial and we walked past the Fiji Bitters Brewery (The Taste of Fiji -- it's not too bad) and other establishments before finally finding the ATM. Got our cash, grabbed a cab and headed for the BioSecurity office to pay our fee.
The cab driver wasn't sure where it was, but he got us close and we found the office, then found a place where we could get a SIM card for Tom's iPhone so we'd have some internet on the boat. While he was taking care of that, I noticed a sign for a cobbler and had my flip-flop repaired for a couple of dollars (I like my Reefs but I guess I'm hard on them and they break, I've had them repaired in Grenada, Galapagos, and now Fiji).
After that we walked to the city center. Odd to be around so many people, cars, buildings, crosswalks, and shops.
I found the shop where I could buy some time on the internet in the anchorage (but it doesn't seem to be on all night). We looked for some kind of restaurant but there didn't seem to be any where we were, so we settled on McDonalds which surprisingly was almost the same as the States except no vanilla shakes (to go with a fish sandwich) only chocolate and strawberry and they charged for catsup (.15 per package).
There's a huge fruit and vegetable market, several very large grocery stores, the bus terminal is twice the size of Grenada's, and lots of street food -- primarily Indian.
After a bit of exploring, we headed back to the yacht club. Spent time with some Canadians we've run into before, made some new friends, and had dinner at the yacht club -- blackened tuna on rice with sticky date cake for dessert. The anchorage was very calm last night and we were still well dug in this morning. Nothing much planned for the day, check out the diving and spend some more time exploring town.