Vatia Bay
16 August 2011 | Vatabuli Island
Kathy
After 2 weeks at home, Love Song is out and about. We left Musket Cove on Sunday, after a really great 5th Birthday party for Wyatt on Saturday. First stop was Lautoka to check out and receive permission to continue on up the west side of Viti Levu over the north and east sides on our way to Suva in the south. Wyatt's passport is soon to expire and typically a country requires you to have at least 6 months of time left on it to expiration in order to be allowed in. Since there's a US Embassy in Suva, they let us back in and now we are on our way to have it renewed. We thought it would be a nice opportunity to see some more of the island as well, and made some new Fijian friends today here on the small bay we came to anchor in last night. There was one other NZ boat here last night, also with children aboard, but they left this morning and we have the whole cove to ourselves now. We went out exploring in the skiff this AM, and found our way into a channel carved into the mangroves, and everybody jumped out. We immediately found a trail and it led to a wooden shack complete with goats and pigs but nobody was home. We found out later that the folks have just added a new baby to their family and so are in the village for a few weeks.
We traipsed along barefoot on a grassy road, which was pretty soggy and very muddy in places from heavy rains at 6am, our first foray into the mainland countryside. Ambling along the gently rolling hills, we saw a thatched roof ahead. I suggested we stop, as it's customary on arrival to a village to present yourself to the chief's spokesperson and make an offering of Kava, called making sevusevu. We didn't have anything, not even a bottle of water, which would get interesting later. There were noises of children so we pressed on, and a woman and 4 children came running to greet us. They were Salusalu, the mother, two girls ages 7 and 6 named Va and Shery, and two little boys ages 5 and 2, Paolo and John. Eventually the husband joined us out on the grass, and by then the kids were climbing trees and petting the little calf tied to a tree. We were invited into their house, called a "bure", which had two pieces of furniture, a twin bed and a dresser. It was about 20 feet long by 12 feet wide, which is big for a bure, and had woven mats and tarps spread on the floor. We're not very used to sitting cross legged on the floor, but after visiting for a while the kids heard there was a creek nearby and wanted to head off, so Salusalu and I took the kids while Allen and Bat, the husband, went back to drag the skiff out before it got left high and dry by the receding tide.
At the creek there were tadpoles, a dam that created a wash basin, and lovely shade trees of mango and breadfruit, all providing great opportunities for play. It was beautiful. Allen and Bat came to meet us with two empty garrafones (the Spanish word I know for big 5 gal. water jugs) and invited us to hike up to the base of the mountain where in the cleft of a cliff there's a hole in the rock with a fresh water spring pouring out. Back at the bure the boys had drank water that we had no idea of the origins, which worried us a little bit, but this was cool and deliciously fresh. I enjoyed my coconut cupful until the second round when she told me there was an old cemetery at the top! Anyways, we trekked on through 5 foot tall grass and crossed creeks until we came to another cliff with a small waterfall. This time there was a hose stuck in a plastic bottle that had been sunk with rocks, and the plastic garrafones were left downhill to fill. This is the water that they use for cooking and drinking, of which the boys had already had some back at the bure. All the kids wanted to get under the spray of the waterfall, so they played, quickly making the pool holding the hose all murky. Luckily the jugs were filled by then.
Upon returning to the bure, we ate some cooked cassava, which is like a sturdy, stringy potato of sorts. We invited the family to come to Love Song then for a visit, so after they changed into clean, dry clothes, off we went on a different trail that took us down to the mangroves where the skiff had been moved. The problem was the tide was a mile out now, so we had to have the men shove from the back and the ladies haul on the bow and drag it over the mud until there was enough water to float it. All of the kids and dogs trailed behind in the sucking mud and slippery puddles, but nobody fell, which is really saying something!
We spent a couple of hours aboard visiting and certainly enjoyed making their acquaintance and hope we can return to this beautiful little place either while we wait for the passport, or on our return. Once we have the passport, we would like to head to Vanuatu where we will decide our further westerly course. This is truly the spirit of what cruising means to us, having these kinds of experiences with the local people in places we visit.