Well, we finally dragged ourselves out of Fiji - between the weather & Dengue Fever (see prior blog), I think we've had one of the most un-enjoyable passages we've ever had. It was only a 3 day voyage to Wallis but we were feeling awful. Tom & I took turns sleeping as much as possible nearly 24 hours a day! The weather finally improved about a day and half after we got underway so that was good.
Finally.....land ho! Wallis is smack dab right in the middle of the South Pacific. Wallis and it's neighbor Fortuna are off the beaten track, tiny and are supported by the French. There's no tourist infrastructure here at all. After checking in the country with the Gendarme (police) and immediately seeing a Dengue Fever poster on the wall (not good for the psychological health after what we've been thru) we started looking for a rental car or scooters. On Wallis EVERYBODY speaks French. Maybe 5% of the population speaks some English. There's around 9,000 people on the island. Typically, most places have a downtown or a business area. Not Wallis - everything is spread out all over. After walking for quite some time we did find a person who spoke English & he pointed us in the right direction for renting a car. We finally got a truck & set off for exploring the island the next morning. Before we even got started, the fuel pump went out. Just getting a phone card & calling was an experience. Finally, we were ready to explore. That took about an hour and half for going around the island! It's pretty tiny. About every two or three miles there's a church. I think I counted 25 & that's not all of them. I guess there's not much else to do but go to church here. We wandered all of over island, just taking roads. The only sight here is a huge crater lake - it was very beautiful. We manage to find one internet café where we rented the car. Employed at the garage were two Fijians - that was good as they of course spoke English. There's two hotels that we saw & maybe three restaurants, no bars, no movie theaters, no parks, no beaches, no libraries, no waterfront cafes, no museums, no island tours, no diving, no nothing. I don't know what these people do here. It almost seems like the island is deserted in a lot of ways as it's very quiet & there aren't people out and about. Weird, really. Personally, I could never live on an island like this. We decided to stay only three days as we were anxious to get back to Fiji and the Dengue was still hanging on longer than we thought it would. At least in Fiji we could see a doctor if we needed to. Once back in Fiji, the end of the season approaches & we'll be putting Mokisha put on the hard again at Vuda Point Marina. From there, we'll be headed to India for Tom to have a medical procedure done, then home around the first to mid part of Dec. I'm looking forward to Big Sur & getting home to cooler weather, my wood stove and homemade chicken soup! Enjoy the pictures in the Picture Gallery (on your right).

See everybody soon!!
Love,
Colleen & Tom