Today we had another day trip - this time to Robinson Crusoe Island, We did this trip back in November 2008 and the snorkelling was so magical I just had to do it again... but unfortunately, today's waters were a little murky and even though we did see some brightly colour fish in the depths of the water, it was literally nothing like the natural aquarium we saw back in 2008. A little disappointing, but the Fijian hospitality was perfect as usual!
For those who've never done it, we were picked up in a tour bus from our hotel to take us to a floating tin can of a boat on the river. The river was full of mangroves and felt like you're in an episode of Survivor making your way to the unknown.
We get to the river mouth and see the island paradise we will spend time on for the day. The picture is perfect! We are greeted by the 'Welcome Song' by the local Fijians and walk up to the area of festivities from the beach (looks amazing doesn't it! And I haven't adjusted ANY of these photos!)
We get told the order of the day before we go on a walking tour with the Medicine Man of the island medicine. There are the Vau tree, Dilo and another tree that I can't remember what it was, but the Fijians are having it tested to help cure cancer and even HIV/AIDs. Who knows? They may actually be a trillion dollar industry in pharmaceuticals in the next few years!
They then had a couple of Fijians climb the coconut trees and chop down enough coconuts for us to drink and eat their flesh. Amazing how carbonated the fresh coconut water is. Absolutely sublime!
We then went to see how lunch was doing, as it was being cooked in a Lovo - an underground oven of hot rocks and palm leaves, and some of the locals braved their feet to do some fire walking once lunch was removed!
Lunch was a lovely spread of pasta salad, rice salad, coleslaw, green salad, lovo cooked potatoes and sweet potatoes, and logo cooked fish, chicken and ham with some home-made bread rolls.
After lunch, they gave us a Fijian dancing show, followed by some fire-dancing!
After the show, we went snorkelling out on the reef, which as I said was disappointing... but I guess that's just natural. It became a little overcast, so I guess that didn't help with the clarity in the water.
We then had a special crab race and a little goodbye ceremony. The day was quite fun as the Fijians called the guests by their country - we had an assortment of Aussies, New Zealanders, Americans, Chinese and even Kenyans... these two beautiful women were so scared of something falling from a tree or being picked on, but they were good sports and so friendly.
And of course, I found my boys, more often than not on the swing hammocks!
All in all, a good day. But now I'm on a mission to find some more amazing places in this world to snorkel. I hear the Red Sea is possibly a good place!
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