An American, A Broad: Day 2 in Fiji

Our second day in Fiji started with a delicious breakfast of coffee, fresh fruit (papaya, pineapple, sweet little green bananas, melon, and coconut) and cinnamon pancakes. Sorry, guys, there are no photos because we were too busy eating. :)

There are, however, photos of some of the local chaps out on the water:

After breakfast? Our first activity:

Today's activity? Hiking to the waterfall!

The hike to the waterfall was actually a lot more complicated than just hiking. First we got a lift to the local store, where we then took a cab to a village where we *began* the hike to the waterfall.

Local house on the way to the village

The ride to the village took us over numerous hills

Once at the village, we went to the "market," or community hall

Villager outside of the community hall

The villagers had all kinds of local wares, from jewelry to decorative masks to kava bowls

After we went "shopping", we began the hike. We were told it was a 15-minute hike to the waterfall. Ha.

Rickety bridge (and no, that bag is not full of my purchases)

We wore flip-flops since the hike took us through tons of cool, refreshing creeks.

First creek and me making a lame attempt at a hair flip

Kevu: guide/activities coordinator extraordinaire

Wading through the creeks was actually the best part of the hike. It was hot and humid, and the 15-minute hike turned out to be more like 45-minutes each way. The creek water was calm and cool, and aside from losing my shoes on numerous occasions, they were a welcome relief.

Finally, we found the waterfall:

We couldn't hike all that way and not take advantage of a swim. The water was freezing, but ridiculously refreshing, and the waterfall itself was so powerful we could barely get near it.

Kevu had the resort pack up lunch for us, which consisted of sandwiches with meat and fresh vegetables, and fresh cut pineapple for dessert.Yum!

While we were enjoying lunch, some local kids came to hang out and decided to climb the rockface to jump off and in the waterfall:

If you look close, you'll see the kid tumbling in mid-air

We wrapped things up and Kevu offered to show us his village.

The walk back from the waterfall

Back at the village

This store was formerly the local airport

Vunaniu Village (Kevu's village)

On the way to Kevu's village

Kevu's daughters coming to greet us

Walking through the village with Kevu
(the hubby also calls this "Politician meeting the local constituents"

When we told Kevu that we hadn't yet had coconut water in Fiji, he summoned his son to climb a tree and throw some down to us

Yep. That's a machete. Six coconuts later and they were all dry. :-(

After visiting Kevu's village, meeting some of his family (and a debacle with a tent they asked us to help them with), visiting his church, and striking out with the coconut water, we got a lift by boat back to the resort.

Back at the bure after our epic hike

We took a nap before snacks and happy hour and waited for the conch shell to be blown for dinner. (Wait - have I mentioned this??? They tell you it's time for dinner by blowing a conch shell! So awesome.)