Bula! arrived like green tourists. had the exchange rate backwards, so we thought everything was a ripoff! had trouble catching the bus. luckily, a local cab driver was very nice and took us on the scenic route to our hotel. he also took us to the local markets to buy bread, water, bananas, mandarin oranges and papayas. (sample price: 50 cents for 5 oranges) staying at beach house hotel. its a recommended backpacker hotel with lots of activities, on the coral coast. open air room with mosquito netting. within our first 15 minutes at the water, we saw live (yellow) tropical fish, many starfish (one bright vibrant blue), crabs, brittlestars, sand dollars, hermit crabs, coral. so much life! dinner is a banquet style bbq. we are drinking from a rain water reservoir (praying for health). the geckos make a distinctive chirping sound that rises then falls in loudness. i thought it was a bird 'till someone told me.

4.12.00 lovoni tour with epi. 3 mile hike through lush jungle (stepped in a lot of mud and crossed several streams) to inner luvoni village. passed way too close to spiders as big as your hand. epi says "don't worry, they friendly spiders". for some reason i beieve him. ate, drank coconut, ate papaya, all picked by epi. he climbed the tree to get 3 coconuts, 2 green for drinking, one brown for eating. openened them with a stick stuck in the ground and a rock. to open the straw hole, look for the three holes and three seams. one seam bisects the straw hole. epi made a natural straw from a nearby plant stem. Another useful tip: to open the mandarin (orange), stick your finger in the top hole. he showed us many medicinal plants, for jaundice, pain, toothache, diahrea, blindness. a vine whose juices will blind you always grows near the vine whose juices are the antidote. there were many other examples where two plants form a medicine when mixed together: they typically grow near each other. the plants in this rainforest are probably very ancient because they don't have forest fires. i asked how the village got all this knowledge. he said when you drink kava (a traditional, slightly narcotic, drink made from he kava root) the spirits can come closer to you. i asked if they still talk to the spirits but he said no, we have christianity now. the history of the village is amazing, they were never defeated in war, "only by faith in the word of god", a trick by the king of bau (a tiny, tiny island), who gave away all the fijian islands that were not his in exchange for smoking pipes, booze, guns, etc. with his new guns, he defeated all of the other fijian islands but could never defeat luvoni (about 50 men defeated 600 attackers using a cunning fortress at the top of a mountain- one rock could kill 200 men because there was only one small crevice which led to the top) the king of bau used a missionary to offer a peace banquet to luvoni and then captured the men while they were eating. some escaped, most were sold into slavery, 3 were sold to the barnum and bailey circus in america! the luvoni village meal his family served us tasted excellent, we sat cross legged on the floor and a cloth served as the table. the tea made from six leaves of a common plant was one of the best i've ever tasted. tidbit: the US funds the fijian military on peacekeeping missions.

4.14.00 our lunch today for 2 was US 43 cents (ramen with soy). john, who works here, then made for us a kava ceremony. put the kava into a silk sock, ran water through it and squeezed many times. the water was a milky grey color. he placed the tincture into a large ceremonial kava bowl. on the bowl, there is a triangle shaped point which is always directed toward the chief. If anyone crossed the imaginary line in the olden days, they became "soup of the day". kava is a great plant. it has medicinal effects, relaxes all your muscles, and the husk left in the silk sock, when sprinkled on the ground, keeps dogs from pooping in the spot. (though we saw many dogs in fiji, we never saw any dogsh*t) the cermony begins with the cup bearer saying some words and motioning arund the bowl. the chief drinks. during anyone drinking, everyone clap three times, sip it down, when finished, clap 3 times again and say maca (MA tha), which means finished. everyone (except the chief) drinks from the same cup to symbolize equality. the kava root takes 8 years to mature. there are no seeds, you simply plant the stem and the root will grow again. the kava cups are made from half a coconut. cut, soaked in mud for a week, brushed, oiled, and polished. (fijians use all parts of the cocnut tree for something: medicines, brooms, food, posts of the house) i slept very well that night. there seems to be much wisdom here on fiji. when i ask john about some ofthe fijian customs that are unfamiliar to us, he says with a knowing, almost sarcastic smile, "we are backwards here". john told us about a very cool feature of the main island, viti levu: even though the island has many hills, mountains, and valleys, there is a flat straight and level path all the way through, starting at vuda nadi.