Fiji Jim's Blog - Part 3
This is FijiJim.com.
An Average Day in Paradise
(Vanua Levu, Fiji)
Tuesday August 22, 2001
8:00 AM - Our resort provides
both 110V and 220V power, which is a luxury
for us Americans. We can use all of our
personal care appliances without employing a
voltage converter. The smell of fresh
coffee finally awoke Cagey for the day and
we simply sat, watched and listened from our
lanai.
8:30 AM - Takasa, our shy and
pretty server came up our walk and rang the
bell along our walkway. Since we had the
resort all to ourselves and the place
practically defines privacy, members of the
staff always ring the bell so that one can
toss on a lightweight robe in time to avoid
embarrassment. In any event, Takasa had
fresh cut fruit, home made bread and
muffins, orange juice, butter and preserves
for us. Could it possibly be better than
this? Our bay and our breakfast were all we
needed. We fed a few pieces of papaya to
the
Myna Birds, in hopes of bribing them
into being quiet the next morning, to no
avail.
10:15 AM - Terry drove us the
couple hundred yards from the resort office,
down the steep hill to the little dock they
had built at the end of the resort's
property. There he helped us into our
Alaskan-made, two-person
sea kayak, which has an aluminum frame
and a waterproof fabric skin to keep us
dry. It seats two and has steering pedals
that act like those on a small airplane.
The only trouble is that the kayak will not
move unless you paddle it. We never did
master the art of paddling in unison, but
somehow we moved along the beach and around
our end of Natewa Bay.
At last, we rounded the point
of land leading to Takasa's house, and here
is what we saw. Because of tidal action,
sandy beaches are in short supply in
Natewa Bay. A twenty-foot wide beach is
a major one, with many places having just a
rocky shore and no beach at all. Takasa
lives with her father and her young son on a
sandy beach about as long as
Waikiki Beach, in
Hawaii. Hers is the only house on that
beach. When I read that statement, I still
have to let its reality sink in to my
consciousness.
On
our return trip, we paddled out about half a
mile, from time to time viewing
unspoiled tropical reefs below us. Then
we turned for home. As we glided back in,
we encountered one of about six I-beams that
were standing vertically at the edge of the
final shallows. Apparently they were placed
there to alert any sailor who might come
along that they were about to hit the
rocks. Terry said that he thought they were
driven-in forty or fifty years ago, but by
whom he did not know. There they stand,
rusting at their bases, the only manmade
items visible on Natewa Bay.
12:15 PM - We returned to the
dock just as the tide began to fill our end
of the bay. Terry had contracted for a
small power shovel to be brought to the dock
area so that
Lomalagi Resort's tiny channel could be
dredged to a depth that his
Sea-Doo jet boat (more on that later)
could be launched or retrieved, even at low
tide. The remnants of the old coral reef
were piled to the sides, leaving small
towers of gray, rock-like matter that
reminded me of the
tufa towers of Mono Lake, California,
located
on the east side of the
Sierra Nevada Mountains. We rode back
to the resort in an ancient work truck,
which was loaded with coral sand, used to
fill in the potholes of the roads within the
resort.
located
on the east side of the
Sierra Nevada Mountains. We rode back
to the resort in an ancient work truck,
which was loaded with coral sand, used to
fill in the potholes of the roads within the
resort.
1:15 PM - Upon our return, we
were treated to a lunch of shrimp and
lobster, with ice cream for dessert. Our
guests that day were three Aussies who were
buying property nearby. It seems that all
the Europeans who visit our end of
Vanua Levu call ahead and the Lomalagi
dining room transforms into a restaurant.
The moneyman of the three said he was
building a house somewhere down past
Takasa's beach. He had brought all his
"toys", including a sport fishing boat.
Looking back, more than six years later, I
wonder if he was the vanguard of the group
who plan to develop a large resort nearby,
creating
artificial islands in the once-pristine
Natewa Bay.
2:15 PM - We wandered down to
the office and shopped a bit in Collin's
boutique. Having misplaced the map I had
bought in
Savusavu, I purchased a large new one
for $10 F. While we were there, Collin
called on our behalf to the
Cousteau Resort, located at the other
end of the island, to arrange for our
scuba diving the next day. I spoke with
one of their dive masters, explaining that
we were
scuba-certified and that we really would
show up the next day, if the boat would be
there to meet us.
2:30
PM - We decided to walk around the grounds
and see some of the sights. The property
comprises twenty-five acres, but we
restricted ourselves to the area near our
bure, which has hills, coconut trees,
flowers and an incredible green lawn, which
covers the entire landscape.
The previous day, when we
pulled our Suzuki Jimny up under the huge
tree at the center of the property the day
before, we saw a powerful, lean man pushing
a large power mower across a huge stretch of
the lawn. Keep in mind that half of this
lawn is on what looks like a 30-degree
slope. I shouted out, "Bula" to him because
I had acculturated to say that to everyone
we met. He stopped the mower and approached
us. Removing his gloves, he offered his
hand and said, "Hello, I'm Spence", in a New
Zealand accent. He appeared to be a blond
haired rock-of-a-man, tall and muscular,
with perhaps a bit of Maori ancestry.
As
the days went by, we would hear Spence and
his mower from time to time. Actually, the
gas engine propelled it, but even with that
assist, I am sure I could not have pushed it
up and down those steep hills for very
long. I recalled the
Greek myth of Sisyphus. You know the
one, with Sisyphus destined to roll a huge
rock up a hill. As soon as he reached the
top, the rock would get away from him and
roll back to the bottom, where he would have
to start the process all over again. I
always assumed that it was one of the Greek
Tragedies (which technically it may be).
More recently, I heard the story Examined in
a different way. This version was about the
simplicity and beauty of Sisyphus' life. In
this version, he knew his task and he
performed it well. He made it a noble
gesture to use all his strength to propel
the rock up the hill, where inevitably it
rolled back to the bottom. Then, he reset
his sites on his goal and started again.
Spence and his mower embodied that ethic.
He appeared to have a purpose in life and he
stuck to it.
3:00
PM - We were back at the room, content to
relax for the balance of the afternoon.
5:30 PM - It turned cloudy.
The Mynas returned to the deck. It was time
to shower in that fabulous
Fiji-water and get ready for dinner.
7:00 PM - Dinner was Indian
Curry, light and tasty.
9:00 PM - We were back in the room,
preparing our dive gear and cameras for the
next day.
_lg.jpg "Morning Light on Natewa Bay, Vanua Levu, Fiji in August 2001 - Click for larger image (https://jamesmcgillis.com)")
Taking a Dive - Fiji Style
Wednesday, August 23, 2001
7:00 AM - Brrriing. Is that
the sound of the alarm clock? No, because
we did not pack one. It is our friendly
myna birds squawking away outside. When the
windows are open all night and it is quiet,
the contrast of morning in Fiji will wake
you up in a hurry.
7:15 AM - Our usual breakfast
of fresh fruit, orange juice and baked goods
arrives, just as the coffee pot finishes
brewing. Weather normal - beautiful. They
did not tear down our movie set overnight
and cart it away to the prop shop. The palm
trees are all in their proper places and
Natewa Bay forms its usual serene
backdrop. Only today, we are in a hurry.
8:15 AM - We drag our dive
gear down the wooden walkway to the
ever-faithful Suzuki Jimny. We rattle away
down the local road, only to find that the
construction crew had added some fresh
fill-dirt in certain places. The only
problem is that the "dirt" that was used has
rocks the size of grapefruits strewn
throughout. We make it out to the
Hibiscus Highway and "floor it" down the
correct (left) side of the road. That lasts
about a half a minute until I get to the
blind curves and the three-tracks, often
shared by two oncoming vehicles.
8:30 AM - We slow down to go
through our favorite local village. It is a
settlement that is about two hundred-fifty
yards long, and has houses of varying
quality and age on each side of the road.
The sign says, "Slow through Village" as
many road signs say throughout Fiji. We
smile, wave and shout-out our usual "Bula"
to the village folk. They smile, wave back
and give us the "Bula, Bula" (or was that an
old college song?) in return.
settlement that is about two hundred-fifty
yards long, and has houses of varying
quality and age on each side of the road.
The sign says, "Slow through Village" as
many road signs say throughout Fiji. We
smile, wave and shout-out our usual "Bula"
to the village folk. They smile, wave back
and give us the "Bula, Bula" (or was that an
old college song?) in return.
Over the next four or five
days, they would watch us roar off to go
diving in the morning and roar back through
on our way home for lunch. They must have
wondered what we were doing with that little
car each day that kept us roaring back and
forth.
8:50 AM - After negotiating
both the old part of the road and the
ever-shifting detours of the new road, we
almost sped right past the
Koro Sun Resort, which is a bucolic
hotel with bures for rooms and a coconut
plantation for grounds. Later, one local
Fijian told us that if you stayed there, you
got "free golf", for just the price of the
room. What they do not tell you is that it
is a "mountain course", with more uphill and
downhill than any championship course in the
world. Since a driving iron would send the
ball straight into the nearest grassy knoll,
it was a "wedges-only" course.
We pulled in to the hotel
grounds and asked the native Fijian woman
who was using a palm frond to sweep the
driveway where the dive shop was. Finally,
she gave us discernable directions, or
perhaps we just stumbled upon the dive
shop. It was the little freestanding
storefront on the "beach side" of the
highway. Beaches, in the Caribbean sense of
the word are very rare in Fiji. At that
time, some of the promotional materials from
the Koro Sun showed sunbathers on wide,
sandy beaches. There is about six to twelve
feet of sand at the edge of the lagoon, but
so much for truth in advertising.
The dive shop looked like a saloon from the Old West. It had a false
front
that
appeared to be two-stories high,
although it was not. When we arrived, it
was as deserted as a ghost town. Of course,
we forgot that we were on "island time",
which runs on a clock of its own. Despite
our anxiety over possibly "missing the
boat", since we were the only divers
registered that day, the boat would not have
left without us. We also discovered that
this satellite location of the
Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort was open
only on demand.
that
appeared to be two-stories high,
although it was not. When we arrived, it
was as deserted as a ghost town. Of course,
we forgot that we were on "island time",
which runs on a clock of its own. Despite
our anxiety over possibly "missing the
boat", since we were the only divers
registered that day, the boat would not have
left without us. We also discovered that
this satellite location of the
Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort was open
only on demand.
A previous dive company had
built the rock jetty on which the dive shop
sat, as well as constructing and outfitting the
building. They then carved a channel
out of the coral to get the dive boat out to
the deeper water of the lagoon. In
2000, when everything was completed, the "Coup
Plotters" tried to take over the
Parliament Building on
Viti Levu and put a total stop to all
tourism in Fiji for months. Needles to say,
the dive shop went out of business before it
really had a chance to flourish.
When we visited, in August of
2001, tourism was making a comeback
throughout Fiji and the Cousteau people
decided to "make another go" of the
location. We were among the first of the
intrepid divers to try out these dive sites
since Cousteau brought diving back to the
east end of the island. Since the
unanticipated consequences of the
911 attacks in America were less than a
month away, we were probably also among the
last to dive these sites for some time to
come.
9:00
AM - We placed our gear on the boat and our
lead weights in the weight-pockets in our
buoyancy control devices (BCD's),
so that we would sink properly once we were
in the water. Sam, the boat driver and
sometimes dive master was ready to go.
9:15 AM - Gary, a New
Zealander who runs the main Cousteau Resort
dive shop arrived and we took off. He had
come over to check us out and be sure that
his satellite operation was adequate. He
made sure that he did not interfere with our
diving, but it was nice to know that there
was the safety and security of another set
of eyes to make sure that everything was
OK. That morning, Leonard was our dive
master. He was the only Fijian that we met
during our entire stay who seemed a little
standoffish. He was a rich kid, by their
standards and wanted our undivided
attention, even when we were not quite ready
to give it to him. Sam, on the other hand
was a big bear of a man, and as kind and
generous as could be.
9:30 AM - We arrived at the
Fanfare Site, just a mile or two out of the
alt="Exiting the lagoon, on the way to our
dive site, Vanua Levu, Fiji, August 2001 -
Click for larger image
(https://jamesmcgillis.com)" />lagoon and
around the point. So there we were, ready
to dive the fabled waters of Fiji. Having
dived the
Kona Coast,
Maui,
Cozumel,
Belize,
Bonaire and
Curacao, to name a few, we had high
expectations for Fiji. Once we were under
the water, however, it all seemed a little
ordinary. The colors were drab and there
were very few extraordinary sights. The
trip out in the boat was as interesting as
the two dives.
alt="Exiting the lagoon, on the way to our
dive site, Vanua Levu, Fiji, August 2001 -
Click for larger image
(https://jamesmcgillis.com)" />lagoon and
around the point. So there we were, ready
to dive the fabled waters of Fiji. Having
dived the
Kona Coast,
Maui,
Cozumel,
Belize,
Bonaire and
Curacao, to name a few, we had high
expectations for Fiji. Once we were under
the water, however, it all seemed a little
ordinary. The colors were drab and there
were very few extraordinary sights. The
trip out in the boat was as interesting as
the two dives.
As the week went on, we
discovered why the diving was not great.
Vanua Levu is mountainous and a lot of silt
had washed down the streams, smothering the
reefs in many areas. Based on the large
number of logging trucks we met on the
roads, I can only imagine what is really
happening in the highlands. My gut tells me
that they are taking too much timber. With
the land
deforested, the silt is sweeping down
the streams and into the lagoons, where
there the lack of circulation allows it to
settle near shore.
During our dives along that
coast, we found whole coconuts rolling along
the bottom and lots of coconut fronds and
smaller pieces of plant life strewn about.
Since the area is not dived that much, there
is a lot of undisturbed material along the
bottom. I found a large, dead clam that
still had both halves attached at its
hinge. It was almost one foot across at its
widest point. The fact that such a large
and relatively sensitive animal could have
thrived there recently told a tale that I
did not want to consider. It is sad to say
that much of the siltation damage had
probably happened during the very recent
past.
11:00
AM - Our second dive was at a site called
The Thumb, where you could dive around and
through a volcanic reef formation. It was
interesting, but not spectacular. Still, it
was great to be out on, in and under the
ocean that morning, even if we were learning
a lesson in forest and reef management that
we had not expected. When we returned to
the dock, we found that I had not secured
one of my weight pouches to my BCD and a
weight pouch was now missing. I did not
look forward to finding out what the
replacement pouch would cost.
12:00 PM - We motored slowly
back through the narrow channel to the dive
shop. It was so shallow at low tide that
Sam had to use the hydraulic lift on the two
outboard motors to keep them from scrapping
bottom. When we got back, Sam found an old
brown and dried coconut and cut it open for
us. He told us that the big green ones are
for drinking and the little brown ones,
which have shed most of their husky skin,
are for eating. The meat of the coconut is
copra, which they pronounce "KOP-ruh",
but we Americans tend to pronounce "COPE-ruh". Sam seemed amused that we
thought it was a bit of a delicacy. The
coconuts lay around like so much trash on
the ground over much of the island. Each
day that we dived, thereafter, Sam took a
machete and opened another coconut for our
refreshment.
12:30 PM - We were on the
road back to
Lomalagi Resort again, retracing what
would soon become familiar territory. We no
longer turned at the wrong places or
wondered where we were. Like an old horse
returning to its stable, the Jimny could
practically find its own way home.
1:15 PM - Collin waited lunch
for us, which was nice.
3:30 PM - 6:00 PM - It was
time to plan the balance of our stay in
Fiji, including our various side trips, and
to do nothing at all (worth mentioning) for
a few hours.
6:00 PM - A beautiful
tropical sunset awaited us on our Lanai.
7:05 PM - Dinner, with time
afterward to gaze at the crescent moon going
down and to see the Milky Way light up as
the sky rapidly darkened. Looking up at the
Southern Cross and the stars of the
southern sky, one could get a sore neck
craning to see the new and wonderful
sights. Fittingly, to end our evening, a
meteor streaked across the sky.
9:45 PM - A few minutes after
we returned to the room each night, the
walkway lights would go out. With the Moon
down, darkness was all around. The only
human made lights emanated from our bure and
a couple of fishing lanterns, down on Natewa
Bay. As the moon grew larger each night,
fewer fishing families would appear, until
the last few nights, when we saw none.
Finding The Dream House -
Vanua Levu, Fiji Islands
Thursday, August 24, 2001
6:45 AM - The myna bird
"alarm clock" started ringing, right on
time. I put the coffee on; went back to
bed.
7:10 AM - Breakfast outside,
in nature.
8:15 AM - The scuba diving
gear is already at the dive shop, so our
trip will be easier this morning.
8:40 AM - We arrive at the
dive shop, but we find no dive boat. The
feeling is something like what you
experience when you run out of gas in your
car. You are not sure if your plans are
going to work out that day, but you know
that they will be different from what you
planned. Luckily, we did not have to wait
too long to start the next chapter in our
adventure. A filmmaker had chartered the
dive boat for fishing and it was due back
soon.
9:30
AM - We were running a little late, so we
motored out the channel, past the first
point, but still inside the reef line of the
lagoon. We dived the Dream House site,
named for the lone house standing at the end
of a nearby spit of land, which extends
straight out into the lagoon. On our dive,
we saw
oceanic whitetip sharks, which I am sure
I don't have to describe, other than to say
that they really do have white tips on their
dorsal and pectoral fins. If you are
painting these scenes in your mind, even the
tips of their tails get a little splotch of
white paint.
In addition to the sharks,
there were several other large fish hovering
near their favorite underwater retreats. It
was like an underwater nature walk, with
each species represented by only one or two
of its kind, separated by enough space that
it felt like walking from diorama to diorama
at the
Museum of Natural History. Although
there were no explanatory signs adjacent to
each fish, that was all that appeared to be
missing.
10:00
AM - I'll digress. I bet you didn't expect
me to do that.
The Dream House dive site is just
offshore from
The Dream House, itself. It is an
unpresupposing example of rectangular
architecture, with a gabled roof running its
length. However, it could be your little
piece of paradise, paid for by the day.
Sitting in the middle of the lagoon, you
might find yourself living in a simple
house, with all the amenities, but none of
the pretensions associated with
big-time resort living.
As the afternoon wears on,
the winds will pick up a bit and you will
hear the waves crashing on the reef, half a
mile offshore. There is a small volcanic
island toward the West. It is eroded at the
base and has no shore to speak of. The
waves undercut the edges of the island
leaving it looking like a large green
mushroom, with palm trees atop. As the Sun
sets, we Americans look to the South and
West, in anticipation of where the Sun has
set all our lives. However, here the Sun
swings North and West and
sets behind the trees of Vuana Levu.
Still, the Dream House
beckons, inviting us set up household and
live our daily lives on this island. If I
keep up this line of reasoning, we shall all
soon be living fulltime in an island
paradise. They teach us to be more sensible
than that, don't they?
11:00
AM - Our second dive was at The Caves, with
aptly eroded
lava structures smoothed and punched
full of holes by time and tide. It reminded
me of diving that we did along the
Kona Coast of Hawaii, only there the
island includes a live volcano and all the
lava structures seem new, or at least
recently installed. Caves are fun, but
there is usually a lot of sediment inside,
thus only the first person through will have
a clear view.
Regardless of water clarity
it is an amazing feeling to swim into a hole
where the light does not penetrate, then
swim through a lava tube, up and out at the
other end. As you rise and exit the tube,
seeing the blue sky filtering down through
the water, it is very birth-like. At human
birth, you have to struggle to get out of
the womb and receive that first
breath-of-life. In your waterborne rebirth,
your eyes are open and you have a
pressure-regulated breathing device already
in you mouth. You are born from
Mother Nature and sent up and out toward
the sky, to freely breathe the clear air and
to live your life again. Looking back on
it, it wasn't such a boring dive site, after
all. Those clever dive masters take you in
from below, so you can gently ascend to your
new life on the
New Earth.
1:00 PM - On the return trip
to
Lomalagi, we met an
SUV at a bend in the road. Driving
fast, he must have been a local. As the
vehicle whizzed past us, Cagey commented,
"That was Terry and his mother, Linda going
towards town". The next day, we were
talking to Terry down by the resort office
and the subject turned to cars and trucks.
I was using all my best arguments, railing
against oversized and wasteful SUV's. After
a few minutes, Terry seemed to summon up his
nerve to ask a question to which he
intuitively knew the answer. He asked,
"What's an SUV?" With that honest question,
I realized how much had changed in the
twenty years since Terry had lived in the
U.S. After I answered his question, we both
were a bit embarrassed.
3:00 PM -We relaxed and
enjoyed the afternoon, watching as the puffy
clouds
in the sky drifted by at high altitude. It
was another stunningly beautiful day in
paradise.
clouds
in the sky drifted by at high altitude. It
was another stunningly beautiful day in
paradise.
6:00 PM - As usual, we
observed Sunset on the Lanai.
7:05 PM - After dinner, we
gazed again at the setting of the crescent
moon, seeming larger now and setting later
than before. Time was growing closer to the
day of our departure, back to Los Angeles
and away from our island paradise.
Namenalala Island, Ocean Paradise in the Fiji
Islands
Friday August 25, 2001
7:00
AM - The scuba diving gear is in the Jimny, so we
zoom off to the far side of
Vanua Levu Island.
8:00 AM - We arrive at
Jean-Michel Cousteau's
Fiji Islands Resort, which is at the opposite
end of the island from
Lomalagi Resort. Owned by the sole surviving
son of scuba inventor,
Jacques Cousteau, the place befits its Five Star
rating. We were not there to enjoy opulence and
luxury, but rather, for the diving.
9:00 AM - With
about a dozen divers on-board, the high-powered,
twin-diesel dive boat swept away from the
resort's little wooden dock. The day was clear,
the weather was warm and we were heading towards
one of the world's most legendary dive sites,
the lagoon at
Namenalala (Namena) Island.
10:00 AM - We anchor a few
hundred yards off Namenalala Island,
inside
the reef-line of a clear-water lagoon. Namenalala,
in Fijian, means "the place where no one lives".
Although contemporary Fijians never occupied the
110-acre desert island, the
Namena Island Resort now holds its ecologically
appropriate claim to the space.
inside
the reef-line of a clear-water lagoon. Namenalala,
in Fijian, means "the place where no one lives".
Although contemporary Fijians never occupied the
110-acre desert island, the
Namena Island Resort now holds its ecologically
appropriate claim to the space. Moody's Namena is the only
resort on the island. According to Joan Moody, the
proprietor (along with her husband Tom) their
maximum capacity is twelve guests in six bures
(cottages), each designed to accommodate a couple.
The surrounding Namena Barrier Reef became a marine
reserve in 2004. Joan and Tom helped design the
reserve on the same principle as
Bonaire's Marine Park. Attractive
plastic-coated tags are sold for F$25.00 each to
compensate the Fijian villagers who have stopped
fishing within their designated reefs. The funds
collected go towards scholarship awards to the
children of these villages.
Rather
than use an internal combustion generator, with its
attendant noise and exhaust, the resort incorporates
clean, alternative energy (solar, wind and propane
gas, the latter of which operates their entire
kitchen, including stoves, freezers, refrigerators
and lights). The guest bures operate off either
propane gas or solar for the coffee maker, water
heater and lighting. 11:00 AM - Our first dive was a
revelation. If the dive sites on Vanua Levu were
somewhat compromised by development and siltation,
this remote, mid-ocean location was untouched by
fishing, pollution of other signs of man's
intervention. As bright sunlight filtered through
the water, colorful fish, both predator and prey
alike schooled and swam over and around the reef
structures.
12:00 PM - Between dives, we
ate lunch and looked at the profusion of sea birds
that visited Namena, including the "condor of the
ocean", a rare Lesser Frigate Bird.
1:00
PM - Our second dive was as revealing as the first.
For those who do not scuba dive, the closest similar
experience I can describe is what you feel in an
IMAX 3-D theater production. With the
exceptional clarity of the water and sunlight
reflecting off the shallow sandy bottom, everything,
including color appears magnified and
surreal. One can get up to within inches of the
small reef fish and study them in their
micro-habitats or take a long view and see the
interplay between species, as predators enter the
arena. The experience is one of exquisite sensory
overload. 3:00 PM - It is time to leave
the most perfect dive site on the planet and head
back across the
Bligh Water to the Cousteau Resort, then on home
to our own, more humble bure at Lomalagi Resort.
Epilogue - Upon returning home
to
Los Angeles, several days later, I started to
chronicle our Fiji Island adventure. From the brief
of notes that I had kept, I was able to recreate a
chronology of our adventure in paradise, almost hour
by hour.
Originally, I sent these ten
separate stories as photo-essay emails to friends
and family. Since the process took several weeks to
complete, I was not yet done with the full story on
September 11, 2001, a day when so many of our
lives seemed to change forever.
After the terrorist attacks of
that day, stories of fun and frivolous adventures on
tropical islands no longer seemed appropriate. Most
all of us thought that the world had "turned
serious" and lighthearted stories were no longer
acceptable. We, as Americans, were in mourning for
the way it used to be.
Luckily, the world, and most of
its inhabitants survived the attacks and the
subsequent wars in
Afghanistan and
Iraq. Since this is not a political blog, I
will not state my personal views on the approval
process and conduct of those wars. The real lesson
for me was that life, indeed, does go on.
Although
my relationship with Cagey ended shortly thereafter,
I look fondly on our time together and especially
our vacation at
Natewa Bayy on Vanua Levu, Fiji in August 2001.If you are looking for an
exotic and beautiful place to go, then go to Vanua
Levu, Fiji and experience the beauty for yourself.
This is Chapter Ten of ten
chapters. To view the previous article in this
series, click
HERE. To view the first article in this series,
click
HERE.
