Bula, Part 5, SUVA

Ephraim's training ended Thursday giving us until Saturday night to explore some more. We arranged go to Suva, four hours away on the other side of the island. We boarded the Coral Sun bus at our hotel which took us for $20/person FJ (about $13 US). (I'd like to add that the swindling taxi drivers at the hotel charged that much to go ten minutes into town and back. But I guess everyone's gotta make a living somehow...)

He's so cute with his seatbelt. That lasted about 5 minutes. And then the bus had a flat tire, we had to wait 30 minutes for another bus to come, and we got situated in the new bus. No prob.

Some views on the way. Behind these mountains (above) was a wind farm with huge turbines spinning--very cool.
Another of our friends from American Samoa, Luse, had arranged for us to stay with her wonderful mom Sister Kaitani in Suva. She, her daughter and grandchildren collected us at our stop, and we were off to see the town. Ephraim jumped at the chance to drive, sitting on the right side, driving on the left. I thought we'd die, but obviously we didn't.

We're told Suva is the largest city in the Pacific Islands, and we were impressed with the tall buildings, nice shops, and stop lights--things we hadn't seen in awhile.

We were happy to be around their kids who were 4 and 2 just like ours. Awww. Look at those cheeks! And great hair.


We had a great evening at the temple with Sister Kaitani.

And then ate amazing curry, roti, fish, and taro prepared by Luse's aunt.

The next day we went to a traditional Fijian wedding. I'll write more about that later. But here's a gorgeous Fijian tapa cloth (mulberry bark) that I just loved.
Sister Kaitani sent it with us to give to Luse in AS, and she's lucky it didn't turn up "missing" because I just love it.