garyandpearl

Day 25 February 10, 2014

After a breakfast burrito and fresh fruit platter, we headed downtown on our now familiar yellow bus. Aware that someone may repeat yesterday’s sales pitch, we were more proactive, but we still ended up following a friendly Fijian to a “special” market. Thankfully we were able to lose him when we told him we needed to go to the bank. After standing in line for a while (our lineups are nothing compared to these), I was able to trade in my remaining 2 dollar bills for real currency.

We then found a barbershop where Gary got a haircut for 5 dollars (3 dollars Canadian). His hair is pretty short, but it’s much cooler. Today it was 31 degrees (feels like 44). We headed to the marketplace and tried our hand at bartering for souvenirs and avoiding the intense sales pressure. Gary especially enjoyed watching the woodcarver at work. After our work was completed, we again enjoyed ice cream! 🙂

Back at our hotel, we had a down day: we sat by the pool and read/snoozed. We enjoyed a few dips in the beautifully warm pool water. The beach in front of our hotel is non-existent during the day, but it appears as the tide goes out in the evening.

Our hotel seems to be quite empty. In fact, many times we have been nearly the only ones eating in the restaurants. We enjoyed a beautiful meal by the beach by ourselves tonight. I had a Fijian dish called Kokoda which is raw fish diced and soaked in coconut milk:

Gary enjoyed Mahi Mahi with spicy eggplant and crisp onions on top:

We went for a few walks today and Gary took these photo opportunities:

Torches in the daylight:

Torches at sunset:

We just came back from an evening walk and saw the largest bat we’ve ever seen! It was a fruit bat about the size of a large crow!

Proverbs 25:11

“A word fitly spoken
is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.”