More socializing…Improved technology…Back to research…Exterior views of our house in Savusavu…

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This is the view of our house from the upper unit of the three-unit house higher up the hill.

When I began today’s post at 7:00 am, it was a sunny day. Putting on my swimsuit this morning, I decided to spend a half-hour in a particular spot on the veranda that appears on sunny days around 10:30 am. With my feet on the veranda railing while sitting in a chair it will almost be comparable to a chaise lounge.

Mario sent us a message that he received a notice that our package of supplies arrived at the post office.  Tomorrow between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm, the customs officer will be there and inspect the contents; baking pans, a muffin tin, a measuring cup, a peeler, coconut flour, unsweetened coconut flakes, ground flaxseed, almond flour, and various spices and extracts. 

The view from the top of the three-unit house behind our house. Mario and Tatiana had lived in this beautiful top unit up until a few days ago when they moved to the small house shown below to accommodate the couple we met from Nevada, Judy and Chris.

Hopefully, with the value of the contents well within the allowable shipping ranges, we shouldn’t have to pay any customs fees. It will be good to have these familiar items on hand to round out our diet to provide more variety.

Although I didn’t want to say this too soon, when everything could change in a moment, the wifi is working better today. Mario wrote to us last night explaining he’d seen the phone company (who supplies the Internet) working on the lines to this property. 

With the plugin router, Mario installed specifically for our use only, which I’ve had to monkey with on numerous occasions to reset, we finally have a strong signal. This afternoon, we can start researching locations to fill the two major gaps in our itinerary over the next 21 months.

Mario brought this router that plugs into an outlet, providing us with a private connection not shared with other guests.  Since he’d purchased the device in Germany, his home country, he had to add an adapter to make it plug into the outlet.  The weight of the device using the adapter, made it keep falling out enough to lose the connection.  Tom placed this stack of books under it to hold it in place.  The signal goes to “limited” quite often, but overall it’s working.

Ratnesh, our driver, is having a family day today (Sunday) and with other taxi drivers refusing or unable to navigate the steep hill to the house, we have no choice but to stay home until tomorrow when we head out for sightseeing, the post office, and shopping. We haven’t shopped in a week and are down to the last of the produce. 

With our coffee supply running low, I’ve made tea these past few mornings leaving the remaining coffee for Tom who only drinks two small mugs each morning, using one tablespoon of grounds in the tiny one-person pot.

This is the newly built house Mario and Tatiana moved into in the past few days while guests occupy their house over the next six months.

Not having a car doesn’t really bother us. Surprisingly, having been in this position in more countries than not, we’ve become used to planning our trips to fulfill our needs and expectations. If we run out of something, we improvise, seldom making a trip for only a few items. 

We’d heard from Salote, one of our daily maids (they added Usi to Saturdays and Sundays), that a couple from Nevada was staying in the upper-level apartment of Mario’s three-unit property up the hill from our house. With a little social directing from Salote, we arranged a get together at their place yesterday morning.

When visiting Judy and Chris I spotted something in the ocean below.  See the next photo for a closer view.

Judy and Chris are our ages, retired, and have their primary residence in Carson City, Nevada. They also own a wonderful old house in Brittany, France which they visit several times each year. 

They, too, like us, live away from family and frequently travel. Both born in the UK they both still possess the charming British accents we’ve come to know and admire. Chris was a college geology professor and shared many interesting stories of his world travels on various geological research expeditions. 

It was fascinating spending time with both of them hearing their stories of trips to Africa together in their youth and the myriad adventures they experienced. The time flew by as we shared our stories and before we knew it, almost two hours had passed.

Returning home with a smile on our faces, we realized how fortunate we are to meet people in our travels.  Although tourists usually stay only a short time, as is the case for Judy and Chris, the encounters are pleasurable and memorable. 

These two guys were fishing in the fish abundant waters of the sea surrounding the island. Coincidentally, in this photo is Usi’s brother, Johnny, and his friend Siri.  She explained they had considerable success.

Last night’s dinner of leftover uncooked tough steaks was greatly improved over the prior night’s meal when I cut off every morsel of fat and grizzle and marinated chunks of meat all day in olive oil and spices. When it was time for dinner I cooked them quickly, medium rare, on the highest heat the stove would allow. 

With propane as the source of fuel for the four-burner stovetop, the burners don’t seem to get as hot as when the source is natural gas, requiring I start cooking sooner than I may have in the past. Most days, I prepare everything well in advance leaving the actual cooking for the last minute to ensure everything is hot and fresh. 

As I’ve prepared the post, the clouds have returned and the sun is no longer shining, typical for island living.  So it goes. I have other “fish to fry” today anyway. 

Enjoy the weekend!

Photo from one year ago today, September 20, 2014:

One year ago, we arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada after flying from Boston. This was the view from our luxury condo we’d booked for six nights while we’d wait for an upcoming cruise to Hawaii. For more details, please click here. 

A work in progress…Island living…

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The lush green hills of Vanua Levu with a vast array of vegetation contribute to this island’s astounding beauty. 

The realities of living on a fairly remote island are frequently brought to the forefront. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t comparable to living on an island, for example, on the upcoming returning US TV series, “Survivor.”

We don’t have to sleep on a palm frond on the ground, gather wood for the fire and forage, fish and hunt for our food. Big difference. Then again, we aren’t going to win $1 million for our efforts to attain comfort, nor would we want to make that type of effort, totally out of our league.

Often we stumble upon other blog writers who live on the various islands carrying heavy backpacks, sleeping in tents or hostels, showering at campgrounds, or bathing in the sea and eating what they can find offered on roadside stands at modest costs. That’s not us either.

Tom took this photo atop the steep cliff, he climbed.

When we look at our old lives with every convenience we could possibly need, we’re shocked we did as well as we do going from a life of abundance to a life of minimal amenities.

Sure, we’ve noticed the simple items we previously took for granted and certainly could use; a metal spatula to flip eggs (no such thing available in the village); a baking pan (we purchased a few cheap tinfoil pans); a large pot (if we ate pasta, which we don’t, a pot large enough to cook the noodles which would be useful for many of our dishes): a TV, (in order to watch the news); a more comfy bed (it feels as if we’re sleeping on a box spring and we just maybe); cream cheese, Parmesan cheese and pre-grated cheese (none of which is available in any of the stores); more than one ground coffee selection and the eventual arrival of our box of supplies we’d shipped two weeks ago from Australia supposed to arrive in under ten days.

There’s a lake on the perimeter of the property.

This list could go on and on including having a car, a washer, two chaise lounges by the pool, and stable working wifi. This morning I took out the dirty hand towels I’d placed into the freezer last night (to avoid ants) and washed them by hand, hanging them on the veranda railing to dry.

Today, the wifi is working. Yesterday afternoon, it wasn’t working for several hours due to an outage. This morning, I typed fast and furiously in hopes of getting this post done and uploaded before we lose the signal again out or it slows to a crawl with the busy online weekend activity. 

Atop the steep hill on Sewak’s property, we were taken by the views.

Am I complaining?  It sounds as if I am. But, compared to email, writing online cannot depict the “tone” in one’s voice or the “expression” on one’s face to grasp the full meaning of the words.  We’re surprisingly content. 

We’re finding “workarounds” for all of the above items and more: cooking in small batches due to lack of proper pans, flipping eggs with a butter knife; listening to podcasts on our phones to stay abreast of the news; grating chunks of cheese by hand (there a hand grater here), using the tiny fine blades for grating mozzarella to “look like” Parmesan cheese; and playing Gin when the power and wifi are out.

Only a few months ago, Sewak had this road excavating reaching high above his house.

With good lettuce, hard to find, and not a staple of Fijian cooking, we have no choice but to purchase whole cabbage for our nightly salads. As in many countries, few have shredded cabbage in a bag. Each day I slice the amount equivalent to one of those prepared bags of “coleslaw mix.” 

It’s a tedious process along with scraping off the skins of whole carrots (no working peeler here) and then dicing them into tiny pieces for the coleslaw. Unable to find any suitable dressings in most countries I also make a huge batch of salad dressing to last for several days.

Last night, for the first time in Fiji, we had steak for dinner, the very best quality the meat market offered. We’d purchased enough to last two nights, cooked fresh each night. It was tough with lots of grizzle, making chewing quite a challenge. 

Sewak explained it was only 10 years ago that electricity was brought into this area to fulfill the needs of a few homes.

Grass-fed meat can be tough at times. It was the kind of chewing where one ends up with a huge wad in their cheek, unable to get it, masticated enough to swallow, resulting in spitting out a ping pong sized clump into a paper towel. It reminded me of the overcooked steaks we ate as kids with the edges curled up from being overcooked under the broiler. Tom struggled with it last night. Me, not as much. 

Tonight, we have a comparable amount of steak left for dinner. Currently, it’s marinating in a marinade I made this morning. I suggested to Tom that I’d be happy to finish the steak over the next two nights and I’ll make something else for him. He refused. He insisted he’d eat it one more time. With the small freezer with little room for meat storage, we only keep enough to last for one week. It’s unlikely we’ll purchase steak again here in Fiji.

Fiji’s coral reef is second to none in the world and a favorite location for scuba divers.

We have enough frozen meat on hand to make Sunday and Monday’s meals and then, on Tuesday, we’ll shop again. Each week, I create a menu of our nightly meals followed by a grocery list on the app on my phone commensurate with the menu. This prevents shopping from being confusing and willy nilly at the time, especially with the limited products available in the shops.

Amid all of these relatively minor inconveniences, we’re happy to be here in Savusavu, Fiji.  Our workarounds are indeed “working.” The sense of pleasure we derive from figuring out ways to adapt continues to fuel our desires to continue to visit remote locations throughout the world in years to come.

With a 70% chance of rain today and 90% for tomorrow, it appears we’ll be staying put over the weekend. With dozens of new photos to share, plus a fun video we made, we certainly won’t be at a shortage of material until once again we get out to explore.

The ocean is always mesmerizing from every angle.

Have a fabulous weekend! We certainly will, rain or shine, tough steak and all!

                                         Photo from one year ago today, September 19, 2014:

It was one year ago we arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to await an upcoming cruise in six days sailing to Hawaii. Finally, we were heading toward the US island where we’d see our kids and grandkids over the Christmas holiday. For more details, please click here.

An unexpected unique day…Plus, a tragic loss of life remembered in Boston one year ago…See ending photo below…

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Yesterday, Tom took this stunning photo of the coral reef from the highest peak he climbed with Sewak.

With the wifi not working, yesterday at noon we ventured off the property for a walk. The steep rocky mountainous road prevented us from walking far but we’d noticed a short area, we could explore enabling me to take some photos.

Our landlord Mario has five properties on this land, two houses, one of which we’re living in, the other which he and his wife Tatiana occupy and three lovely apartments, all of which are occupied with tourists at this time. 

The house we’re in is secluded from all of the others and we’d have to walk around the back of the wraparound veranda to see the three-unit building tucked away in the trees further up the hill.

Sewak’s home of over 40 years includes a separate Hindu temple area and family shrine which he happily showed us. 

There’s a swimming pool with no chaises or lawn chairs and we doubt we’ll ever use it. Instead, we’ll grab a chair on the veranda moving it into the sun which hopefully soon appears. The sky is overcast again today with a scattering of blue mixed in between billowy clouds.

When it’s not pouring rain Tom spends a lot of time sitting on the veranda with his laptop in an attempt to get a better signal and to enjoy the ocean views. Two years ago, after living in Kenya for three months without a living room, spending 16 hours a day on the veranda without screens, he seems to have developed a habit of spending most of his days outdoors, weather permitting.

With the mozzies generally loving every morsel of my exposed flesh, I tend to stay indoors on humid buggy days. Seldom using repellent, recently the bites have been few as I continue to be convinced that taking daily doses of vitamin B1 is doing the trick.

The side yard at Sewak’s home.

We’d hope to do further sightseeing with Ratnesh this week. The rainy weather has prevented it. Today, he’s out of town so if the sun peeks out, we’ll be staying home anyway, waiting for the next sunny day. We’re scheduled to tour with him every Tuesday if the weather’s good and to shop when we’re done.

Vanua Levu is shaped like a thin triangle, 30 to 50 kilometers, 18 to 30 miles wide and 180 kilometers, 112 miles long. Most of the island is unpopulated with dense rainforests and is unique in its lack of tourist infrastructure. Its slow pace is typical of many secluded islands throughout the world. 

Living in exquisite surroundings can easily inspire one to slow down to reflect on the beauty as opposed to the usual hustle and bustle of city life. We’ve become good at this over these past three years of travel.

The hill we drove up, in Sewak’s truck toward the top.

Back to our walk, walking up from the house to the road requires several uneven steps, a stint on rocky gravel and maneuvering more rocky gravel that’s uphill. In the reviews for this property, we noted a comment made by a past tourist that they’d fallen on the road. We proceeded with caution, mostly Tom hangs on to support me, as he always manages to do with  the utmost of care. 

Of course, I had the camera in hand as I always when we leave the house, regardless of where we may live at the time. Assuming I’d at least find some vegetation as photo subjects, we teetered along, mindful of our steps in the process. 

First, we investigated Mario’s apartments and the pool area which I’d yet to see. (Tom had checked it out days ago). It appeared no one was around so we could peek in the windows. 

Some of my photos are slanted.  I was standing on a steep hill and didn’t properly adjust for the angle.

Although the apartments appeared lovely, we were thrilled we’d managed to book this private house as opposed to an apartment.  We can clomp around on the floors all we want and Tom can spew his disgusting expletives when he loses at a hand of Gin.  No one can hear us.

With a variety of pretty flowers blooming, we found ourselves wandering toward the single reachable neighbor’s house nearby. Not wanting to intrude, we trod carefully not getting too close to the house. Within moments, a man came running toward us. He seemed excited to see us immediately welcoming us indoors to visit with him.

With family roots in India, Sewak explained that he’d never lived in the country of his ancestors, but possesses a strong Indian accent speaking English, Hindi and Fijian.  Although a bit tricky to understand everything he says, we all became engaged in a delightful conversation while sitting in his clean but cluttered living room filled with stuffed animals and the relics of a lifetime.  

Recently, Sewak sold two acres of his land which is yet to be developed.

Sewak’s enthusiasm for visitors was evident. His wife whom he misses terribly has been in Australia visiting family for the past month soon to return. We look forward to meeting her as well. 

After about a 20 minute chat, Sewak insisted he take us up to the highest point of his six-acre property (he recently sold two acres) to see the views. Getting into his older well worn four-wheel drive truck, we embarked on the steepest drive of our lives!  It was hard to believe the truck could make it up the recently excavated dirt road. 

The wind was blowing requiring me to ask Tom to hold this perfect flower for my shot while we toured Sewak’s grounds.

Minutes later we were atop the hill with mind-blowing views of the scenery below. Once we reached the top, a steep climb was required to go a bit higher on root covered, rocky terrain. I let Tom, holding the camera and Sewak take that portion of the hike without me, while I waited with his dog, Badal, who’d run up the steep mountain with the greatest of ease barking alongside the truck the entire way.

We spent considerable time overlooking the scenery while Sewak explained the story of his land which he acquired in the 1970’s. With a natural spring running through his property he provides water not only for his house but, Mario’s property  as well, for which he’s never required him to pay. 

That’s the fresh-tasting water we’ve been drinking since our arrival. Without it, we’d be purchasing bottled water carrying it up the long walk from the car to the house. How fortunate we’ve been for this!

Close to the top of the hill overlooking the sea.

Before we left his house, he mentioned he was having trouble with getting online to be able to Skype his wife and family. I sat down at his computer  moments later I was able to get him online with Skype ready to go. He was very grateful but, then again, so were we.

After a few hours of pure pleasure, we profusely thanked Sewak for his friendliness, the tour and his time.  We’re always sensitive about cultural differences and proceed carefully with shows of affection and gratitude.  When a kiss and hug comes my way, my arms are open. Sewak offered me both as he generously pumped Tom’s hand. We’d made a new friend.

Later in the early evening, Mario stopped by with a new router exclusively for our use. Sitting on the floor by the electrical outlet for over an hour, he manipulated the device hoping to get it working. While he was working on the device, Sewak appeared at the door, carrying a handful of white radishes, the first of his crop in his recently planted garden. 

Badal, Sewak’s dog, bounded up the steep hill with ease.

As a vegetarian, typical for the people of India, he’d planted an extensive garden, kindly offering to share its bounty with us during our stay. We couldn’t have been more appreciative. We washed and cut a large radish and had it with dinner, leaving enough for tonight and again tomorrow.

He and Tom talked on the veranda while Mario and I stayed indoors as he worked on the router. By the time darkness fell, the device was working, albeit in and out (I had to reset it again this morning) and both he and Sewak left at the same time leaving us to our dinner and the evening.

In less than 10 minutes, we’d reheated the leftover grass-fed taco meat, took out the previously diced tomatoes, onions, olives, grated cheese, and lettuce, reheated my roasted veggies, placed my laptop on the end of the kitchen table playing season 4, episode 2, of the popular British TV show, Doc Martin, while we dined.

It was a good day.

Photo from one year ago today, September 18, 2014:

One year ago today when we visited my father’s gravesite in Boston, we posted the story about his tragic death when I was 12 years ago. This is his wedding photo from his marriage to my mother in 1942. He had an exemption for going off to fight in World War II when his company was commissioned by the US government to manufacture ammunition. My sisters and I inherited the entrepreneurial spirit from him, each of us having our own businesses for most of our working careers. For details from that post, please click here.

Major WiFi issues hopefully resolved today..Trick for using phone as a wireless device…

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Pineapple growing in the yard.

To ensure our ability to be online if the house signal went out, last week we purchased a 32 gig SIM card we placed into the slot in Tom’s unlocked (no contract) phone. With a few settings manipulated, I was able to turn his phone into a hot spot, for those who aren’t aware, adding the SIM card turns the phone into a wireless Internet device that broadcasts a wifi signal, similar to a router in your home. 

This is easily done on most smartphones when there’s no available wifi and one wants to use another device using the phone’s signal. Of course, data charges would apply. If you have Internet services through a contract with your phone or have added wifi via a SIM card, you can use the phone’s signal for an iPad or other tablet, or even another phone. 

You don’t have to perform any changes to the tablet and only need to change a few settings on the phone to alert the phone to broadcast its signal. If you’d like to do this, contact your service provider, asking for instructions on “Internet sharing” from your phone to another device, even another phone.

You do not need to use “Bluetooth” to do this and can connect in the same manner you’d connect from your home or other location with wifi, from the list of available connections.

Although these specific photos we’ve posted today look similar to the photos we posted yesterday, they are all new. We have many more new photos to share over the next several days.

Your service provider can walk you through the process which is slightly different for each phone. I’d provide a link with instructions, but unfortunately, the signal in our remote location makes it impossible for me to research online at this time. If we were in an area with good service, using the phone as the hot spot would be easy and provide a great signal.

Unfortunately, the location of the house on a hill overlooking the sea prevents a strong signal. On occasion, I’m able to connect for a very weak signal as I’m doing today.

This is very frustrating to say the least. We need to be online, not only to post each day but also to begin booking two major holes in our upcoming itinerary.

The signal provided in the house is slightly better but not much. The router to that signal, in Mario’s house, is too far from us to acquire a strong signal, there again making being online difficult and at times entirely impossible. Since yesterday, I haven’t been able to get onto the house’s signal at all.

View from above to village out to Savusavu Bay.

Now, as I write this, I’m on the weak signal for the hot spot on Tom’s phone which for some unknown reason I was able to get online this morning with enough of a signal to write here with a few photos, not enough for posting several photos I had lined up.

Receiving and sending email doesn’t require a strong signal. Thus, I’ve been able to communicate with Mario who wrote back last night stating that a technician will be coming today to work on the issue. Hopefully, this can be resolved today. 

We’d hoped to go do some sightseeing today if the sun came out which looks as if it may actually occur. With rain most days since our arrival, we look forward to getting out. However, with the tech coming, we’ve decided to stay put.

All I can say is with no car, no wifi, no TV, with too poor a signal to download any new books on my phone and great leftovers already prepared for tonight’s dinner, I won’t have much to do today while we wait on “Fiji time” for the technician to arrive. 

We can’t get over the beauty of this bay we’re overlooking including in this new photo of Nawi Island.

Usually under such circumstances, I’d do laundry and clean. Hmmm…no washer and the house is already clean.  I did my nails this morning while I waited for the above pineapple photo to load. Perhaps, soon I’ll do the pedicure as well. Surely, throughout the day, we’ll both find ways to keep us busy. 

For an assurance to our loyal readers, there is no way we won’t be back online daily with our usual photo laden posts. We’ll surely figure something out as quickly as possible, regardless of how drastic a measure we must ultimately take to ensure we have good working wifi. 

Photo from one year ago today, September 17, 2014:

On our last day in Boston visiting my then 95 year old uncle and cousin, we visited the cemetery where my father and other family members were buried. It was an emotional experience. For more details, please click here. 

A drive up a mountain for a view like none other…Nawi Island…

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Nawi Island is being built as a residential location.  Click here for details.

As Ratnesh drove up the bumpy, steep dirt road, the anticipation to see what he had planned for us was exciting. The closer and closer we neared the top of the peak, we knew we were in for a treat.

Pulling close to the edge of the cliff, we jumped out of the car, camera in my hand, ready to check out the overlook of the village and the sea. Little did either of us expect the magnitude of the beauty that lie before us, one of the most exquisite scenes we’ve ever seen. 

No doubt, as we’ve traveled the world these past years we’ve witnessed many postcard quality scenes of mountains, oceans, land, vegetation and wildlife, all treasures bestowed upon us by whatever higher power you may believe (or not). 

The view of Nawi Island was more interesting than we’d expected and we felt fortunate to see it from high above the village.

The beauty of it all can’t simply be happenstance. Random occurrences aren’t necessarily a feast for the eyes.  We ask ourselves, “How did we get so lucky to fall witness to so much of the world’s beauty?” 

Then again, when we lived on a lake in Minnesota, watching a blue heron catch and swallow a large fish or watch a color bursting sunset we were equally in awe. It’s all a matter of perception and one’s desire and ability to revel in the magic surrounding us. 

Need I say we couldn’t stop spewing words of appreciation to Ratnesh for taking us to this spot?  He told us he doesn’t bring all of his customers to this overlook when many are more interested in diving, dining and shopping. He couldn’t stop smiling when he saw the degree of pleasure we both derived from taking in the view.

Note the coral reef near the islands.

In thinking back we wonder how we found this island. Why did we choose the longer stay here in Fiji on this smaller island of Vanua Levu as opposed to the more populated island of Viti Levu? We often feel drawn to a fairly remote location for the lack of traffic, long lines, crime, and commotion. 

Plus, we love the quiet, the privacy and the locals appreciative for visitors to their area, kind in ways we’d never expect or take for granted. So is the case here in the little village of Savusavu, on the smaller island of Vanua Levu.

Smaller islands dot the bay.

With no news on the TV in the background, we’re adapting to the quiet, the continual sounds of roosters, goats, cows, sheep and birds, who’ve yet to partake in any of the sunflower seeds I placed on the railing of the veranda. Memories of “Birdie” in Kauai come to mind, who came to nibble on nuts when I called him, bringing along his female partner feeding her first from his beak.

We look forward to sunny days to enhance these types of views.

Each location offers its own unique memories. The more countries we visit, the more memories flood our brains and, like our luggage we carry them with us, to be reopened for a moment of bliss as we recall something wonderful

And yet, we embrace the moment and that which lies before us, as we did when we stood on the overlook beholding one of the most heart-stopping views we’ve seen to date; an overlook created by nature, unspoiled with but a tinge of humanity’s presence in its wake.

What a view!

The sun has peeked out for bit so I hand washed kitchen towels and hung them on the rope railing on the veranda to dry using peculiar plastic clothespins we’d purchased at the market. In the heavy humidity, we’ll be surprised if they dry by dark.

Yesterday, I cooked three day’s meals.  We’ve found cooking for several days the best option when ants only appear during and after food prep. Reheating in the microwave the next day without additional prep time keeps them under control at least for the two remaining days of leftovers. 

Clouds wafted in but the view remained stunning.
As I write this on the offline Windows Live Writer the power is out again and getting online isn’t an option, I hope before too long, we’ll be back up allowing me to upload it for all of you to see. We expect the wifi and the
power to be out on many occasions during our stay here and have learned to take it in our stride.
Ratnesh is quite a guy!  We feel lucky to have him as our driver! If planning a trip to Savusavu and would like a fair, friendly and knowledgeable driver, he can be reached at 011+679+88+923-1494.


With many more photos to share we’ll be back tomorrow, especially now that the power has returned and wifi has been restored. Sunshine, power, WiFi mind blowing views, and each other. What more could we ask for

Photo from one year ago today, September 16, 2014:

One year ago, the hotel in Boston sent this wine, fruit and cheese plate and bottled water to our room after we’d done a review on our site. We ate the cheese but not the fruit. Totally unexpected, but appreciated. For details, please click here.

Cooking in the boiling waters of the Savusavu Hot Springs?…Couldn’t get there fast enough….Videos and photos…

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Here’s yesterday’s video of the boiling hot springs in Savusavu, Fiji. The locals cook in these springs!

Yesterday morning when Shalote (Fijian version of Charlotte) stopped by to clean the house I asked her to tell me about her favorite place on the island.

When she described the Savusavu Hot Springs I nearly jumped for joy anxious to visit the site as soon as possible. She explained that the locals bring vegetables to cook in the boiling water of the springs, placing them into bags that can withstand the boiling water. This fascinated us!

The sign at the entrance to the Savusavu Hot Springs area.

As soon as driver Ratnesh arrived at noon to take us into town, we asked him to take us directly to the hot springs to see what this was all about. I was tempted to bring along some carrots to try our hand at cooking in the springs!

With little geological information online other than this technical PDF document posted from the Geothermal Institute at the University of Auckland, NZ, we only found a few short blurbs.

The main area of the hot springs didn’t occupy a large space. Please see the above video for more detail.

We were stymied over why so little has been written about this natural phenomenon and its unique use by residents of the village with its population near 5000. No doubt, in centuries past, locals took advantage of this ready source of cooking their root vegetables when no other resources but the fire was used in cooking.

While focusing on the uniqueness of the hot springs, a hotel was built opposite the area often attracting visitors from all over the world:

“Savusavu is famous for its hot springs located mostly opposite the Hot Springs Hotel – although at low tide you can see the steam from numerous smaller outlets all along the foreshore. In the late 19th century, these hot springs for a period of two months turned into 12 – 18 m tall geysers.”

This is a separate miniature boiling hot spring. The boiling water is hard to see in these photos.

Ratnesh, having lived on this island all of his life, didn’t hesitate when we mentioned we wanted to see the Savusavu Hot Springs. A 15-minute drive to the village with a few turns brought us directly to the designated spot, a relatively small area with the above-shown signs upon entrance to the area which was no larger than a good-sized vacant lot suitable for building a house.

We drove to what appeared to be somewhat of a residential area where the hot springs are located which is walking distance to the center of town and Savusavu Bay. A short distance from the car we followed an unpaved pebbly path to an open area where the active hot springs are located.

Obviously, there’s no bathing in these hot springs. The water is definitely boiling, literally bubbling and steaming, comparable to a roaring boil one would have in a pot on the stove. Contemplating what lies beneath the surface, we found ourselves in awe of the unusual scene.

The above video will give a clearer perspective of the boiling water from the hot springs.

Throughout our travels, we’ve seen many geysers and hot springs, especially a year ago in Iceland, known for being a “geothermal hotbed.” Driving along the mountainous roads in Iceland, there was spout after spout of steam spewing from the earth.

The fascinating aspect of this type of geothermal activity indicates a tremendous amount of geological activity below the surface. Other than the above-mentioned highly technical report we haven’t been able to find much more on this topic for the hot springs in Savusavu.

Taking the above-posted video was a concern. With the weak wifi signal to the house with the hotspot/SIM card signal slower yet, we wondered if we’d be able to upload the video on YouTube to share with our readers.  Hopefully, what we’ve posted today will be watchable to readers throughout the world. 

At the top of this hill is the Hot Springs Hotel, a popular spot for tourists.

After our time at the hot springs, Ratnesh drove us to see one of the most magnificent views we’ve ever seen which we’ll share over the next few days with many breathtaking photos (No braggadocio intended. The photo taking wasn’t created “breathtaking.” It was the scenery)!

Later, we spent a few hours in the village, taking more photos while we wandered up and down the main boulevard, also walking along what appeared to be an “esplanade” comparable to those we walked in Australia.  We investigated shop after shop looking for items could use. 

The sky cleared for a while while we were in the village. Today, it’s pouring rain again.

So far, we can’t find a metal “turner” used for flipping eggs or other foods cooking in a pan. Nor, can we find a “scraper” for scraping a bowl to remove food around the edges. Hopefully, soon the package will arrive from Australia. I think I may have included those items in the box of supplies.

Perhaps, one day over these remaining 81 days, we’ll find an appropriate bag or container and cook some vegetables in the hot springs!

Photo from one year ago today, September 15, 2014:
Our last day at sea, we arrived in Boston for a three-day stay to visit my 95-year-old uncle and a cousin. For more details, please click here.

Changing our daily routine with household help and no washer…

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Tom and Rashnesh sitting in the front while I took photos from the back seat with the window open. I have to get used to asking Rashnesh to stop for photos when over this past year with a rental car Tom always had a keen sense when to stop.

In some past locations, we’ve had daily maid service five days a week or more depending on the work schedule of the staff. The countries where we had this unnecessary but appreciated perk were Belize, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, and now Fiji.

In Boveglio, Italy and Madeira, Portugal we hired a weekly cleaning person and of course, during certain periods we spent in hotels, on ships and in short term vacation rentals we didn’t have to clean, other than tidy up after ourselves. We had no maid or cleaning service during the eight months we spent on four islands in Hawaii when the cost was too high at around USD $100 per hour. 

I’ve always had mixed feelings about having cleaning help.  When there isn’t a helper available Tom joins me daily in making the bed and tidying up. In a perfect world, we’d have cleaning help weekly. Everyday is another story. 

The long dirt road, very steep in parts, requires a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

There’s plenty for us to clean daily  when we don’t have help in keeping a bathroom spotless, making the bed, sweeping the floor, cleaning up after meal prep, washing dishes and doing laundry. In the above mentioned five countries, we didn’t do our own laundry. 

We’ve done our dishes in every country except Morocco, where the staff also cooked and served our meals.  During that period I felt like to a slug, hardly moving about except to trek up and down the steep steps to the bedroom and almost daily walks in the souk.

Beachfront property in any country is always the most appealing.

In Savusavu, Fiji we have the lovely Charlotta, a Fijian woman in her 40’s, hard-working, kind, and generous. She arrives at 9 am on weekdays, taking the weekends off. She does our laundry every few days, returning it the next day, neatly folded, separating mine, from Tom’s. 

It’s not a thorough cleaning each day when I noticed some remaining gecko poop on the floor after she’d left.  Its comparable to the type of cleaning one would get when staying in a hotel for an extended period; bed made daily, sheets changed bi-weekly, bathroom cleaned and the trash removed with only a comprehensive dusting and floor washing periodically.

The beach along the road to the village.  The second time we visited the village there was a sun. Hopefully, today will be the same when in a short while, we’ll be heading out again.

When we’ve had a maid, we’re still fairly meticulous, sweeping the floor daily with my oddball aversion to pieces of things on the floor. On Friday, I asked Charlotta for a broom when I’d noticed a dustpan and brush under the kitchen sink. 

This weekend while she was off, I swept the floor both days, making my usual mess while chopping and dicing on the tiny kitchen counter. We made the bed, cleaned the bathroom, emptied the trash, and wiped down the glass coffee table with window cleaner.

Photo taken from the veranda on the side of the house showing one of the sets of steps to walk from the distant driveway to the house.

In humid climates, everything feels dirty, especially if not cleaned frequently. Also, the continuous stream of ants keeps us both on our toes in an attempt to maintain a spotless and food residue-free space.

Overall, it’s a benefit having household help, but, the biggest challenge is not having access to a washing machine. With our limited amount of underwear and clothing and, our tendency to wear the same items over and over with the intent of wearing them out for eventual disposal, not having a washer is challenging.  

The most difficult aspect of not having a washer is the dirty kitchen towels. When I cook, I go through many towels preferring cloth towels to paper towels. With all the ants in tropical climates, I can’t place a single damp towel or towel with food bits into the hamper. Otherwise, it will be covered with ants in a few hours. 

This was the first grocer we visited which had few items on our list.

The only solution is to either bag up the towels to place them in the refrigerator or hand wash them. Due to a lack of space in the fridge that option doesn’t work. All of this is typical for life on a tropical island. 

We share this information, not as a means of complaining. It’s not bad having some tasks to perform to keep us on our feet and moving around as opposed to sitting, especially on rainy days when we don’t go out. Many of these types of tasks are necessary for most vacation homes and more so in tropical climates with or without daily household help.

The day we arrived we shopped at this tiny grocer that didn’t have much of a selection for our needs. But, they still had Christmas decorations from last year.  Now we shop at the New World IGA that, although small, has more products we use.

We had this same issue in Australia with kitchen towels. If we tossed them in the laundry basket after dinner, there would be hundreds of ants in the basket in the morning. I finally figured out to put the dirty dish towels into the washer to be washed the following day, rather than starting laundry outside at night in the dark carport.

With no washer here in which to store them, each night after dinner, I’ve been filling the kitchen sink with hot water soapy water tossing in the few dirty kitchen towels, making sure to rinse them and find a spot to hang them overnight. 

Grocery stores have liquor departments. Prices seem reasonable but Tom has yet to make a purchase.

There are no hooks or hangers in this house and the solitary towel bar in the bathroom holds our still damp bath towels. The humidity slows down the drying process considerably often taking a few days to dry a towel.

In the realm of things, many of these nuances are insignificant. However, many of our readers have inquired as to how we manage to adapt to our new surroundings when amenities we may have had available at other location are not present at a new location.

Power lines crisscross the landscape. While here, most likely we won’t be using the Inpaint app to remove powers lines from photos when uploading photos in itself seem to take twice as long as usual.

We’ve often thought of our old lives and how annoyed we’d be at the cable company when our cable went out, a storm knocked out the power or our washer quit working (when within a day or two we’d have it repaired or a new one in place). We laugh when we recall our frustration over a dishwasher not working. We’ve only had a dishwasher in Hawaii and Portugal.

In our old lives, if we had a trail of ants in the kitchen, I’d freaked out, dashing to the store to purchase whatever was necessary to kill them. This morning, there were dozens of ants on the kitchen counter. I grabbed a hot soapy paper towel and wiped them into oblivion with nary a thought.

Another portion of the road on the way back from the village.

With the recent continuing cloudy skies with rain predicted again for today, we’re heading to the village for the afternoon where we’ll take photos. With the rough muddy roads, it makes no sense to embark on a long drive to explore further than the village. Once it’s sunny for a few days, we’ll head out.

Now that we no longer feeling rushed since a phone is working with a SIM card installed, we can take our time to wander the quaint village and call Rashnesh when we’re ready to go. 

Flowers blooming along the road to the house.

If he’s busy with other customers, we’ll gladly wait.  We’re bringing two insulated bags for the groceries. We decided to have him drive us to our final destination, the meat market, after fetching us from the grocery store.  (We shop at the farmer’s market first since the produce is already sitting out unrefrigerated). This way, we’ll have no concern that meat will spoil if he’s delayed in picking us up after the grocery store.

It’s funny how this life has changed us. It made us tougher, more resilient, and above all, more tolerant. Sure, on occasion, we’ve grumbled, especially when there are bugs in the bed. But, the rest?  Nah, it’s all good.

Photo from one year ago today, September 14, 2014:

The sun peeking through the cloud while we lounged on our balcony of the ship, soon to arrive in Boston. It was a glorious cruise. For more details, please click here.

Torrential rains and gecko poop…Living on a tropical island minus the grass hut…The simple life…

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These colorful flowers are growing close to the house.

It rained so hard, we had to yell to speak. While watching an episode of a favorite show, we had to turn the volume up to the maximum. The roof of this free-standing house is made of tile and the pounding rain made an earsplitting sound. We laughed as we walked about in wonder as to how it could rain so hard and make such noise.

We hadn’t seen rain like this since we began our travels. The closest was a few storms in Kenya two years ago. Luckily, the house is high on a hill with no water making its way inside during these downpours. We were able to keep the jalousie windows open during the storm to continue to feel the cooling breezes.

View from the veranda.

The weather in the Fijian Islands is fairly consistent making it an ideal holiday/vacation destination. Right now, we’re at the tail end of the low precipitation season. As long as we and others don’t lose power and resources, we don’t mind the rain.

Last night, the geckos must have sought shelter indoors from the pelting rain when this morning there was no less than 20 white dots of gecko poop scattered on the glass coffee table and floor. Walking around with a damp rag we cleaned up the powdery white residue.

A strip of beach on the way to the village.

Tom worked his way along the house using the ant repellent stick resembling a piece of chalk, scraping it along the baseboards and the kitchen countertops where the wood meets the wall. 

Each time I prepare food, I scrub the counters with hot soapy water before starting and after completing to keep the ants under control. It’s all a part of life in the tropics and we’ve easily gotten into the routine of taking measures to keep our house feeling clean and as free of insects as possible.

Ah, once again, we are able to observe the morphology of a bunch of bananas on this blooming pod, as we’d observed while in Madeira 16 months ago.

It’s a part of living in the tropics. Adapting to the environment in each country we visit is vastly different than our old lives.  Where we are now in Vanua Levu, Fiji, we are in one of the most remote areas we’ve visited to date. And yet, we feel at ease. Experience is a powerful teacher.

With the limited sites to see other than the beautiful natural terrain and vegetation, the fact that we don’t scuba dive or snorkel, our activities will be somewhat limited while living on the island. 

A common monarch butterfly.

With only 14 items listed in TripAdvisor for “things to do” in Savusavu, we anticipate that four will be on our agenda. All other activities appear to revolve around scuba diving. 

But, without scuba diving on our “to do” list, we are happy to be here, living this stress-free life with no traffic, no lines, extraordinary safety (according to the locals) and a level of simplicity we find particularly appealing. 

This is truly the place one would envision “living on a tropical island,” minus the grass hut, instead, living in a modest house overlooking the sea with electricity, running water, wifi (albeit rather slow), and a modicum of creature comforts. The enjoyment level is entirely up to us and so far, with a few glitches behind us, we’re comfortable and feeling stress-free.

A bloom, seen from the veranda.

Of course, I’m concerned we’ll have enough material to share during the simplicity of this life. However, with our weekly trips with Rashnesh to explore the island, taking no less than 100 photos on each occasion, we should be able to hold the interest of many of our loyal readers. Please stay with us sharing your stories, thoughts, and comments along the way.  If you’ve been to Savusavu, please comment and share your experiences.

Twice weekly, we’ll visit the village taking photos along the way. As yet, we hadn’t taken many photos in town, preoccupied with finding the items we needed to round out our stay: food, data, and a few household items. 

Now with a transportation and shopping routine in place, we’ll be able to focus on taking more interesting photos in the village while researching local stories to share.

Lush vegetation and flowers surround the property.

Kenya was the only other country without a TV. With no world news in the background, the sound of TV has been replaced by other sounds causing us to stop to listen several times each hour; the cows mooing, the lamb and goats baahing, the roosters crowing, the birds singing, the geckos chirping and the pleasant sounds of the gentle breeze through the trees. 

During the night, we hear rustling in the trees outside the bedroom window. Mario explained that flying foxes carry on a night. Gosh, how will we get a photo of that?

Perhaps being isolated from world news will prove to be good for us when we both are affected by the horror occurring in many areas of the world. Daily, we both check online, WiFi permitting, to get the highlights researching further if we have a strong enough signal. 

We spotted these same types of enormous palm fronds when we lived in Belize many moons ago.

Our awareness of what’s transpiring throughout the world is important to us as we continue to book vacation homes in various countries. There’s no country that’s free of strife, even in the US with natural disasters and frequent acts of violence. At this point, minimizing our risks by staying away from war-torn countries makes the most sense.

Today, we’re sharing a few outdoor photos we took on sunny days during the week.  We’ll be heading out tomorrow, weather permitting, hoping to be able to take many more photos to share in the upcoming days.

Have a wonderful Saturday or Sunday, wherever you may be!

Photo from one year ago today, September 13, 2014:

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Photo of the indoor pool on the ship we sailed across the ocean, Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas as we worked our way toward Boston. For details, please click here.

Our new home in Fiji…A few nuances…A few photos…

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The galley kitchen, small with little counter space, works for me. We purchased the tiny cutting board when the one in the cupboard was a little too used for my liking. The tiny coffee pot only makes two cups at a time. We make two pots, one for each of us. To the far left is the portable oven with the microwave above. Other than a few items we’ll purchase next week, we have everything we need.

There are no words to describe how thrilled we are to have windows with screens. Fresh air day and night, has an enormous effect on one’s state of well being. Even now as I write on a Saturday morning with it raining off and on, the cooling breeze is refreshing and invigorating. 

The living room. 

After three months with no breeze and little fresh air in the house in Australia without screens, we feel renewed. Also, there’s something magical about living on a fairly remote island with the quaint village, the friendly local workers, the vast array of birds and wildlife that is particularly appealing to us.

There are no poisonous insects or any snakes in Fiji. Centuries ago, snake eating mongoose was brought to the islands. They proliferated in vast numbers ultimately wiping out the entire snake population.

The bed with the new pillows and bedding. There no hanging closet space. We left the items we usually hang neatly folded in the luggage.

That’s not to say there aren’t other creatures slithering around the house and grounds. We’ve had several of those yellowish almost clear looking (comparable to a pale yellow gummy) geckos running on the walls, pooping and making their peculiar noises. But, years ago we stopped paying much attention to geckos. They’d be unlikely to crawl on humans or go onto the bed at night. 

This morning I cleaned several gecko poops off the stovetop. We’ve seen a few large spiders, other insects, and an endless supply of mosquitoes. We’ve yet to see a single fly.

The kitchen table where we dine. We moved this lamp (the only lamp in the house) from the bedroom putting it on this table enabling us to see our plates better while dining.

Based on a report Tom read online many months ago, I started taking 100 mg vitamin B1 supposedly to aid in the reduction of attracting mosquitoes. After one month on the B1, I noticed an improvement, seldom being bitten during the remaining time in Australia. I still use repellent when we visit rain forests as will be the case here when we’re outside for extended periods.

Sitting on the veranda seems to attract a swarm of mosquitoes around one’s head so we pick and choose the best times to venture out avoiding dawn, dusk, and cloudy days. 

A large porcelain sink in the bathroom. The small spoon atop the plastic container is for scooping baking soda to add to toothpaste for whiter, cleaner teeth.

On our first shopping trip, we purchased a bottle of locally manufactured repellent and it seems to be highly effective in combination with vitamin B1. I’ve only received two mosquito bites since we arrived on Tuesday. I can’t guarantee this would work for everyone but, somehow it seems to be working for me.

Not having a car is an adjustment. As Mario had described, the steep hill to the property would be impossible to navigate without a four-wheel drive. I doubt we could even walk the hill up that hill when even the fittest 20 year old would struggle.

This is a good-sized shower.

With the cost of a four-wheel-drive vehicle at no less than USD $40, FJD $87 per day plus fees and taxes we’d decided against a rental. With the hourly rate Rashnesh quoted at USD $13.81, FJD $30 for tours,  we can go anywhere we want for much less than we’d pay for a rental, especially when we’re paying for days we don’t use it.

For a round trip to the village Rashnesh charges USD $9.20, FJD $20, dropping us off at one market and picking us up at another location at either a designated time or when we call on our now working phone containing a local phone SIM card. If we went out every day, the taxi fare with Rashnesh would still cost less than 25% of the cost of a rental car.

The living room with our stuff. 

We explained to Rasness that we’ll pay him each time we go out and tip him all at once at the end of our stay in December, giving him a good chunk toward his Christmas holiday. He seemed to like this idea. 

With the high cost at an ATM and with many local services requiring cash and, with the choice we made long ago (for safety purposes) to only be able to receive USD $300, FJD $652 per day per card, we’ll probably need to get cash every few weeks to pay for dining out, the farmer’s market and the meat market. The grocery store clerk explained there is a 2.5% fee for using a credit card. 

The screened window in the kitchen. Sitting on the sill is chalk “ant stick” which we use after washing the counters after cooking hoping to keep the ants away.

With the cost of getting cash exceeding the cost of the grocer charged credit card fees, it makes sense to use the credit card at the grocery store. With 1% cash perks for purchasing groceries on the card, it all works out in the end. 

As for the house, Mario and his wife Tatiana provided us with additional items we needed: six dish towels, one washcloth (all they had available) a large skillet and bowl, a medium-sized pot, a sharp paring knife, three plastic reusable containers,  a knife sharpener, and a broom. We still need a metal spatula and a cookie sheet which we’ll purchase soon.

The screened window in the living room with cooling breezes. No AC here. Outside the window, you can see our dishtowels hanging to dry. With no washer, and laundry done by Charlotta a few times each week, we’ll be hand washing kitchen towels and underwear as needed.

Many months ago, I wrote to Mario that we’d need an oven. He immediately went into town to find a good-sized countertop oven which seems to work well. We are very grateful for the oven, the bed, and all he’s done for us. 

Yesterday afternoon, I made Tom’s breakfast dish, which he cuts evenly into 18 squares to be frozen in bags of three. Once he has the last of the three portions over three days, he takes out another bag to defrost overnight in the refrigerator. This way, I don’t make his breakfast for 18 days and he loves having this item at his leisure each morning, while I’m busy with the day’s post. 

The huge pan of Tom’s breakfast eggs dish, the first item we baked in the new oven.

Yesterday, it took about an hour to prepare the large pan of breakfast since there’s no grated cheese available in the market. Grating the cheese by hand and also cooking the required 18 slices of bacon, five at a time in the microwave is an equally slow process.  

The countertop oven cooked the large dish in 50 minutes using a tin foil pan we’d purchased. We soaked and washed the tinfoil pan to be used again. With no parchment paper available in the stores, soaking and scrubbing baking pans will be required while we’re here. How I wished we’d shipped a roll of parchment.

Overall, the house is ideal. Getting in and out of the low-to-the-floor bed is challenging and good exercise for the legs. Tom says he needs “pet steps” to get in and out. 

For more details on this vacation rental, please click here.

The toilets are higher in other countries as opposed to the US. When we arrived in Boston by ship a year ago we were flabbergasted by the low toilets, almost falling over each time.

We’ll continue with more of the nuances of living in Fiji as time goes on. The WiFi is working again today. Since it’s raining we see no reason to go out. Surely, there’ll be plenty of sunny days in the near future allowing us to explore the island. We’ve arranged for some exploring on Monday with Rashnesh picking us up at 10:00 am, hoping for such a day.

So far, in four days we’ve had insects in the bed, a five-hour power outage, and an all afternoon WiFi outage. More of these types of inconveniences will undoubtedly occur. When they do, we’ll “suck it up” as we always do, putting a smile on our faces knowing it all “goes with the territory.” This has become the norm for us.

Tomorrow, we’ll share outdoor photos of the exquisite views surrounding us.

Our heartfelt condolences to those in the US who lost loved ones in the tragic events of September 11, 2001, a day we’ll always remember with heavy hearts.

Photo from one year ago today, September 12, 2014:

DSC03571
We dined in a specialty restaurant on the ship, Giovannia’s, with Judy and Gary a lovely couple Tom had met on cruise critic. We enjoyed several get-togethers with them over the cruise. For more details, please click here.
Day #171 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…Is a donut a fair trade-off?

Adapting to life in a new land with hiccups along the way…

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The ferry docked at the edge of the village makes a daily trip to Viti Levu, the largest island in the Fiji chain. It’s an overnight journey, arriving at 4:00 or 5:00 am. Since we’ll spend our last month on that island, we see no reason to take the ferry and will again fly on the commuter plane when it’s time to leave.

We feel compelled to share a story we’d considered not writing to avoid embarrassment for the owners of the property.  However, after careful consideration and the unbelievably fast response from the owner, Mario to resolve the problem, our comments will only enhance the perception of how lucky we are to have Mario as our landlord and how quickly he responded to our needs.

Long ago, for many years, I owned rental properties throughout the Twin Cities. Even Tom had been a landlord for almost six years when he rented his old house after he moved in with me and, prior to daughter Tammy buying the house.

The dock is available for use of boats in this small harbor.

We both realized as landlords that maintenance issues and general problems may not be known to a landlord if they aren’t reported by disgruntled renters living in the property over a period of time. 

Such was the case here in this charming ocean view house we’ve rented for three months in Savusavu, Fiji, an issue unknown to the owner based on no complaints from prior renters. Also, many vacation homes have renters for only a few days at a time.

On the night we arrived, this past Tuesday, we were exhausted from a long 24 hour period of flurried activity with only five hours sleep in between. On three separate flights, overnight in Sydney, hauling our heavy bags and little food, by the time night fell on Tuesday, we were ready for a good night’s sleep. 

As we wandered through the busy local farmer’s market, open daily, it was hard to decide which vendor to choose for our purchases. We purchased the following for FJD $22, USD $10.12: 2 red bell peppers (also called, capsaicin, here); 6 medium-sized aubergine (eggplant); 3 heads cabbage; and 8 large carrots.

Tom usually stays up an hour longer than I do, so I was the first to fall into bed to read the book on my phone to hopefully lull me off to sleep.  As soon as my head hit the pillow in the darkened room, I knew something was wrong. There was an awful, undefinable smell emanating from the pillows and blankets.

It reminded me of a small one would find in blankets that had been stored in a cupboard for many years, never to be used.  I jumped out of bed, turned on the overhead light, and pulled back the covers. In the dim lighting, I couldn’t see a thing. 

Again, I lay back down but found myself having difficulty breathing. Was I feeling anxious due to lack of sleep?  Not one prone to anxiety, I’d felt a bit panicked and confused. I simply could not allow myself to lay on the pillows. 

These are breadfruit often used in curry dishes, popular in Fiji.

No matter what, in the morning we were asking Mario for four new pillows. If we had to, we’d go out and purchase them ourselves. Again, I got out of bed, grabbed a large bath towel from the bathroom, and wrapped it entirely around one pillow, tossing the second pillow on the floor.

Shortly Tom came to bed. I didn’t want to alarm him to have an effect on his quality of sleep but I did ask him if the pillows smelled funny. He said “no” and lay down, quickly falling asleep. From sheer exhaustion and the help of one Tylenol PM, I finally drifted off, sleeping fitfully for a mere four hours, dreaming I was being bitten by bugs. I was.

Jumping out of bed at 5:00 am, I awoke Tom asking if he was OK. He, too, had a bad night, feeling as if something was crawling on him and awoke several times scratching. 

These are the sizes of the aubergine we purchased. These adjoining bowls contain a variety of hot peppers which I’d love to try but Tom doesn’t care for spicy food. 

We turned on the overhead light when daylight had yet to arrive to find zillions of tiny ants crawling all over the sheets, the blanket, and in and about the four pillows. At that point, we expected they were bedbugs. But, they were visible to the naked eye and looked exactly like miniature ants.

Bolting out of the bedroom, I stripped off my nightshirt and dashed under the shower into the hottest water I could stand. How were we going to wash off the hundreds of nibbles these creatures took on our bodies all night long? Tom showered right after me. 

We worried about everything we’d unpacked, our clothes in the closet, our luggage in the corner of the room, everything we owned possibly subject to an infestation of these tiny ants.

These are some type of sweet potato.

Trying not to overreact, as soon as it was a reasonable hour, I sent Mario an email explaining what had transpired. Our thoughts were running wild. Would we have to move out, find a hotel, lose the entire rent we’d paid for three months if we couldn’t live with the situation? 

Our thoughts ran back to the dreadful first seven days of living outside the US in Belize when the little house had no screens and thousands of no-see-ums (sandflies) were in the house biting me and there was running water only a few hours a day. It took us a week to find another property while we lost the entire first month’s rent when the owner refused to return even a portion to us.

Well, within minutes of my email to Mario, he was at the door, worried and concerned for our well being. Within a few hours, the mattress (it’s common in most countries outside the US that beds don’t have box springs) and all the bedding including the pillows were long gone. The bedroom was treated for ants and completely wiped down with vinegar and water. By noon, a new mattress and all-new, never-used bedding were on the bed, beautifully made, awaiting that night’s much-needed rest.

We haven’t seen an ant since and we both slept like babies for no less than eight hours over the past two nights, awakening both mornings back to our old cheerful selves, full of energy and enthusiasm. 

Coconuts peeled of outer shell were readily available in the market.  If we had a machete, we’d buy a coconut for the delicious meat inside.

Yesterday, we’d called our new driver, Ratness, to take us to town for more shopping when we’d done poorly on the day we arrived in our tired condition, unable to think well enough to find items we needed in the sparsely equipped little market.

Prior to visiting the grocery store, the vegetable market, and the meat market, we stopped at the roughly built Vodafone outdoor hut to buy SIM cards, one for the phone so we can call Ratness to arrange outings and another to enhance the slow wifi in the house, typical for this small island. 

When we couldn’t get the data SIM card, for which we purchased 32 gigs for Fiji $110, USD $50 to work in either of our old hot spots, I spent time online figuring out how to use Tom’s phone as a hot spot (router) when mine was already set up as a phone. Finally, I got it to work but the signal is awful. 

Tom will use the equally slow connection in the house while I’ll use the SIM in his phone, preventing us from having to share the poor signals. Next week Mario will be working on improving the quality of the connection to the house. In the interim, we’re only able to post a few photos each day when today it took over an hour to upload what we’ve shown here.

We weren’t certain of the significance of this tower a vendor was creating.

Yesterday, we shopped at a different grocery store, New World IGA, with much better selections to accommodate the remaining items on the list. We headed back to the meat market for more grass-fed meats and spent considerable time in the fabulous all organic farmer’s market which is open all week where we’ll shop for produce in the future as well.

Back at home by 1 pm, I happily put away the groceries, washed veggies, and prepared most of our dinner. It’s a little odd without the news on in the background keeping us abreast of the latest affairs of the world, but we’ve settled into a nice routine, thoroughly enjoying this wonderful little house, its terrific views, and the sounds of nature. 

With daily maid service and laundry, other than cooking and dishes, we have nothing to do but revel in our new lives as we look forward to exploring this gorgeous location.

So far, we’ve been unable to find cream cheese on this island which I often use in making a sauce for some dishes we make. But, I found funny little tinfoil bags of Marscapone I’ll use instead. Improvise. That’s us.

Tomorrow we’ll be back with photos of our new home and surroundings.

Photo from one year ago today, September 11, 2014:

It was raining most of the day on our 4X4 outing in Iceland. At the end of the countryside tour, we drove through Reykjavik to see downtown. For more details, please click here.