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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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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. |