Ahoy Matey!

Even before we came to Fiji we had heard about a really exciting adventure outing. This last week we finally got to experience it and it was every bit as great as we had been told!
This is the "Sigatoka River Safari".
The brochure touts that it is "simply unforgettable" and they weren't kidding!

We got on board a custom made jet boat that seats 20 passengers. This boat is very comfortable with padded seating and a very competent Captain. Maybe you have heard of him....

"Captain Jack Sparrow"
(that's what he likes to be called on the boat. He goes by Josh off the boat.)

He was really entertaining and kept us laughing and safe all at the same time. He also shared lots of historical information about the Fijian traditions and customs of village life from days gone by as well as village living today. Lots of things are still the same. The Fijians are very proud of their traditions and their villages and are happy and anxious to share this unique lifestyle. This company has arranged with 24 villages to bring these tours through regularly. They rotate between 12 different villages for 6 months and then switch to another 12 villages for the next 6 months. These villages use this as a mean of earning income that otherwise they would have no other means of acquiring.

Here is the loading dock. There were 2 boats in our group and each boat held 20 passengers. The boats absolutely rip along the top of the water. We guessed we were traveling about 40 miles an hour. They can smoothly travel in as low a level of water as 6 inches which in some places we could tell we were that close. Other places the water was quite deep. It is a very wide river and when it is the rainy season, it can flood and raise up 25 feet.

Traveling up the river felt just like cruising the main channel at Lake Powell!
There are a lot of villages that are situated along the banks and we passed lots of people and animals in and out of the river just living their normal, daily lives.

The scenery was spectacular... lush, green, mountainous along with lots of farming and plantations on both sides. Fijians are about the most friendliest people anywhere so every person we passed waved and everyone on the boat waved back.

There are very strict village standards that anyone and everyone must observe and respect whenever entering a village anywhere. First off, all women must wear a skirt or a sarong as they call them here. The tour provided sarongs for all women on our tour. No women in any Fijian village EVER wears pants and never wears anything that would show anything above her knees. Next, no HATS are allowed to be worn in a village. Only the village Chief can wear a hat. Everyone else is "below" the chief and so to show respect, no one wears a hat.
Our villager guide, the man in the red floral shirt, was helping show the guests how to put on their sarongs.

Here is the Welcome to our Village sign for our hosting village of NAVEYAGO VILLAGE.

We were directed into the Community Center where the locals had prepared a Kava ceremony, a feast and dancing. I counted 22 men, 8 women and about 9 beautiful young children. These sweet kids were really enjoying the festivities. Aren't they just beautiful!

Another longstanding tradition here in Fiji is KAVA drinking. It is the high point of any event in the village. As guests, our group brought a gift of a bundle of kava plants (that was provided by the tour company) that the villagers beat into a dust-like powder, mixed it with water (by hand) and then shared it with anyone that wanted to give it a try using one coconut shell cup. NO THANKS. We passed. Kava drinking is actually quite a problem over here. It honestly looks like dirty water and that is exactly what some of the other guests commented as well. I also heard one person say it felt like having gone to the dentist and gotten a novacaine shot.

Then the feast began!
Another tradition lots of Fijian live by is sitting on the floor so that was continued for this meal. Paul & I have eaten in other villages before and so we were more than willing to let the other guests have the bulk of the dishes. People seemed to really enjoy the dishes. I enjoyed the watermelon and the cucumbers!

After lunch, they cleared up the feast leftovers and dishes and everyone got dancing! It is really fun to go to dances because EVERYONE dances... young, old and in between!
After about 2 hours of visiting, eating, dancing and sharing village customs, we boarded the boat and jetted back down the river.
Captain Jack made sure this would be a memorable experience by doing about 5 or 6 360 degree rotations that ended up drenching all of us in water!
All in all it was a really fun "P" day outing!