After six days at sea, our next port was Suva, Fiji, our first time in the South Pacific. Suva is the largest city in that part of the world, with a population of approximately 100,000 in the city and nearly 200,000 in the metropolitan area. Even though it is a fairly sizable city, I found it to have almost a friendly small town feel: when walking around, people would notice that we were foreigners and greet us with a friendly “Bula!,” meaning hello but as a very enthusiastic welcome. Delivery truck drivers waived at us while we were walking down the street.
It was very hot and humid, but we took our time walking through the municipal market, walking to the Thurston Gardens and the Fiji Museum. We had a wonderful lunch at the nearby Paridiso-bar in the Suva Lawn Tennis club; niçoise salads with wonderful fresh produce and fresh tuna, and a few beverages – a fresh coconut water and then a glass of Australian Sauvignon Blanc for me, and some local beers for Kevin. After lunch we slowly walked back to the ship.
We spent some time cooling off in and near our favorite pool on the ship before watching us pull out of port. Continuing the small-town feel, a local band played on the pier to send us off.
