Sunday April 25 - Lautoka, Fiji

Sunday - April 25/2010 - Ship arrived in Lautoka, Fiji, at approximately 8:00 am The port here is very commercial with sugar cane warehouses everywhere. Being Sunday, here in Fiji, everything is closed, everybody goes to church here on a Sunday. We shared a taxi with a couple from Dallas, Texas, and went “on tour” on a broken down car with super host of a cab driver. His name was “Ram”. He made a great tour guide. We stopped at Viseisei village, which is a native village, comprising of a population of 800 with a chief. We were welcomed by the host of the village who gave us a brief tour and dialogue, being Sunday, we heard the whole Methodist church singing - a beautiful sound it was with speakers located in the eaves of the church. From there, Ram drove us to “the Gardens of the Sleeping Giant” a Raymond Burr project. He would be very proud today to see the variety of floral vegetation growing in his gardens - lots of orchids. From there Ram drove us to Nadi where we circled the town and stopped at the Hindu Temple. On the way back to Lautoka, he stopped and bought us watermelon at a roadside stand, excellent juicy fresh watermelon. Watermelon, sugarcane and live chickens are available for sale at roadside stands along the main roads. Arriving back in Lautoka, we went to Jack’s department store, which is the only store open here today. Jack’s has a free shuttle service that operates from their store to the ships, very interesting.