Wailotua Snake God Cave

Post-Australia, where I had to venture on my own pretty much everywhere, I was in the mindset to continue taking advantage of more of the cultural things that only Fiji has to offer. After the looong bus ride last weekend back from the airport, I was not excited to go far. Fortunately, my handy dandy Lonely Planet guide book (aka my life...) has been an awesome resource.

I found a place that had been recommended that sounded really cool...it was a cave right behind the Wailotua village just northwest of Korovou (about an hour drive north of Suva). I was ready to just up and jump on the bus...it wasn't until I asked the international office that I didn't quite realize what I was jumping into. Because it's an actual village, it is customary to visit the chief, present a gift of yaqona (kava root) during a formal "sevusevu" (welcoming ceremony), and explain your reason for visiting. That was quite intimidating to hear! I had no clue what to say or how to offer yaqona, I didn't even know where to buy yaqona!

Path to Wailotua

Lo and behold, I got Andrew to join and adventure with me for the day. When Ruci (pronounced Ruthie), the lady at the international office, found out it was just the two of us, she said we could probably get away without doing a formal sevusevu and just politely ask the chief for his permission to enter. It was a little comforting to hear, but I was still pretty nervous for what was about to unfold when we got off the bus.

Sulu'ed up, ready to meet the chief

Chief's house

The whole Wailotua village is centered about the cave, so any visitors are assumed to be journeying to it. Right away, a little boy and his father asked us as we got off the bus if we wanted to see the caves. We were warned to make sure we went to the chief first so we just politely asked for the chief's house. On the walk there, we met a young man named Simon who told us that the chief was actually not home because he was at a funeral! So we didn't even have to ask permission, and Simon right away offered to take us into the cave. After lighting up a kerosene lantern we followed Simon and his two friends, Laps and Fi, to the mouth of the cave.

Pathway to the cave

Another picture of the cave entrance

Simon, Fi, and Laps-great tour guides!

It was sooo cool!!!! Best natural attraction in Fiji so far!! I've visited the Lurray Caverns back home, but unfortunately there are ropes and paths and you can't touch things and in this cave we just felt so free. Andrew and I were trudging through, joking about being in a movie like Indiana Jones or National Treasure. We actually walked through barefoot...slipping over mud, wading through knee deep water, all with this one little light from our guide! Any other situation I would've been scared but I was just on an adrenaline rush the whole time.

Andrew admiring

The formal name of the cave is the Wailotua Snake God Cave. This picture shows the 6 snake heads that the village have adorned and worshipped. (You can see three on the left column). Water is constantly dripping from it and the locals brush their hand under the dripping water each time they pass through. 

Snake God

Exploring in the cave

Of course there were stories about the people who committed crimes back in the day. They were beaten with war clubs inside the caves and left, as well as stories of people who had escaped into the cave.

Writings from the locals

Watch your head!

 The water dripping from the top of the cave is constant, so much that coral had been growing on parts of the ceiling of the cave:

Coral on the ceiling

We also saw a huge open space towards the back of the cave where all the Fijian chiefs gathered back in the day to discuss political issues of Fiji. The locals joked about having kava sessions there today, but the whole ceiling over the open space was just covered with bats! But because the cave is pretty much the backyard of the village, this is the place where even the kids roam around playing hide and seek on a daily basis.

Made it out alive :)

It was so awesome, just an incredible experience being in something so valuable to this village. Tourists come from everywhere to see the cave, but at the time we were the only ones visiting. We gave a donation before we left, but it was a gift that they weren't expecting, they were happy just to show us visitors a little part of their life. The cave is what provides them clean water on a daily basis and they're grateful for the natural resources they have surrounding the village. What a great community of people that we can learn so much from! 

Thank you, Wailotua people!

12 Hour Brisbane Layover

So I'm scheduled to land at 10:20 and the last contact I had with Andrew, a friend from my program who had been staying in Brisbane, had been a few facebook comments throughout the week. He had told me he'd pick me up from the airport; he had been ecstatic over being able to drive again...annd that he was driving on the "wrong" side of the road. To top it all off, he had no cell phone. So I went into this day blindly, knowing the worst that could happen was I'd just chill at the airport all day. Two kids in a new place trying to navigate to each other was enough trouble, haha but eventually I was able to meet up with him, and the first thing we did was visit his sister who is unfortunately in the hospital after being kicked by a horse.

A quick bite to eat in the food court at the local mall and then we both sat there saying what are we going to do...I started by asking what he had done during the week, of which he hadn't visited the city much at all. We were thinking about visiting a place called South Bank, which had a big ferris wheel that overlooked the city. But we got lost in the car too many times so that plan failed. Plan B was to visit Wellington Point, a small peninsula on the southeast part of the city that Andrew had wanted to visit but hadn't gotten the chance.

On the way, there was a place called Redman's Sporting Club...and like naive Americans, we thought it might be a place to play sports or games or something because there were large fields surrounding the facility. Andrew said he had driven past that place everyday so we decided to find out what it actually was. We walk in and there's a small restaurant, a bar, and thousands of slot machines everywhere. Was not expecting that one! I hadn't ever gambled before so I said "when in Brisbane!" I spent $5 and won $6...not too shabby!!

Me at a casino?? What????

Andrew losing money...while I was winning :)

We were definitely not expecting that! And I didn't realize how many senior citizens sat and gambled all day...hey whatever keeps you happy. After that we headed to Wellington Point, which was a wonderful view of the skyline of the city. 

Overlooking the water :)

Wellington Point-beautiful day!

The park area

Andrew enjoying the scenery

After Wellington, we ended up deciding to go bowling...not quite sure where the idea came from but it was great being able to share a beer or two while bowling. Unfortunately, I did lose the first game, but I totally kicked butt the second one!

Bowling shoes are stylish!

cosmic bowling :)

After that, we decided to head back to the ranch that Andrew had been living on the past week, he had helped take care of the horses while he stayed as well. There are around 60 horses...it was a huuge ranch! I got to play with the horses for a bit and meet the owners of the ranch as well as another girl who worked on the ranch. 

Andrew saying goodbye

Racing horse

Noms

Me with one of the female horses

Then we splurged...reason #714 that I'll be broke when I return to America. But we figured it was the best way to say goodbye to Australia!

Yummy!

We were going to need this fuel before embarking on a 16 hour traveling adventure starting at 8pm...it was an incredibly long day of flights and waiting and buses and more waiting. It was a great feeling to get back to my apartment in Suva! Not quite sure what plans are ahead of me at this point...just enjoying life in Suva for the moment...just over 2 weeks until Momma Bisket comes to visit! Can't wait to meet up with Aunt Katherine and Uncle Jim too!!!

Exploring Cairns-Kuranda, Skyrail, and Rainforestation Tour

I had a little bit of time when I returned from the reef before I headed back to Fiji so I looked into doing a day trip that incorporated a lot of what Cairns had to offer all in one. I was looking into doing a Daintree Rainforest tour but I didn't go up quite that far. Instead I did a trip out to the Kuranda Forest.

Another early morning, up and ready to be picked up at 7 but the bus ride was less than an hour. The first place we stopped at was the Rainforestation center. I had been waiting a long time for this! I finally got to hold a koala: 

I also got to stroll around with the kangaroos and wallabies that were just chillin in the walkways. They were used to people feeding them and were very calm around humans. Of course the kangaroos I choose had to be convinced first to hang out with me: 

"Hey you..."

"Look what I got..."

Success!

Most of the other animals were pretty dangerous to be around so they were fenced in: 

cassowary-most dangerous bird in the world...keep your fingers away!

Crikey!

Dingos

Koalas are sweet, but they literally sleep 20 hours a day. We were fortunate to be around when they were awake.

Yes I would love to take you home with me!

With a wallaby

After the Koala and Wildlife Park stop, we had a "Dreamtime Walk". The Pamagirri guide was an aboriginal who shared his culture (and weapon throwing!) with us. 

our tour guide

Learning how to throw a boomerang

The didgeridoo

The didgeridoo is a musical instrument played by the aboriginals. It's pretty much a hollow piece of wood and you use your throat and lips to play it. It sounds very "tribal-y", but if you're good at it, apparently you can play up to an hour without stopping!

Next he showed us the different ways they throw spears, whether to hunt fish, small animals, or larger animals like kangaroos.

For the conclusion of the Dreamtime Walk, we had a nice little performance of some ritual tribal dances. The last dance called for three volunteers, and unluckily I was chosen as one of the three. I was just watching and minding mine own business on the side when one of the dancers pointed at me and literally the whole arena just turned and looked at me. I tried to say no but there was no turning back. One of the girls in my group took some pictures of me on stage so we swapped email addresses, but who knows if I'll ever get them!

After the aboriginal portion, we loaded into an Army Duck boat for the tour through the rainforest via land and water. The vehicle we used was an old WWII vehicle that had wheels to travel on land but was also capable of being driven like a boat once in the water.

The rainforest wasn't as cool as the wildlife park...lots of trees and ferns to point out, but not as many animals. In fact, the only animal we saw was a small lizard.

After the army duck tour, we went into the town of Kuranda, where there are several shops and handicraft and heritage markets. Lots of cool stuff to look at, my favorite were the art shops of canvas paintings or photographs. I also ventured out and ate kangaroo...I felt like I had to try something new! Of all people to run into at the markets, I ran into Alisha and had a great time looking around with her. Fortunately both of our tours finished up around the same time and we were both taking the Skyrail back to Cairns. 

The Skyrail is kind of like a ski lift but it has completely closed in gondolas. While its only 7.5 km, the entire trip takes around 1.5 hours and is like a canopy tour. There are two stops, the Barron Falls station and the Red Peak station before it ends in Cairns. 

Barron Falls station:

 The Red Peak station wasn't as fun...it had been raining all day but the fog really kicked in...so this is what we saw: 

I'm sure there's a red peak in there somewhere??

All in all it was a great experience and I really liked being so high up in the sky, especially when it was getting misty...it gave it a little bit of an element of surprise! That pretty much wraps up everything I did in Cairns! It was definitely a lot of stuff in a little bit of time, but I was able to relax a bit before my flight to Brisbane. Australia in general is a lot like the United States, a little bit more expensive, but same daily life activities so after seeing the reef and seeing the animals, I was ready to head back to Fiji!  Brisbane with Andrew was a fun day but that will be in my next blog post :)