Spinner Dolphins

Hiii, it's been awhile! I meant to catch up this past week while I was on vacation with my family but quickly learned that internet wasn't readily available...so now its time to catch everyone up!

The weekend of April 28-29th, my friends and I journeyed up the east coast to an area called Dawasamu. My Economics of Tourism class had a field trip there over Mid-Semester Break when I had my plans to visit Australia. I thought it would be a neat place to check out for one of our weekend adventures. The reason my professors had chosen this accommodation was that the surrounding 11 villages worked together to maintain the resort; all food was produced or caught locally, the workers all lived in one of the 11 villages,  it was an example of the height of tourism's effect on the local people of Fiji. There are two lodges, the Natalei Ecolodge and Takalana...due to renovation issues, we stayed at the Takalana one.

While my class was there, they did surveys and data collection to explore how tourism had affected the locals; everything had been a positive result. The general feeling was that people were more involved in community meetings (both men and women) and both health and education levels had risen significantly. It was no surprise going into this trip that I knew the locals would be friendly and open, the only night we were there, the whole family who cooked us our meal came and serenaded us on the steps while we ate!

Home for a night

The living room area

Beds w/ mosquito nets

We spent the evening with traditional Fijian entertainment: kava, guitar playing, and a fire. Couldn't have asked for a more peaceful night!

First real bonfire in Fiji

Kava time

Shawn, myself, and Kelly

The other main reason for choosing Takalana was to see the Spinner dolphins in Moon Reef. For as long as the Fijians can remember, this one community of dolphins enters the reef every morning and leaves every evening. Often, there are researchers and marine biologists visiting to study the dolphins and explore their attraction to this one reef. 

The view from our porch

Famous black sand-surprisingly it's really soft!

As with many things, the natives have their own stories and reasonings behind the dolphins' visits. They also believe that the spirits of the elders who have just passed away wait at one of the peaks and are carried out to moon reef on the backs of the dolphins that swim there. 

Ronnie, our tour guide and storyteller

Dolphins!

After our dolphin watching, we hopped in the water to do some snorkeling around Moon Reef. When we returned to the mainland, we traversed the local roughage with one of our new local friends to a very pleasant (but very cold) waterfall. 

Waterfall

Shawn, myself, Kelly, and Andrew

Providing clean water from the man-made dam above it, all of the surrounding villages get their water supply from this one river. We enjoyed cooling off in the river and hanging out for a bit before the trip back home to Suva.