We arrived in Suva, Fiji and were greeted by a beautiful day. Almost immediately off the ship we were met by people selling tours around the area. This was nothing new, but it was particularly extreme here. “We’ll take you for an hour for $20 a person…” “I’ll do it for $15.” “I’ll do it for $10!” “Don’t go with him. He’s a cheat and isn’t insured.” “Come with me, my car has air conditioning!” “Don’t go with him, I’ll take you for two hours!” It was quite overwhelming, but also a good chance for the boys to see this sort of thing and see haggling in practice. We finally chose somebody to go with and that turned into a debacle as none of our money ‘worked’ for her because it had been folded or was slightly worn at the edges. She said that the bank wouldn’t accept it so she needed other money. Well, we only had what we had. When she finally agreed that our money would ‘work’ she proceeded to show us the car and was about to climb in back with us while he husband drove us. Note: This was not a big car. It would have been me, Matthew, Ryan, and a strange lady in the back of a tiny car. Nope. We may love each other but possibly not that much! 😉

As we were leaving to just go walk around instead of deal with the hassle of a car, an Indian guy came up and offered a good deal. We took it. He assured us he was the driver and the guide, and proceeded to tell us how he was insured, had been doing this for fifty years, and we only paid if we were happy in the end. (Of course we were going to pay, but the point is we liked him.) And he had no problem with wrinkly money, so there’s that too. So he, Fred, became our tour guy for the day.

Quick aside – the guy in Samoa who drove us around also said his name was Fred. We’re wondering if there is a YouTube tutorial that tells people how to drive people around from ports and suggests they make up a generic American name, like ‘Fred’ and they both saw the video. Just strange to have two ‘Freds’ back-to-back.

Anyway, Fred took us all over the area, talking the entire time. He showed us the more developed areas as well as the more rundown areas. He talked about the Chinese farmers and how hard they worked, the dangers of kava (the mildly narcotic and sedative drink made from the crushed root of yaqona, also called ‘grog’) and how it makes you sleepy and lazy, and the difference between the freehold land (that can be purchased by non-natives) and the native lands. It was easy to see the difference between the different lands as we drove along.

Fred drove purposefully slowly so we could capture photos when we wanted, and he would pull over at various spots so we could get some images of the land from up high.

We were even greeted by a local dog, to which the mom in me came out as I reminded the boys that we don’t pet the stray dogs… no matter how cute they are and how fast their tails are wagging!

We saw water and waterfalls, among other stunning views.

After a more scenic (and educational) drive, we drove in the city a bit, seeing the bustling side of Suva. We saw SO many kids in their school uniforms. We also saw a cool guard on duty.

At the conclusion of our tour around, Fred dropped us outside of a handicrafts market to do a little perusing of local merchandise. Ryan bought a neat little mask.

At that point, we headed back to the ship, happy with our time in Fiji.