Day 28: Suva, Fiji

Suva was closed, being a Sunday. Not that Princess Lines seems to worry about things like that.
Having a boatload of cashed-up tourists land on a day the shops are closed can’t be good for the local economy. Not that Princess Lines seems to worry about things like that either.
Emma & I have come up with a concept: the local government should charge ten times as much for berthing on a Sunday as they do on a Monday - but come in on a Sunday and stay for the Sunday and the first day is free.
Fortunately we were booked on tour, a walk through the Colo-i-Suva rainforest. Guess why they call it a rainforest…
When we started the guides told us we were lucky, as the day before the rain absolutely bucketed down. The weather was perfect for the first part of the trek.

The path was in much better condition than I expected. The descent was reasonably steep, but virtually the entire path had been terraced, and with ample handrails installed.
A few of our fellow walkers were struggling a bit, including one man who had had a cataract operation two years ago and who had no depth perception. He had real problems in those sections where there weren’t any handrails.
On the one hand I felt a bit sorry for him and some of the others as the information for the tour was rather scanty. On the other hand the description of the walk did have the symbol the indicates “for the adventurous, these are our most active shore excursions”, and I wonder what he was expecting - a monorail ride down with a foot massage at the bottom?

As we got closer to the bottom it began to drizzle. Our guide pointed out that rain was not uncommon in a rainforest, as the name might indicate to the more alert. Nonetheless some of the people began to complain, as tourists often do.

Then the skies really opened up.
Fortunately we had the good sense to remember our portable raincoats. Unfortunately we didn’t actually get around to packing them in our day pack.
Just as we were coming into the lower pools, where we had planned to swim, the rain came down in sheets. Now the intelligent traveller isn’t surprised that you might experience this in a tropical rainforest. However the people who were complaining at the drizzle went into 100% bitching mode at the torrential rain.

Emma and I thought it was brilliant.
However even we weren’t quite as keen as some of our fellows who decided to go for a swim anyhow. Especially the Canadians, but I guess a Canadian who doesn’t like rain is like a Bedouin who can’t stand sand.
Back at the ship we sat on our beloved Deck 7 and waited to sail out. Now the docks in Suva are just near the bus depot, which apparently carries an enormous amount of traffic each day. Being a Sunday a local religious congregation put on a show for the people waiting for a bus: a bit of singing, a bit of dancing, then the local preacher steps up with a bit of Jesus. Then back to the music, the songs, and another round of preaching. Entertainment for us, and they didn’t even hit us with the collection plate.
The rest of the day was unremarkable, although we found out later that the recent political unrest in Fiji things led to some scary moments a few weeks ago. One cruise ship had to send their security people to round up the passengers when Fijians started shooting on the streets of Suva.
So we had docked in a port that had people shooting at each other just a few weeks ago. Not that Princess Lines seems to worry about things like that.