Nananu i Ra

Leslie and I took our first weekend leave last week to go to the nearby island of Nananu i Ra. We spent two days on the island, and one night in the hotel. The owner of Safari Lodge gave us a pretty good deal on the room so we are likely to go back there. The weather was pretty windy the whole time we were on the island. One of the guests at Safari Lodge was taking kiteboarding lessons and was absolutely loving the wind. It is pretty impressive how fast you can go on those things. I really would love to give it a try but it is a pretty expensive hobby. At this point the last thing I need is something else to spend money on. Leslie and I did our best not to spend money on the island. Instead of going kitesurfing we walked partway around the island and did a bit of snorkeling. At one point, as we were hiking around a rocky cliff that jutted into the sea we saw a large brown eel devouring a crab. The crab seemed way too big for the eel, but the eel managed to get it down its throat by means of a lot of writhing and flopping around. They eat these eels here, although I have not yet tried it.
This Friday all the Peace Corps volunteers in Fiji will be meeting in Nadi. We will have a few days of training and a big party. I am really looking forward to it. After the big gathering the environmental volunteers will be headed to the Coral Coast to learn about coral farming. Coral Farming is basically a way for communities to make cash while taking pressure off of the coral reefs. They grow the coral on iron grating near the shore and sell it in tourist shops. This keeps them from harvesting to coral on the actual reefs.
A couple of weeks ago I went scuba diving again. Leslie and I walked to Volivoli beach first thing in the morning and went out with Ra divers. The first dive we did that day ranks as one of the best dives I have ever done. We saw three sharks: a blacktip reef shark, a graytip reef shark, and a bull shark. The bull shark was probably 10 or 12 feet and came within about 20 feet of us. It was quite an experience.