Day 9/65: Monday, March 9, 2020: Suva, Fiji

We finally found a port who would allow us to dock and come ashore. Suva is not a very common tourist stopping point. In fact, our Destination Consultant, Jon Fleming, told us not to have too high of expectations for any of the three ports we will visit in Fiji. Neither Suva, nor our next port Savusavu, were part of our original itinerary. They were both added due to our being landings in both Fakarava (French Polynesia) and Rarotonga (Cook Islands) due to virus fears.

Suva is a large city of 300,000 inhabitants. It is the capital and largest metropolitan city in Fiji. It is on the island of Viti Levu (the main island). Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands of which 110 are permanently inhabited.

Sarah has a scheduled tour, but neither I or Maria have anything scheduled. I intend to just roam around a bit.

Yesterday we crossed the date line and lost a day. Last night we turned back our clocks one additional hour to be on Fiji time. We are now 16 hours ahead of Eastern US time. So at noon (Monday) our time, it will be 8:00 pm yesterday (Sunday) on the US east coast. I actually forgot to set my clocks back, so when I awoke, it was 05:44 am and I thought I had overslept. I hurriedly got dressed and headed to the gym (which opens at 6:00 am), expecting many others to already be there. I was surprised to find the doors to the Salon still closed, but not locked. There was no one else in the gym. It was then that I realized the time was actually 5:00 am. I had a very nice workout in a very peaceful environment. After the gym, I did nine laps on Deck 9, corresponding to one mile, and got some pictures of the sunrise as I lapped the ship.

 

Maria and I walked into Suva around noon. Our first objective was to find lunch. She chose Tiko's Floating Restaurant Suva (https://bestfijiguide.com/tikos-floating-restaurant/). We each had a Kokoda Cocktail (Fiji's version of ceviche, enriched with coconut milk to balance out all the acid). The fish used was Walu (Escolar). It was very good. The main dish was Grilled Prawns and Baby Octopus. The octopus was good, but a bit chewy.

I had a banana daiquiri for desert, while Maria had a Fiji white rum and coke.

Banana daiquiri

We were the only patrons in the restaurant for the two hours we were there. Amelia served us.

Amelia

After lunch, Maria needed to find a place to purchase some socks. To my surprise, she bought some "no see" black socks for me as well, saying she could no longer put up with me wearing white socks with my black running shoes. We also stopped by a shoe store and bought me a new pair of Puma shoes. The treads on my Nike's were essentially gone and I was sliding everywhere.

New Puma's and "no see" socks

We were docked just across from the city bus depot. Lots of activity

So long Suva, Fiji