We spent many hours during the first three months of this cruising season on the east side of Fiji documenting the beautiful, strong faces of our friends in Fulunga. These faces have so much character and speak to a life most of us have never dreamed of. Their faces tell of the hard work that subsistence living is. And they tell of the fun and laughter that can be shared by all ages. We love these faces.

Now, as the season winds down, we’ve been in a different kind of place. We have spent the last few weeks enjoying the Yasawas on the west side of Fiji.. The Yasawas are the tourist destination that most people experience when they visit Fiji. There are soft sand beaches lined with coconut palms in beautiful cool lagoons. And there are resorts. That’s a face of Fiji we had not really encountered this year. But an evening on a sand beach with fancy cocktails as we watch the sun slip into the ocean behind Charisma has some charm to it also. Just very different.

And today we encountered another face of Fiji. This one is the face that gets the tourists to and from Fiji. We motored back from the Yasawas starting bright and early this morning with anchors up at 6 AM. Ouch. But the timing was perfect in retrospect. As we left Liku Liku Bay, dark rain clouds were rolling that way. They missed us. As we got in sight of the big island of Viti Levu rain clouds headed toward us and veered off. Spared again. A giant sea turtle floated by unbothered by our engine noise. And we dropped anchor at noon in a bay just off the airport.

The airport is very busy. International jets, small island hoppers, helicopters and seaplanes are buzzing over head. I guess the tourists that don’t sail have to get here somehow. And to get into this bay we passed by several large freighters waiting to pull into Lautoka to offload their cargo. Yep, it’s the transportation face of Fiji.

Rumor has it that there is a pub in the two story building on shore. With Orcinius we are going to brave a whole new world and check it out for dinner. I bet we will meet some friendly faces.