Slippery When Wet

Day #?: I have just lost count.

Last night, you are going to laugh, I walked into our bathroom and saw the biggest gecko I have seen in my life. It was 6 inches long, and as it moved, I could hear the suction cups of his feet unsuck. If it hadn't been so big, I wouldn't have screamed, but it was big and the bathroom is small. I knew he was scared of me and really the only place he had to go was on my head. I made daddy do something.

We rafted the Upper Navua River today. It is a gorge with shear cliffs on either side. As we left the Uprising at 6 am, it was a beautiful day. The sky was a beautiful peach and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We stop at a few spots to pick up a few other rafters, and then headed up to the top of the highest mountain. I must say it is more like a hill at home. The drizzle started at the middle of hill, and by the time, we got to the drop off, or put in, it was POURING. We were wet before we even got into the rafts.

The guides gave us a the obligatory pep talk about rafting, and next the obligatory talk about bathrooms. Dissolution solves pollution was his saying. Or rephrased by him #1 in the water, #2 in the poop bag. I am not sure anyone took him up on that. He also warned us not to drink the water because of the Bulmacow.

We were with another couple from Guam in our raft. Our guide was Joe #1. Here is a shocker, he played rugby, too. All three guides, Joe #1, Joe #2(whose real name is Gus?) and Moses, all came from a village in the mountains set on this river. When the owner, who also owns the rafting company through the Grand Canyon, came to start his company, he went to the village and asked who knows how to raft this river. You see, until the company built them, there were no roads. All the villages had to raft down to sell their taro or get other supplies. Then, since there were no motors at that time, they had to paddle up or find a horse. The jungle is too dense to walk and there are no paths.

He told us many stories about the river. He was a raft guide for the camera rafts for the filming of Anaconda 2. He guided Chuck Norris, Walker Texas Ranger. He even guided Bill Gates, but he didn't take the 2 hour ride up the bumpy roads. He was dropped off and picked up by helicopter. It is the rainy season, and the river gets really really high, about 20 feet higher than when we were on it today. Many guest make it to the put in, and decide they don't want to go down. Last week, there were 16 people going up. Only a boat of 10 came down. The others were too scared and didn't want to come. Joe 1 took a boat full and as the were crashing through the waves, he realized they didn't speak English. As he was yelling, forward, they were just smiling and nodding...and drinking Vodka I might add. 4 of them fell out of the boat. After he picked them up, he learned forward and reverse in Russian:)

The rapids were really exciting and the water was BLUE. You could see the bottom of the river the entire time. And if I didn't point it out, it was raining and raining. By lunch, we were so cold. Odd to say when it was really warm out, but I don't think you can be solidly wet for 2 hours and not be cold. We pulled the boats over and the guides made us lunch. We had sandwiches. I haven't had mayonnaise on anything since we got here. They had mayonnaise, so I glopped in on my sandwich. It wasn't mayonnaise. It was Miracle Whip.

As we continued on, it warmed up and stopped raining. The gorge was so beautiful. You could see the layers deposited over time. At one point, you could see the old coral reefs that had been petrified. Rock on top, rock on bottom and reef in the middle.

As we got back to the village to take the boats out, we saw these great chickens that Loren would love. They didn't have feathers on their heads. The feathers started on their middle neck. At first, I thought it was a sick bird until I saw its chicks. They had the same feather thing goin' on too. It was at this point the guides described a Bulmacow. Apparently, when the settlers came to the islands, they brought cows. The Fijians didn't know what they were, so they asked. The settlers pointed at them, a bull and a cow, and said, "Bull...Cow" The Fijians didn't understand that it was too words, so still today cows are called, "Bullmacow."

The language here is funny. An island spelled Beqa is pronounced Benga. The town Nadi is Nandi. The welcome or Hello is Bula...Mbula.

No more plans for the rest of the week. Daddy might fish. We might go to Suva, the biggest city, and shop and go to the museum. It will hopefully be a bit sunnier so that we can get a tan. Hope all is well. Love you all dearly. And we really miss our girlys! Love to all!