BULA!! (hello!!)This is the first time ive had internet access so this will be a brief catch up on base life for the past week!!
Life on the base is VERY basic on the Yasawa Islands GVI base - we had no running water or electricity for the first 4 days as the generator broke. we are 5 hours from mainland, so EVERYTHING has to be bought in by boat. We have no fresh fruit or veges so live on pasta, rice, potatoes...etc. All a bit boring but we ARE in the most beautiful place on the planet - as far as i can tell! The water is Cayman Islands crystal clear, the fish life is not so abundant, but the corals are STUNNING - every colour of the rainbow and it just blows my mind everytime I get under the water. Fiji is known as the soft coral capital of the world - and I can see why!! Words cannot describe its underwater beauty and majesty. It leaves me breathless. If youve seen Finding Nemo, you've seen Fiji at 20ft!!
Our volunteer crew of 25 have taken a 10min boat ride to another island in the Yasawa Island chain and are staying at a resort called the Coral View for this weekend - it has power (woop woop!), running water (another woop woop!) and fresh fruit and vege - SUCH luxuries! We are all still staying in a dorm, but we are all sooooo thrilled to be here - its a piece of heaven! Sun is out, water crystal clear, COLD beer (yet another woop woop!) and we can all finally charge our phones, iPads, Laptops, etc. The base is much more basic than my Galapagos project, but it is what it is, and we are all coping fine. The volunteer group are great - loads of different nationalities, personalities and aspirations - some phenomenal peeps here.
Life can get pretty tough with no running water - we have a well and a filter on one of our fresh water tanks, so its all about lugging water all over the base, filling the toilet cistern for flushing (now THAT aint fun), trying to avoid the mud during rainy moments, then of course there are the mossies - they are HUGE here and love me to bits, so im always covered in some kind of repellent. There are 3 projects currently being run from this GVI base - education (volunteers teaching in local schools), construction (helping install fresh water tanks and filters), and marine which is me. My first week is over, but Im STILL not done with my training. I need to be able to 100% accurately identify all benthic, invertebrate and fish life forms before I can start the actual underwater surveying. Im well ahead of schedule apparently, but as always, Im impatient to get going on the ACTUAL work. We dive twice a day at the moment, with all dives so far being educational point out dives, so I can start to identify all the life forms on our specially designed list. The diving here is phenomenal. The visibility could be better, but as there has been recent flooding, the runoff ends up in the sea, ergo crappy vis.
Fijians are an amazing, friendly, happy, kind, considerate race of people - always smiling and loving life, no matter the difficulties - we could all learn a LOT from them.
I know this is short, but thats it for now. Others need to use the ONE computer at the resort, and as there is no wi-fi, there is no skyping - boo.
Loads of love from the Yasawas in Fiji!!
XX
