After a 3 hour boat ride…

I’m here:

It’s sooooooo in the middle of nowhere that the weather.com app only knows to call it “South Pacific Ocean”!

I took a boat from Denarau Marine in Nadi to this island in the Yasawa Island chain. It was a three hour boat ride, but it went relatively quickly because of all the stops at the other in-the-middle-of-nowhere islands along the way.

front of resort

The place I’m at is called Mantaray Island Resort because they have huge mantarays that swim close by the beach in front of the resort – when they’re in season, which is May – September. What did I get to see though, was the beautiful coral reef system, just a few feet from the beach and all of it’s inhabitants. I don’t have a go-pro, so no photos, but when I was snorkeling today, I saw coral that was bright electric blue-tipped, RAINBOW fish, clownfish, bright blue and enormous starfish… snorkeling here was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done/seen.

Rainbow fish like this…

blue-tipped coral like this

I got to hike to the very top of the hill and get a great view of the whole island…

view of the beach on the opposite side of the island

More pics from the front of the resort:

Today I did a basket-weaving class! I made a basket, a bracelet and a star (with a little help). The basket is all made from one palm tree branch, all connected. Very cool to see how it was made.

Next up:  A few more days in Fiji, until I’m off to Japan (and a vast change in temperature) on Sunday!