The day was perfect. The sun was up, the water was warm and we spent some time exploring the sandbar and waters around it.

That is Sharmila swimming up from the boat to the sandbar opposite Mana island. Both of us need to learn swimming. We had a life vest, a noodle and a guide who helped us along!

It did not help that when I jumped into the water, I realized that when the guide estimated about 2-3 feet of water depth (I had asked him), he actually mixed up his units. It was 2-3 meters!

The waters, as you can see was incredible!

Today is the day we will spend in the water. The plan is to go visit some islands and check out the water. In one of the islands, we will also have Fijian food cooked the traditional style.

We went past this island – Malamala. This is one of the many tourist resort islands in this area. If you squint your eye, you may be able to see folks getting off the boat and queuing up to check into the resort.

One of the audience members were chosen as the chief!

The Fijians take their kava making very seriously. Some major songs and chantings accompanied the procedure.

Remember how our food in the Jordan deserts were cooked underground. Pretty much the same concept here! A fire was lit in a hole and then that heated up the stones. The fire was removed and soft tree pulps were put on the stones so that the food did not get burnet. Finally, all food were wrapped in individual leaves to keep them moist. We had potatoes, cassava, chicken, fish, eggplant and some local vegetables.

It is a fairly primitive one where the fish comes in from the large mouth of the cone and then gets trapped in the front. For this to work, you have to rely on the fish not being smart enough to swim backwards. And apparently, they are not!