January and February are supposed to be rainy in Fiji but up until the day we arrived on the Yasawa group for the second time, it had been unusually dry. However, Bernt and I seem to have brought the rain with us because it managed to rain every day we were on these tiny northwesterly islands.

 

A three hour catamaran ride from Port Denarou on the main island brought us to Otto and Fanny's Resort on Tavewa Island in the middle of the Yasawa Island group. The waves were so big that it felt like a giant roller coaster ride the whole way and more than one person got very very seasick. That did prevent me, however, from eating ice cream. I forgot to mention this before, but I've made it a tradition to have one popsicle on each boat trip, mostly because popsicles arent something you can normally get on these islands that are powered sporadically by generators.

 

We chose Otto and Fanny's after the travel agent at the hotel we were staying at warned us against David's Place which is also on the same island. If I had read the Lonely Planet before arriving in Fiji I would already have known that the quality of accommodations at that place could be variable. It turned out that the travel agent was right and Otto and Fanny's was the "luxurious" place to stay on Tavewa. Bernt and I were nearly always the youngest people there, so I assume it attracted a higher end crowd, but you'll have to take "high end" loosely. We were all budget travellers. I was pretty excited to go to O and F's because the food is supposed to be excellent. And it was. The first night we had an entire curry feast cooked by Fanny herself: curry chicken, eggplant and onions, curried pumpkin, roti, rice, and dhal. It was a welcome change from the meager portions I got on my first visit to the islands and I was not alone in thinking so- everyone ate like pigs and looked at  the buffet style serving with wide eyes. Life on those islands for travellers revolves almost solely around food. After breakfast we look forward to lunch, and after that afternoon tea and cake and then dinner. I guess it is the only way to keep time in a place where nothing changes but the tides and the weather.

 

After that first spectacular meal at O and F's, I went into the kitchen and asked Fanny if I could watch her cook dinner the rest of the time I stayed there. She agreed, so on the following day I showed up early to catch the action. I was shooed out of the kitchen several times for being too early (not much else to do there!) and eventually got to learn how to make a rather tasty yellowfin tuna stir fry. The secret is to marinate the tuna in vinegar to get rid of the fishy smell and to firm up the meat so it doesn't disintegrate while being stir-fried. People seriously thought it was chicken, so I guess it works wonders. She also uses baking soda to help veggies retain their color. Secrets of the trade, I guess.

 

While she was cooking, Fanny told me a lot about herself. She met her husband while working in Lautoka, about 20 minutes from Nadi. They moved to the Solomon Islands where she worked in the government headquarters as a chef and caterer. She's cooked for the pope and 14 cardinals and even for the queen herself. Otto and Fanny moved to Tavewa because it is Otto's family estate and they had planned to retire. They started this resort and now Fanny's "retirement" is cooking for 10-20 people every day. She says that she is busier now than she's ever been.

 

Although it poured rain the entire time we were on Tavewa, I still managed to have a good time and not spent it sitting all day under the thatched roof of my bure. Instead, I took the PADI Advanced Open Water certification and occupied myself with diving 2-3 times a day. I even got to go out when all the dives were canceled because I needed to finish my course. The visibility sucked and the waves were a bit large but there were lots of fish to see and it prevented me from getting bored. The PADI course is somewhat of a joke, because I had very little supervision on my 5 themed dives. But at least now I am on my way to becoming a dive instructor, which should guarantee me a few summers at exotic places teaching people how to dive. I saw feather stars from the first time with their graceful feathery vivid yellow and black arms waving in the water. I saw a shark, a rather puny 4-5 foot white tipped reef shark. I saw a really big black and white banded seasnake and a huge crown of thorns starfish and even a parrotfish sleeping in its cocoon of mucous.

 

I should log off now. More later.