Dolphins + 80ft waterfall + Shayface = Priceless

So my good friend, Shalyn, came and of course we had some adventures!

Pics from Left to Right: Shay and I at the beachouse hotel, Shay cooking some bad-a muesli pancakes in Steve's 'kitchen'-that's the village style, the 80 ft waterfall we climbed and jumped from!, last 2: as volunteers/visitors experience the beautiful parts of Fiji...it's usually accompanied with the not so beautiful experiences as well.  That first one is a local cure, chew on some mango leaves, for when you have tummy issues aka sick nasty. And the 2nd pic is Shay showing off her tokens of remembrance from Fiji- aka some cuts that got infected but were showing improvement when she left.

So my good friend Shalyn came to visit me recently, and of course, we had an adventure!

I met her at a small Beachouse on the Coral Coast when she first got there, and what did we do on that first day? Flirted with the locals and got them to let us borrow some free snorkel equipment of course! and for 5 american dollars they took us our to a cool spot to snorkel the next day....but on the way we managed to find ourselves in a school of DOLPHINS! it was awesome....they were jumping in and out of the water, one did like 5 spins in the air, and were swimming only 10 feet from the boat. This is random, but I've personally always felt that dolphins are god's 'right-hand-man' creatures. I mean, they're super cool, kill sharks, and save humans. So it was kind of awesome having them all around.

So we went for a good snorkel, saw lots of sea cucumbers, a GIANT Lion fish, and plenty of coral. visibility wasn't that great, but when the sun came out it was great. We had met up with some other PC volunteers, 2 of which went surfing while we were snorkeling. Steve (one of the vol's and also who's village we stayed at) said there was a giant 6 foot bull shark below him while he was surfing. At first I thought,'oh man, that would have sucked for you if you got bit...good thing I wasn't over there'...but then I realized...I wasn't too far from him at all. So thank you sweet Chisu (Jesus) that it didn't head our way.

So after we headed back to Steve's village where I pounded out some tortillas/roti and we made some AMAZING bean and cheese burritos. They were so good, I think I'm going to make them all this week.

Next day: this was the hike from hell but it was worth it. Actually, the hike up to the first waterfall was really nice. Steve's pal from the vil, Saka, was our tour guide and was showing us all kinds of things you can use off the land, my 2 fav things included:

-There was a leafy plant you could use that if you crushed it up and rubbed it in your hands with water, it would produce a bubbly soapy substance that you could use to bathe yourself! (I love planet earth)

-Second, if you realized someone was lost in the woods and needed find them, there was a tree that you could pound with a rock and it makes such a loud noise you could hear it from miles around. I just LOVE Fiji.

So once we reached the first waterfall....ugghhh AMAZINNNNNNNNNNNG! I had never been to waterfall before, and the water felt soooooooo refreshing. We climbed about 15 feet up it and jumped off. I'm pretty sure I minorly voilated by Saka who had to grab my booty to keep me from falling. oh well, I'm alive.

After playing under that waterfall, Steve talked us into trekking up to the 2nd waterfall (without shoes)near his village. 'It's just a 30-40 min trek to it...no biggy, and you probably don't want your shoes...' WRONG. About an hour and a half later, after climbing up the first waterfall/some mega bush hiking and some steep rocky/river climbing, and as my feet were sore from knife walking, we made it to that damn 2nd waterfall. At many points during that climb I found myself thinking, thank gosh that this is my friend with me that's as ballsy as I am as opposed to my mother, who would have immediately ordered me to 'Get the Hell down from there'. (Sorry mom, but it's true) :0)

So lesson for the day is that paradise isn't easy...unless you wear shoes. :0) jk. But we really did have an awesome time, after the hike Saka made some Roro from some coconut milk and ferns we found out in the bush. It was phenomenal and I was glad Shay was getting to do so many Fijian things!

After that, I sadly had to go back to work on that Monday while Shay stayed in Steve's village and got dive certified. Later that week she got a taste of the Hindi flavor where she graciously and happily went with me to do errands, PC office, went to the market (bought some pumpkin), visited my host fam, came to work with me, and even helped me hang my laundry. And we proved to be some pretty good cooks using my make-shift 'oven' (if you'd even call it that) when we made some caramelized onion and pumpkin pizza, and some pretty tasty home-made cinnamon rolls! I seriously had SOOO much fun hanging out with Shay, it was really good to have a friend from home visit!

Ok, sorry if this was super long! I just had such a cool adventure!