Well, here I am in Los Angeles International Airport. My backpack is checked, my accommodations are set up for my first night on Fiji, and I'm excited to start this journey! My flight will transpire entirely in darkness. It leaves LA at 9:30pm, local time. And arrives in Fiji at 4:30am (two days later because we cross the International date line). I won't really know I'm in the South Pacific until I've been off the plane for several hours. The plan is to change some money at the airport, then catch a cab to my couchsurf family.
I'm staying a couple named Luisa and Thomas. Just about all of the people who list themselves as having couches available on Fiji call themselves "travel agents". The upside of this will be that I will be able to quickly get a lot of information about what to do while in Fiji. The possible downside is that they may try to convince me to buy tour packages I really don't want. My past experiences with tour packages are generally they are over-priced and over-hyped for the experience they actually deliver. I'm hoping that among the things they suggest will be (relatively inexpensive) nature walks, and/or cultural experiences where I actually get to meet local folks. Their couchsurf listing seemed to imply that the family is really open to chatting and spending time with the surfers. We'll see...
I'm also kind of hoping to be able to meet up with a friend of Rachel Gordon's while I'm on Fiji. She lives in Suva City (the capital of Fiji), about a three or four hour bus ride away. Maybe there will be something fun to do in that area and I will be able to combine doing it with a visit.
We're getting ready to board soon. Wish me luck!
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