[Fiji] Chapter LI: In which we visit Suva without actually seeing it

From Taveuni we flew to Suva, Fiji's capital --- except that the airport was not in Suva, but rather near Nausori, a town about 20 km away from Suva. From the airport we were picked up by the owner of the homestay we had booked in Suva --- except that the homestay was not in Suva, but rather near Navatuvula, a village also about 20 km away from Suva (in another direction).

Unlike the other so-called homestays we had stayed in before (e.g. in Vietnam), which were essentially just regular family-run guesthouses, this homestay was the real deal. We got a room in the family's house (most probably the owners' own bedroom), we joined the younger generation when they went out to swim in the nearby river, we used the washer-dryer to do our laundry, we ate two home-cooked vegetarian dinners (one Indian, one Fijian) with the owners, N talked a whole lot with them, and together we experienced the heat, the humidity, and the mosquitoes. It turned out that they had just set up their Airbnb account days earlier and that we were their first guests; it also turned out that they had visited Israel four years ago (for five weeks!) when the husband, a Fijian UN soldier, was stationed in Sinai.

On our second day in not-really-Suva, we visited Suva's famous nature reserve, the Colo-i-Suva Forest Park --- except that the park was not in Suva, but rather near Colo-i-Suva, a village about 10 km away from Suva.

The park itself was a beautiful forest filled with tropical trees and plants, narrow meandering rivulets, small rushing waterfalls, and refreshingly cold natural pools. And we had it almost entirely to ourselves throughout, as we hiked its trails and swam its pools, except near the lower pools, where we met an organised group from a round-the-world-in-four-months cruise ship (hey, K!).

Only when we came to leave Suva, by bus, for Nadi (where we stayed overnight --- again without seeing much of it --- in order to catch an early morning ferry to the Yasawa islands on the western edge of Fiji) did we actually catch a glimpse of Suva, or rather of its central bus station. And that would have to suffice.

Accommodations:
- Fane's Airbnb rural homestay near Navatuvula, on the outskirts of Suva (2 nights; nice and friendly, but overrun by bloodthirsty mosquitoes)
- Preti's Airbnb room on Queens Road near Korovuto, on the outskirts of Nadi (1 night; not good at all and very noisy)

Photo captions: (a-g) views from the Matei-to-Suva plane; (h-i) the river near our homestay; (j-r) Colo-i-Suva Forest Park