Getting from the door of my apartment in Germany to the door of my hotel room in Fiji took 38.5 hours. That includes one 2-hour train, two 10-hour flights, one 6-hour layover, four 2-hour movies, three glasses of free wine, and one complete inability to sleep on planes. I decided to recover from the jet-lag in the Mamanuca island chain off the west coast of the main island of Fiji.

The Mamanuca islands are a favorite amongst tourists, bringing to Fiji the heftiest portion of income from foreign dollars. It is said that “the sun always shines on the magical Mananucas” because there is little semblance here to what life in Fiji is really like and the harsh realities experienced by most Fijians. This became so much clearer to me as my experience continued.

The sun was definitely shining today, that’s for sure. It was a really beautiful day.

I spent the day on a tiny little island that required only about 5 minutes to walk all the way around.

After lunch, there was a bit of culture with traditional singing and dancing.

I did some exploring of the waters around the island, and unfortunately saw signs of a very unhealthy reef-system. Sometimes I wish I hadn’t have spent so many years studying marine ecosystems, because ignorance really would have been bliss in this case.

The damage that un-managed tourism can do.

To end the day, I rode the boat around some of the other Mamanuca islands. Most notably was the island of Monuriki, where Castaway was filmed. Do not, however, get this confused with Castaway Island, which has nothing to do with Tom Hanks and Wilson.

Monuriki

Alright, time to get to what this trip is really all about…work!