Rainforest on Fiji

Colo-i-Suva

We are into the rainy season and where have been intermittent showers all day as we leave Suva and head up into the rainforest for our last night of this trip.  We climb up out of town, experiencing the usual frustrations of not having a map, one way streets and not being able to see street signs.  The buildings spread out and we pass several embassies and schools.  This does not look like a road into the rainforest but there are not very many roads out of town so this has to be it.  Suddenly all buildings disappear and we are into the rainforest.  Thick trees, lilies and orchids and other colorful flowers growing wild.  Barely 5 miles up the road, there is a cluster of buildings on the left and we have reached our destination, the Colo-I-Suva Rainforest Lodge.  (I never did find out what the name means)  There are only a couple of other cars in the parking lot and very few other guests.  Perfect for us.

It is absolutely stunning.  One of the best places we have stayed, not for luxurious accommodations but for the beauty of the grounds and the way the buildings nestle into the landscape.   There are maybe a dozen cottages scattered around with stone paths connecting them.  Our room is in a lodge with 5 other rooms, 3 to a side.  When we open the door we are looking straight out onto a beautiful lily pond and across to dense forest.  Our room is very bare bones, just a bed, a nightstand, pegs for clothes, a small fridge.  the bathroom is down the hall.  But we almost don't notice the room.  We go straight to the sliding glass doors which take up the whole wall and step out onto the covered porch set over the lake and there we spend the rest of the afternoon, just drinking in the beauty.  It is cloudy, overcast and and cool. when it rains, it comes down in sheets, so dense we cannot see across the pond.  the rain sheets off the roof and gathers along the paths, overflowing the ditches.  It is all perfect.  Between rain showers we wander the grounds admiring at the beautiful flowers

Eventually we head for the dining room, set over the other end of the lily pond.  They offer a fixed price fijian dinner but I opt for the kokoda instead.  this is Fiji’s equivalent of ceviche.  A lovely cold soup made with raw seafood marinated in coconut juice and lime.  Interestingly, the weighted does not like it, and in fact, does not like any fish dishes.  Dinner and breakfast the next morning are goo, not fabulous but certainly good.  Turns out the restaurant has just changed hands after going downhill for several years.  The new owner used to be a chef and is doing his darnedest to turn the place around.  It is beautiful, close to Suve and inexpensive.  If he can improve the kitchen and keep good staff he should be a success.  We wish him well and plan on coming back again next season.  Meanwhile, we will refer all of our friends. 

Next morning we  drive off into the jungle to fine the waterfalls and swimming holes we have heard about.  Once again, the maps we have been given are grossly inadequate but after wandering for a while we finally come to a cleared area that seems to be a parking lot with a trail leading off into the jungle.  It is not raining this morning and as we climb up hill and over roots we are soon hot and sweaty.  Tucked here and there among the trees are benches and small huts that are either bathrooms or changing rooms.    Just about the time I am sure we have taken a wrong turn, we come around a bend in the path and there is a wonderful waterfall spilling down into a deep, wide pool, and below it another and another and possibly more down lower where we cannot see through the trees.  There is not another soul around.  it only takes a minute to shed our clothes and plunge into the cool water.  Once again, we are in paradise.  blue sky between the thick trees, ferns and flowers in every nook and crevice.  It has been “improved” only enough to make it safe with steps carved into the hillside mud and handrails on the steepest parts and a cement dam with a path along the top separating the various pools.  We spend and hour relaxing and enjoying.  We could have spent days but we have to get back home tonight.