We had been flying for what seemed to be forever. The plane left San Francisco late in the day, and most of the trip was in the dark. No matter, for the vast distance between our West Coast and anywhere
in the Pacific is over water, and there is nothing to see, anyway.
Sometime just before sunrise, the pilot woke everyone up with the announcement we were making our approach to Fiji. As I opened the shade and looked out the window, there they were, the cluster of soft green islands that form this country,
barely discernable in the gathering light..
We landed in Nadi, and a car and driver were waiting for us. We left the airport and drove a long while in the waning darkness Suddenly, we passed a cemetary whose presence was totally unexpected. I took the photograph above,
more to remind me of how startled I was than anything else.
Continuing on, we finally arrived at a beach resort laborously cut out of the surrounding dense forest with great attention and consideration not to alter the countryside any more than absolutely
necessary.
Unlike the feeling you get in Hawaii, the natives in Fiji seem, somehow, more “authentic”. Perhaps this is because once you leave their presence, you are still surrounded by a culture definitely “foreign”
and not American. | 
