It is 8pm on Wednesday night now. 4am in NY. In 4 hours it will be Thursday here. Fiji is the first place the next day begins.
It is pitch black here, thin clouds obscuring most stars but Venus is bright using the iPhones night mode.
I am settled on a lounge chair at the waters edge and hear the gentle lapping of wavelets on the rocks and the chirping of insects. Very few mosquitos here. I got one or two bites a few days ago even though rarely put on DEET, even at night (and I am usually a mosquito magnet).
While this IS my last night at “Paradise Taveuni” resort I still have a few more days in Fiji. I am not sure how phone reception will be at next stop though so thought I should do one more post tonight.
This morning’s snorkeling off the dive boat (15 scuba divers and just one other 🤿 besides myself, we get a guide too) was the best yet. We dove at 2 sites for about an hour each time and saw a huge number of fish and corals. Here are just a few of my better GoPro photos.
Puffer FishButterfly FishDCIM101GOPROGOPR3923.JPGParrot FishDCIM101GOPROGOPR3883.JPGDCIM101GOPROGOPR3901.JPGSoldier FishBiggest fish I have seen other than a shark. It was 2-3 feet but shy and swam into cave before I got good photo. Sea Cucumber DCIM101GOPROGOPR3803.JPGDCIM101GOPROGOPR3785.JPGDCIM101GOPROGOPR3774.JPGI was able to identify some of these fish on my own and I used the iNaturalist app on a few others. My friend Jerry identified all the fish in my other snorkeling post but I need to update the post with the names.
The boat ride out and back from reef is a joy in itself. The ocean is soooooo calm. Saw a few birds each time but this morning also had a pod of 🐬 dolphins that followed the boat for a few minutes. I shot some video on phone, will see if I have a view I can screenshot. Was hard to predict where they would jump from each time.
Flipper!Sunrise ride out to the Rainbow Reef. The waves breaking far from shore indicate a reef close to surface. Water so clear!
We got home at around 11:30 and after showering off the salt from my body, clothes and gear…..
Lunch! For the 3rd time I ordered the Fijian Komodo style fish stew. It is ceviche fish with lime juice and coconut milk and some minced veggies! Perfect with the Plantain fries!The sun was heading down as I went for a massage at 5pm in the oceanfront “spa”. There were some kids playing on the rocks of one of the black sand beaches. The building in the background is the local school.Sun was down when massage over.
I had my kindle, a cute companion and good music for dinner.
I finished the great Graham Green novel “Travels with my Aunt” a few days ago. It is about a man my age being shaken out of his boring suburban life by his adventurous old Aunt after his mother dies. Just started an interesting sci-fi book about a colony spaceship with 2000 on board being the 5th generation since the ship left earth 150 years earlier.
Tomorrow I have a 5:30 breakfast and then at 6am am off with a guide/driver to a 4000 foot peak and then all the way to the airport at Northern tip of Island to get picked up to head to an eco-surf resort on a small private island for last 2 nights.
Click to see moreReorienting ourselves. Fiji is closer to New Zealand than Hawaii. There are 2 big islands and then Taveuni is 3rd largest but only 20 miles long. There are a total of 300 islands but only half inhabited. The stars are where I have stayed, worked, etc The star at way top is the tiny airport and the star in middle of island is Devoux Peak.
I got some Fijian money when I checked out after dinner (I had spent my initial $100 Fijian ($50US) at the village on souvenirs. The bills are beautiful. Terri gave me a special $7 bill that was issued when Fiji 🇫🇯 won a gold medal in Rugby 7 at the Olympics.
I looked up what kind of bird was on my $2 coin necklace. Peregrine Falcon.
Many of the coins have Elizabeth on them , Commonwealth… hopefully they don’t start issuing any with King Charles the Turd 💩
So I think I am caught up on the blog. If u didn’t read the one about the medical mission from several days ago please do. That was the reason o came here. I’ll do a comprehensive one about the whole week of surgeries once home of course.
Between breakfast and lunch yesterday I went for a long kayak ride. I was out for over 90 minutes but paused Garmin when I stopped to take photos or just laid back and enjoyed the complete solitude. I saw no other humans until I was almost back and the dive boat was returning to the dock.
On the way out I aimed for an island in the far distance. On the way home I explored the shore, so many cute coves and deserted beaches. When I was asked if I wanted a long or short kayak I said long because the longer the faster. I didn’t realize that long meant a 2-person kayak , so not very fast 🙂
I had hoped to finish up the blog entry at breakfast but only had 3G then at outdoor restaurant. I headed out on the dive boat to snorkel this morning and now as heading back in turned off airplane mode and BINGO , 3 bars LTE a few miles offshore. Best diving of week today! Was very selective in photos as only need so many pictures of same types of fish but saw many new ones today.
I kayaked north for about 35 minutes heading towards an island as sight mark. Total isolation, total quiet except for sound of my paddles.
The sit on top ocean kayaks have no back support and I realized I was much more comfortable just lying all the way back and paddling while recumbent.
Taveuni is on the right (east) and part of Vanua Levu island on left (west)
I got my first sunburn of trip on the kayak. I have been super careful to always swim or snorkel with rash guard and plenty of sunscreen on my calf tattoos (like all fine art, tattoos will fade if exposed to too much sun). But I didn’t put any sunscreen on the front of my legs (I guess as my own kayaks cover my legs in cockpit I wasn’t thinking). In the shower afterwards I noticed the fronts of my lower legs hurt and yes…. Sunburn!
On the way back I hugged the shoreline a few hundred yards out and stopped to take photos of beaches , flowers, etc.
I bought that cool shell necklace at the small village we visited. I landed on this black sand beach to try to get a good photo of the yellow flowers I saw from offshore but it was so sunny the photos don’t do them justice. More flowers 🙂“A three hour tour ….”🎶 and probably TMI but I preferred Mary Ann …There were 3 sailboats, all ? 40-50 feet size, moored off resort. One left yesterday. One is from New Zealand, one is “from” Bozeman, MT (but couple live on it full time now) and other Swiss/Swedish flags.
I did an hour plus snorkeling this morning (Tuesday here although Monday in US) just off the resort. Fish were as spectacular as at the Rainbow Reef that I took the scuba boat to the other day. I got lots of good videos and photos, doing better at not taking too many! GoPro7 battery still had 20% when done. I uploaded my cool short video to Vimeo, it has a smoother upload than WordPress, so u can go to the link. After that is just some of the best unedited photos from this morning. I Will do real movie of all dives combined when at home and have real computer and internet. *** Thanks to Jerry Mingolelli for providing names of the fish ****
Just hit play and smile 🙂Tide was low and amazing reefs just offshore. Amazingly no fish of South Pacific guide in gift shop, lots of Kava but I am not bringing on a plane….This is a Fiji Devil!!!Butterfly FishTomato ClownfishSpiny StarfishGreen ChromisElkhorn CoralStaghorn Coral and Purple TangsSea UrchinTrigger FishGreen ChromisMoorish Idol (from Nemo)Juvenile AngelGroupersTangsGreen ChromisDavididicus Happiest fish !
After the week at Aroha resort for the medical mission I am about 15 miles North at Paradise Resort. It is a big Scuba destination as close to world famous Rainbow Reef and many others. I only snorkel 🤿 but it is wonderful for that also.
I at best get 2 bars of LTE here and sometimes only 3G and no WiFi so not sure how blogging will go but didn’t want my readers to think I had forgotten them.
I had an amazing snorkel day yesterday off the dive boat in the channel between the 2 islands where the reef almost reaches surface at low tide and waves form over it. Will need to edit and sort all GoPro stuff later. May try to add a few photos of this post works and gets published okay.
Here are links to the hour long runs I did today and one morning at Aroha.
Add a comment so I know the links to Relive work. Here they are pretty sluggish.
I am so proud of my kid Alex for doing the Buffalo Half-Marathon today. Sad I could only support them by texting ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ but wait until we run together in November! And ALL their idea.
Great article about these guys. They come from Somoa originally. There is also a rare Bat found only on this island. Bats are the only native mammals in Fiji, everything else came with humans.
Huge colonies live in a few trees at the Garden Island resort where part of our team is staying. We all went there after work last day for drinks and pizza.
Shirt and ink match
The bats hand out in two large trees and one palm tree during day. One of trees is very thick and shaded and those bats are fully tucked and still. But the ones in the sunnier trees were occasionally opening wings , moving to different branch and making loud sounds.
They are VERY big. They weigh 1lb and have a 3 foot wingspan. Compare them to our local NY bats with a weight of less than 1 oz and 10 inch wingspans which are tiny. Don’t worry, they eat fruit, flowers and nectar. About 30 minutes before dusk a few woke up and flew around but then resettled. Just before it go actually dark they starting to take off en masse and fly everywhere, so gorgeous with their giant wings against the colorful sky!
This is a link to a good article about why the population of Fiji is half native pacific-islanders and half of Indian descent. I read a book about the history of Fiji and have been asking patients about their ancestry. Many of Indian descent did not know which part of India their grandparents or great-grandparents came from. The politics here seem to have calmed down after the coups and government changes and new constitutions of the last 20 years.
I have a later starting case today so i got in a 6 mile run (slow pace as always 80 and humid) and a short pool swim. Enjoying some coffee as I listen to the waves lap at the shore.
It is Wednesday in Fiji, 6:30 pm here and 2:30 am in NYC according to the world clock app. I have been having the most amazing time providing anesthesia to women having big gynecological procedures. I knew it would be too busy to blog nightly and will do a proper one starting on Sunday when the Mission is over and I am spending a week at a resort. But I wanted to at least share a few photos of the mission. I have been managing to sneak in an hour of exercise each morning but the rest of each day is working hard and long hours. Dinner is at 7pm so I have 15 minutes to share a little.
Fiji is an 11 hour flight from LA and then we took a SMALL plane to Taveuni island, the 3rd largest of the 300 islands that make up Fiji. Only half of them are inhabited. The hospital has a beautiful view but is very basic. It does no surgery except when Loloma Foundation here for 6 weeks per year. Normally it just does emergency care and obstetrics, anything else requires a ferry trip to the main island.
One of the OR nurses snuck some candids of me today. Very similar to my work at home. Mostly the same drugs as at home except missing some of the newer more expensive ones. The anesthesia machine and manual operation table are the exact ones I used at UC Irvine as a resident in the early 1990s. Muscle memory came right back!The team is great. Mostly it is a group of 4 OB/Gyns from San Diego and nurses who have come here before but not since before Covid. There are also 3 Australian medical students and 2 registrars (residents) from the Fijian Med School on the big Island. There is also a separate outreach group going to villages and doing dental care and routine medical evals. I got out before dark today so walked the 1.5 miles back to our hotel. Met these kids! I gave them some pens (I brought toys, pens and pencils for the patients kids since the whole family comes and stays at the dorm of hospital).There are dogs EVERYWHERE. A few hang out in and around hospital. One came into recovery room the other night 🙂 they will NOT eat any nuts or crackers I offered ? I asked a patient and she explained they only eat meat ! No kibble or biscuits or potato chips for them!
Already 6:45 , off to dinner. Will have a drink since it is my turn to go in late tomorrow at 9:30am as I started the first case yesterday and we have 2 anesthesiologists but only one operating room.
I will probably go for a run and then a short swim/snorkel in the ocean.
With the incredibly frequent dysfunctions of the US air traffic system I felt it prudent to get to L.A. on Wednesday afternoon so as to have NO chance of missing my Friday night flight to Fiji. I have a few hours to chill at hotel before meeting with the mission group at LAX so will do some writing.
I lived in Long Beach from 1990-1994 while doing my Anesthesiology residency at UC Irvine and the Long Beach VAMC. It was a rough period with the Rodney King riots, the Northridge earthquake, some fires, etc. It has been 10 years since I have been here, mostly because once my dad retired to the SF Bay Area my west coast trips were mostly up there.
100 miles from L.A. just desert but near Palm Springs was the 11,000 foot San Gorgonio Mountain.
For such a huge airport, LAX really was very efficient at getting me my luggage and quickly shuttled to Avis. I was supposed to have a “midsized” car but got a funky AWD, plug in Hybrid Jeep.
I elected to stay at a hotel at airport to make it easier to get there for my late night flight. Very nice Homewood Suites.
I chillaxed by the pool for a little while and then caught an hour nap before driving down to Huntington Beach for dinner. Rush hour traffic was as bad as ever. It took 90 minutes to get there but only 45 minutes afterwards to get back without the traffic. I drove past Long Beach and also Bolsa Chica State Park south of Seal Beach where I used to “surf”.
I had forgotten about the amazing water tower house in Huntington Beach.
I can remember going to see a Surfing Contest at the Huntington Beach pier when Kelly Slater was a young newcomer. He is in his 50s now and still competes! Fittingly Ghada chose Duke’s restaurant.
Great decor and perfect view from our table. If you don’t know who Duke Kahanamoku was then you need to read up on him. Born as minor royal before USA eliminated the Hawaiian Kingdom he won gold medals in swimming in three Olympics, popularized surfing in California and acted in films.
My medical school classmate Ghada. I don’t think I have seen her in 30 years. It is not surprising she became a plastic surgeon as she was the most talented artist in our medical school class. It is fun that whether I am in Seattle, Chicago, or Boston or NYC or L.A. I have friends from med school I am still in touch with.Thursday morning I drove (a short 25 minutes) past Marina Del Ray to Venice and parked by the Venice fishing pier. I ran north to the Santa Monica pier and then did a couple of loops. I ran at easy pace and was planning on 10 miles but with all the photo breaks I took it seemed 1:30 running time was enough. It was a little humid but not hot, the “June gloom” marine layer was quite thick for my whole visit, usually not burning off until 2 or 3 in afternoon when it would be sunny finally. Venice was fairly quiet at noon on a cloudy weekday but some of the characters were out, fire juggling, babbling incoherently, selling handmade jewelry and artworks.
While running I listened to Everclear and The Red Hot Chili Peppers on my iPhone. Quintessential L.A. music.
After running out of sidewalk on heading south after out and back I went into Venice a block and saw a sign to the “Canal Path”. I knew that the developer of the Venice neighborhood had planned for Canals but didn’t realize so many were still intact.
Very nice houses, all different styles and so many with gorgeous, fragrant gardens of tropical plants.Yes, I did stop to smell those roses. When I finished back at the Venice Pier there were a few surfers out. The wind was coming from offshore which is bad but I saw a few good rides. In this one the guy got up great and then immediately got wiped out. Last second before tumbling.Friday morning I did an hour on the cycle, my last bike ride for next few weeks. I watched the first episode of the new Keifer Sutherland show “Rabbit Hole” on Paramount+. Enjoyable if unbelievable, but so was “24” years ago.
I drove up to Griffith Park and did a short hike around the Observatory Area. I didn’t have time to go up to Dantes Peak or see the Hollywood sign but the park brought back fond memories of hikes there with my late friend Brian Frisch. I also remember once going to see a Dylan/Santana concert at the Greek Theatre in the park. Santana was great and Dylan awful as he has been every time i have seen him live. I wish he would just lip-synch to the studio versions of his songs like all the pop artist do 🙂
Such a peaceful respite from the TRAFFIC and crowds of L.A.
I was then off, through MORE traffic, to visit my Uncle Lenny and Aunt Harriet. Lenny is my late father’s younger brother.
The Skirball Cultural Center didn’t open until 1995 after I left L.A. It has beautiful architecture and gardens.The permanent exhibit of Jewish cultural history is amazing.The main temporary exhibit was a very comprehensive one about the affect on Hollywood artists and writers during the dark days of the McCarthy era. Ironically I guess the exhibit would be banned by Desantis if a Florida college tried to show it. A smaller exhibit about Krasnow, born in Ukraine in 1902, he came to US at 20, was devastated by the events of WW2 and tried to make bright art afterwards.Lenny is still working in the film industry at 81, Harriet was volunteering at museum but they made her an employee, staying active has them both doing amazingly well physically and mentally. We played tennis last time i saw them 2 years ago in Scottsdale where both their daughters (my only 2 first cousins) live.
Lenny’s IMDB link above does not mention his recent involvement with the amazing “Loving Vincent” which I highly recommend. Hand painted animated Van Gogh story.
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I just finished the audiobook of Tastes Like War, a very difficult but amazing memoir by a Korean-American woman whose mom developed Schizophrenia at 40. The Existentialist book is a quick survey of the Existentialist’s philosophy, lives and influence on the world. I liked it but it is a little deep.Will start these both on the 11 hour plane flight tonight.
