A Saturday in Paridise

October 14, 2012

Saturday we were invited to Fatumu to go to the fresh water cave pool! After Saturday class the Nakolo gang, minus Steph plus Wren (from Ha’asini), took yet another amazing Tongan bus ride to Fatumu (the third village down from Nakolo) and met up with Alissa, Mark and Mandy. It was so cool to see another village and how are fellow volunteers are living. We got to see their houses for the first time since drop off, and we got to meet their host families. We hung out with Mark and Alissa’s host family for a while and then they took us (in the back of their pickup) to the cave. It was absolutely amazing- a real natural fresh water pool underneath a cave complete with stalactites and stalemates! We had to walk along a candle lit path before the cave opened up, of course the walk wouldn’t have been so scary, or so dark had I not been an idot and remembered to take off my sunglasses. I felt like we were in the line for the Indian Jones ride at Disneyland except everything was real. The cave opened up about 30 yards into the path and then it was more like we were in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It was so cool we go to jump off the cave walls and into the pool and then the Tongans started doing flips of the rocks to show us up. Mark and I, being the only guys, had to show are man hood by jumping off the highest peek in the cave; the jump must have been around 30 ft and it was from a tiny rock that was jetting out from the main rock formation. It was so awesome we all kept imagining talking about our day casually- what did you do yesterday? Oh, you know just swam in a fresh water pool in a cave nbd… After spending a lot of time in the cave we all went to the beach and just spent a few hours relaxing and enjoying the most beautiful scenery. Tonga would beat Hawaii and any other beach destination in the world, but no one even knows it exists. Since the caves are one of the biggest tourist destinations in Tonga, we got to see other palangies beside Peace Corps. It was my first time seeing other white people since being here, and talking to them was strange! I sounded slow because I was very aware of the speed and my word choice (I am so used to Talking to people who don’t understand English) when conversing with a guy from New Zealand (I kept having to remind myself that English was his first language); he must of thought I was a little off when I tried to explain what the Peace corps was and why we were in Tonga…In the end I realized just how removed the tourist population is from the real Tonga.

Us hitchin' a ride Koni, Katy, Chiara, Una (Mandy's host mom), me, Mark&Alissa's host Bro, Mark, Alissa, Mandy, and Wren

Me being an idiot walking through the cave with sunglasses... A few of us in the pool

Getting ready to jump like a boss Some of the cave's ceiling

Getting ready for the high jump Perfect picture platform.....

The beach we got to hang out on for a bit

On our way back to Nakolo, we stopped back at Mark and Alissa’s and had some fresh watermelon and cookies (provided their host family). As we were toed back we dropped off one of their family members in the bush (their farm) and as he jump off the back of the pickup, he went to the driver and was handed an old shut gun! It was perhaps the most badass thing I have ever seen, us in the back (drinking coconut with straws) seeing this guy hop out of a truck and grab a shotgun (what was he going to shoot?). The day ended well as I was able to skip out of drinking kava and go to bed semi early.

Sunday was nice and slow until the afternoon when Katy, Koni and I hiked through the bush to go to the beach. After we got there our friends Siosi, Pati and New Zealand/Tongan Guy met us with some Tongan homebrew…. Little did I know I would be day drinking on the beach in Tonga…