Rolling Around in the Mud on Lautoka

It has been a crazy but fun filled three weeks traveling across the Pacific.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to upload photos while on the ship so I’m sending the blog out now with highlights of the ship crossing.  We have seen lovely sunrises and sunsets.

On day 13 of our trip, we crossed the international dateline.  It was really strange because we went from Thursday to Saturday, virtually losing a day of our life.  Pretty weird.  There wasn’t any big “to do” on the ship unless I missed it.

On day 15 we finally made land again in Lautoka, Fiji.  We didn’t make any plans and thought we would hire a cab driver to take us to the thermal mud pools.  Our driver, Songe, was not the most personable character but when we got off the ship, it was like going through a gauntlet of aggressive sales people.  So we finally chose one just to stop being harassed.  Songe drove us around and showed us a few sites before taking us to the thermal mud pools.

The thermal mud pools are natural occurring and according to locals, US military utilized them during WWII.  We first coated ourselves in mud, then we stood in the sun to let it dry.  After the mud dried we went into the first thermal pool to get the majority of the mud off our bodies.

Our final bath was in a large swimming pool that was fed from the thermal spring.

The water temperature was warm but not scalding and none of us wanted to get out – it was like a warm tub.

Songe took us back to the ship and we enjoyed the scenery.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to see a beach today.

It was a fun day but overall I was not impressed with Fiji.