December 2, 2018
This is everything a tropical downpour should be – torrential rain complete with lightning. Unbelievably, I slept through this. I’m glad Cyndi got some video. – Rich
Note from Cyndi: Last we wrote we were enjoying a 2-day hotel stay in Suva (see the update at the end of the Watching and Waiting post). This was a godsend in that not only was it especially hot, but we had both caught the flu. Being sick is no fun, but being sick in the heat is even worse; so being able to rest in air conditioning really helped.
Unfortunately the heatwave lasted longer than the stay; so we decided to take the boat back to the coolest place we know in Fiji: Pacific Harbour. It was indeed better, but still pretty hot. Checking Expedia once again, we found another great hotel deal, this time at the Pearl Resort overlooking the marina where our boat is sitting. Still sick with the flu, we opted for a 4-night stay (the deal was just that good).
Now, we’re back on the boat, and it’s finally comfortably cool again. As I write this (Dec 9, 2018) we are still not 100% but are well on the road to recovery. I will note here that what we caught was the Fujian flu (not to be confused with Fijian). It’s a rather nasty bug sweeping the country that seems to be hitting children particularly hard, with deaths in Fiji, the UK and Spain (and those are only what I’ve read about). I read somewhere that when a flu sweeps through a warm area like the tropics, it’s likely to be a particularly hardy and virulent bug in that flu viruses generally prefer cooler temperatures. In conclusion it’s probably worth making the extra effort to get the flu shot this year. –Cyndi
