Monday, July 16, 2012

Lautoka; for better or worse

We've been anchored at Saweni Beach near
Lautoka for a week now. Here are the pros
and cons of being back in the big city.


Spices at the market

Finally; fresh veggies!

The road to Saweni Beach

Local Rugby at Sunset

Lautoka
 The grocery stores aren't the best for variety or availability but after the isolation of Kadavu, the produce market is great!



There are buses that service the beach, but aren't frequent so we walk the road to the main highway. It's about a mile of country road that reminds me of the midwest in the summer. We really enjoyed getting out for a nice walk, but man, were we dusty when we got back to the boat.

We passed an evening rugby game on the way home. Sweet to see the neighborhood and the locals in their element.

Lautoka is the Sugar City and you can see can it growing everywhere. Unfortunately, the fields are burned after harvesting so the air is full of smoke.  Well, from that and burning garbage. Like all third world big cities, garbage disposal is a problem. The big trucks and busses belch diesel fumes and black smoke pours out of industrial smoke stacks. Our deck is sooty but there's no use cleaning it until after we sail to the next anchorage.

Trucks waiting to drop sugar cane off at the mill


Typical activities on Britannia; drink coffee, play guitar, listen to podcasts, hang out with Piko.


We've enjoyed eating-out and walking through town. It's not all that big or difficult to get around. After only 2 days I think I've seen pretty much all of the main streets and picked up everything we need or want. Krister bought new headphones for playing guitar and I got portable speakers for listening to music at the beach and in the V-berth.

Fully stoked for Indian food







So that's about it. Happy to have the fast internet and all the amenities of town, but also looking forward to getting back to crystal clear water and white sandy beaches.
Perfect!

1 comment:

  1. A bit late but... if you anchor near the big pier, leave your dinghy at the stairs, and walk into town - you can get a very cheap taxi back to the port gate. We did need a 'gate pass' to get in and out but it was no drama from the officialdom there.

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