Fiji
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The World Mangrove Atlas: Hope Amid Despair
August 20, 2010 by Danielle Nierenberg
By Daniel Kandy
The World Mangrove Atlas revealed some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the loss of mangroves has slowed to 0.7 percent annually. The bad news is that that rate is still three to four times higher than the loss rate of land-based forest and one fifth of all of the world’s mangroves are thought to have been lost in the past three decades. Of the world’s original mangrove forest area, estimated at 80 million acres, less than 37 million acres of mangroves now remain.
Mangrove forests are home to an abundant variety of tropical fish, birds, reptiles, crustaceans and insects, as well as thousands of species of flora, and human populations who depend on the mangroves for their livelihoods. (Photo: Flickr Commons)
Mangrove forests exist in tropical and sub-tropical regions, with Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Nigeria, and Mexico having the largest total area of mangroves. 2010 is the United Nation’s International Year of Biodiversity and there have been some positive developments in mangrove conservation. There are 1,200 protected areas in places like the…
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Blogsherpa Blog Carnival: Kids Around the World
July 15, 2010 by Glennia Campbell
I’m hosting the Lonely Planet Blogsherpa Blog Carnival this time around, and our theme this week is Kids Around the World. I asked my fellow Blogsherpas to write about taking their kids on trips or meeting kids while traveling. I got some amazing stories from top bloggers and photographers from around the world. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage, and take a little trip around the world with me now, and meet some great kids (and bloggers) along the way…
Planning a trip to Spain with your kids? Jennifer at the delightful Orange Polka Dot offers some sage advice on traveling with kids or teens. In Spain, don’t be surprised if you spot kids drinking something that looks like wine, either a few sips from mom or dad’s glass, or a finger of wine in a glass of La Casera (soda water). Jennifer speculates that maybe it is a bottle that is just their size that delights them. Be forewarned that in Europe, wine does not carry the same taboo for youngsters that it does in the United
Fiji Navidad
December 30, 2009 by Geoff Edwards
My eldest and his wife own and run Naia, one of the top luxury dive boats operating today.
Good for them, but bad for me; they live in Fiji. I seldom get to see my eldest grandkids, Wrenn and Brigg. But wait, there’s more. The entire family decided to go to Fiji for Christmas. That includes my daughter, her husband, and daughter from Portland, Oregon, and Rona, a 16-year-old exchange student from Germany; my next in line, Chess, from near San Diego; even my former wife.
The Portland group arrived in Canyon Country (near LA). It seems their hired van did not show up, and they were lucky to get to the Portland airport. It was raining there. That being said, they arrived at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank in good shape. It was raining.
It is summer in Fiji, and with only a week’s notice the government decided DST was a grand idea. The problem? Nobody was quite ready, and Air Pacific had to adjust schedules quickly. When we arrived in Fiji, the cell phones still weren’t updated to the correct time. Good for us, though, as our flight left earlier than expected.
Tom Bradley International…
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The Fijian Heart
July 16, 2008 by Renee Blodgett
Fijians are a joy to shoot, particularly the children and because the islands are so diverse, everyone learns and speaks flawless English. While religious beliefs are also diverse, the attitude follows the same core. This culture gets gratitude in a way the west seems to be losing.
They constantly think of others needs before their own and they smile often. So, if you’re not in a good mood when you wake up in the morning, their contagious smiles and energy ensures that you don’t remain that way for long.
Oh Those Tropical Sounds
July 12, 2008 by Renee Blodgett
Still in Fiji, I open my eyes to a lizard on a pillar near my bed. He’s rather low I think. Okay, so he’s not a lizard. He’s one of those geckos that used to plague my ceilings and walls when I lived in Florida, Arizona, Australia, South Africa, Kenya, Greece. They’re everywhere, following me to every tropical destination.
While I know that they’re not only harmless but eat other insects I don’t necessarily want to wake up with, my heart still jumps quietly whenever I see one, even the small ones.
There’s another one scrambling up my thatched door. The windows have those wooden slats that close using a side latch and behind them, screens. Screens always have small holes though and geckos aren’t the only creatures to get in.
You’d think with the amount of third world countries I’ve traveled to and lived in, I’d be far far beyond a heart skip from a gecko on the wall. I always used to think that moving to California would make me soft – and forget – and perhaps it has.
I do find it hard to write there for some odd reason. “No edge,” someone once told…
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Fiji Recalls the Strongest of Senses
July 5, 2008 by Renee Blodgett
This past week, I returned to Fiji’s magical aura. After soaking up as much humidity and sun my body could take in a cafe at the far end of Savu Savu’s dusty town, I followed the main drag by foot in the direction I had come by taxi some six or so hours earlier.
I tried to retrace my steps from six years ago (was it six years, five or was it seven?), the last time I sat foot on this road, then with two kiwi men in their late thirties I met at the local Yacht Club, which I discovered by accident. I learned very early on that it was a hub for visitors from around the world, largely return visitors who were either captaining a boat, sailing their own or here on business from down under.
My two new friends fell into the latter category and were well baked into the local politics. No surprise given that their work was a mishmash of commercial real estate, construction and solar if I recall correctly. We never kept in touch after I left the islands or perhaps we did for a month or two.
It’s not as if I spent…
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