The Road Less Traveled : Doing the Tourist Thing

Before I get to my next post, I want to thank all of my readers for their incredible generosity in donating money to Camp Glow and Grow. After only a week of fundraising, we have almost raised all of the money we need. I had tremendous faith in my friends and family, but I am still blown away by the quickness of these donations. I cannot accurately express in words how much it means to me. Some of the donors have emailed me and I have done my best to thank them, but for anyone else who has donated anonymously thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Now on to this weeks subject. While I will not go into too much detail of Katherine’s visit or address anything too personal, we had several experiences so incredible that I would feel negligent if I failed to report them to you, my faithful readers.

After a few days staying at my house, Katherine and I spent two days at a resort in town. I knew the owner, Tai, a little from some interactions we had had in town and I knew his girlfriend relatively well as she is a dentist and comes to my school every week to brush the kids teeth, but I was still incredibly surprised and happy when they invited us to join them for a family reunion and barbecue. Tai’s family from Melbourne was in town and they were planning to take a boat out to the beautiful and uninhabited island of Nuku, which I had never been to before. It is also important to mention that the family was incredibly nice and fun, consisting of several generations of Tongan Australians, and including two professional rugby players, one in Manchester and the other in Tokyo.

30 minutes later, we squeezed into a Tongan boat with 20 of the family members and were on our way. Katherine was dubious at first about the boat, but I convinced her to sit on the top for some fresh air and her first view of the harbor and the islands. Our time at the island was no less spectacular, as we swam, talked, enjoyed a few beers, and feasted on a meal of lamb roasted over an open fire, grilled fish, and breadfruit fries. The island itself was stunning, offering crystal clear water, the most beautiful soft sand I’ve seen in Tonga, and tremendous views of the other islands – Katherine and I counted some 12 in total that we could see just from our one spot.

On the way back, we stopped into Swallows Cave, which I have mentioned before, and swam in this colorful and calm opening in the rock, gaping at the hordes of bats sleeping on the ceiling. I had never swum in the cave before and it was an incredible experience. As I told Katherine when we got back, it was easily the best day I have had in Tonga and one of the best of my life. The setting could not have been better and the company with Katherine and the extremely generous and fun Tongan family was outstanding. And the best part – it was completely spontaneous. There was no planning. We woke up, were invited, went, and were catered to a once in a lifetime experience. It was beautiful.

The next two events might not have been able to top the impromptu family reunion we were invited too, but they were special in their own right. The next day we joined a group of Peace Corps Volunteers and their visiting friends and family on a gorgeous wooden catamaran for a day of sailing and snorkeling. Though we went to some of the same sports as the bbq, neither of us could ever get tired of the spectacular views and the company was again special. This time we snorkeled for this first time on her visit, gazing at an array of underwater life of breathtaking coral, everyone’s favorite clown fish, mesmerizing parrotfish, and so much more that I had no idea how to identify. Finally, for the icing on the cake, on our return to the wharf we were greeted with a school of bottlenose dolphins only yards from the boat. This is an incredibly rare site in Tonga and I had never seen dolphins in the wild before, so my mouth literally dropped to the floor. With their fins slicing through the water eerily like sharks and their playful but sporadic jumps out of the ocean, I could not have asked for a better ending.

For our last adventure, the whole group went to a Spanish tapas restaurant on the island of Tapana. (Tapas on Tapana? I couldn’t make this stuff up) The restaurant is run by a Spanish family from Valencia who has lived in Tonga for over 20 years. We took a taxi to a nearby beach and then hopped on two somewhat sketchy boats to arrive at an island uninhabited except for the restaurant and this one family. It was a surreal experience stepping off the Tongan boat, walking up the steps, and ascending into a tapas restaurant if not fresh out of Spain at least definitely not out of Tonga. There was even a pet goat named Socrates.

The restaurant was as authentic as a restaurant can be in Tonga and the food was exceptional. With total honesty, we consumed the best tapas I have ever eaten and Katherine thoroughly enjoyed it as well (Disclosure: She has photos of all the food in the likely event no one believes how good the food actually was). We gorged on paella, one of my all-time favorite dishes, and a myriad of starters and tapas including gazpacho, croquettes, liver on toasted tortillas, crab on cucumber wedges, tuna tacos, and more that I can barely describe – as you can see fish and Spanish cuisine are my two identifying weak spots. The food was absolutely delicious, the experience novel, and at the end we were regaled with music as the patriarch of the family sang in a confusing mix of Spanish, Tongan, and English while playing the guitar, harmonica, and taking periodic sips of his beer. To repeat the buzzword of this post, it was a special night.

I could continue to discuss all of the adventures we experienced, but then this post would never end and there would be nothing to surprise all of you when you undoubtedly visit me in Tonga (hint, hint). But in all seriousness, Katherine’s visit was truly spectacular and it was absolutely the pick me up I needed to continue to flourish until I am back in the States in December.

Thank you all for reading and enjoy the photos.