Paradise

3/18/2012 - Sigatoka, Fiji

In Sigatoka, children are a reminder of how fascinating nature is. Eyes widen as waves sweep friendly translucent purple jellyfish past wading children, bubbly seaweed tickling ankles. A single outstretched arm, tiny finger aimed at the clear water, causes shrieks while everyone hops from foot to foot, obscuring the brightly striped snake in clouds of white sand. The luckiest one picks up an iridescent shell resting against a coral fragment to discover that it has dangling legs. In one second, there's no one there; the hermit crab is being transported for display via 7-year old sprint.

I will never lose my youthful awe when it comes to the night sky. During a late-night swim with Susan and Jason, I spent a long time on my own, staring up at the sky, whispering "wow" to myself over and over. The Milky Way glows from horizon to horizon, more brightly than I've ever seen. The stars shine white, yellow, orange and blue. Around me, silver fish leaped in and out of the water like miniature dolphins, sometimes three or four times in a row. Peter told us we would see starfish too, but we were not so lucky.

Back at the pool, Jason spotted a large crab hanging on to the pool wall for its life, trying to avoid a chlorinated destiny. He pointed it out to our server, who brought a bucket over for him. The crab was too quick, scuttling into a crevice. Giving up, he stood upright and turned to the server, who smiled, leaned down, and picked it up, dropping it into the bucket, plunk.

Most of us on the trip have found a night to stay out and I don't think I could have picked a better one. We hung out on lawn chairs along the beach until 7am in the morning, when the sky was full of streaky pastel clouds.