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Poisonous Cannibal Coups
There's a history of trouble in paradise
There are three things Fijians really don't want to talk with visitors about: Poisonous sea snakes, cannibal roots, and the frequent military coups that grab headlines and make it seem like the country is unstable. Islanders who don't want to discuss something are hard to persuade, but as far as I can tell, here's the lowdown:
Poisonous Sea Snakes: The infamous Fijian poisonous sea snakes have very distinctive black and white horizontal rings (like stripes) and grow to about three to four feet in length (though one local said he once saw an anaconda one about six inches around and 12 feet long). If one bites you, you have about two minutes to live, so there really isn't much point in worrying about them. They swim in the ocean and up onto the sand, but the good news is they have very poor eyesight and small mouths of only an inch wide. So unless you have the misfortune of stepping directly on one, it's very, very unlikely a sea snake will chomp you. Understandably, they are more afraid of us than we of them, and I didn't see a single one during my time in Fiji. At Likuliku Lagoon Resort, they said they'd only seen one in six months, which suggests the population is controlled or otherwise discouraged (maybe just by development alone). One local told me that as a child, he used to see them all the time and even pick them up: They are that timid. But that Steve Irwin-type behavior is, and never was, recommended.
Cannibalism: History seems to illustrate that the art of eating your enemies was a very effective method of discouraging colonization. The first European explorers literally sailed for their lives, most infamously, Captain Bligh of The Bounty fame. After he was semi-vindicated in those events, Bligh's life was hardly a picnic. He was sailing in Fiji and managed to find a convenient opening in the reef between the two main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu in order to make a narrow escape from canoes full of angry Fijian warriors. That passage is now called Bligh Water.
Poisonous Sea Snakes: The infamous Fijian poisonous sea snakes have very distinctive black and white horizontal rings (like stripes) and grow to about three to four feet in length (though one local said he once saw an anaconda one about six inches around and 12 feet long). If one bites you, you have about two minutes to live, so there really isn't much point in worrying about them. They swim in the ocean and up onto the sand, but the good news is they have very poor eyesight and small mouths of only an inch wide. So unless you have the misfortune of stepping directly on one, it's very, very unlikely a sea snake will chomp you. Understandably, they are more afraid of us than we of them, and I didn't see a single one during my time in Fiji. At Likuliku Lagoon Resort, they said they'd only seen one in six months, which suggests the population is controlled or otherwise discouraged (maybe just by development alone). One local told me that as a child, he used to see them all the time and even pick them up: They are that timid. But that Steve Irwin-type behavior is, and never was, recommended.
Cannibalism: History seems to illustrate that the art of eating your enemies was a very effective method of discouraging colonization. The first European explorers literally sailed for their lives, most infamously, Captain Bligh of The Bounty fame. After he was semi-vindicated in those events, Bligh's life was hardly a picnic. He was sailing in Fiji and managed to find a convenient opening in the reef between the two main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu in order to make a narrow escape from canoes full of angry Fijian warriors. That passage is now called Bligh Water.
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