Cultural immersion villages and tropical animal refuges are to tourists in the South Pacific what cathedrals are in Europe and Buddhist temples are in Thailand. We visited our third cultural immersion village of the trip on March 10, 2026, near Suva, Fiji. This experience had some unique twists, including a village warrior who came onto our bus with a spear and shouted threats, and firewalkers.
The warrior who came onto our bus when we arrived at the village was a scary guy. I could imagine him bashing in a tourist's head and then roasting him and eating him with a special spoon. That was the way intruders were treated in Fiji's old days.
After surviving the scrutiny of our bus visitor, we watched the preparations for the firewalking, as a village elder supervised burning logs into coals and then blessing them. The guide said that firewalking is limited to just a few villages now. As a little girl, I watched a performance of Indian firewalkers in Burma. Our cook, Gopal, was one of the firewalkers and invited us to come. I didn't know cultures in other parts of the world also have that tradition.
Young men spread the coals to prepare them for the ceremony.
The elder signaled that the coals were ready and a young man blew a shell horn.
The firewalkers proceeded over the hot coals, one after another.
Afterwards, the men and women danced and sang, and then we all shared plates of tropical fruit.
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