Study Abroad: Opening Doors For New Experiences

By Victoria Robertson on January 20, 2015

My study abroad experience has been nothing short of amazing, and I’m not even a week in yet. Since arriving, I have held multiple new animals, participated in things I never saw myself doing and ultimately learned more than I would ever have thought.

Just the other day, my class took a tour of the Kula Eco Park, an environment dedicated to preserving the natural habitats of animals as well as a specific interest in saving and breeding endangered species.

Before even beginning the tour, we were invited to hold a multitude of reptiles and pose for pictures with them.

During this time, I held a somewhat small snake by the name of Wendy. However, while I was holding her, she laid an egg. It fell immediately to the floor and broke, at which point I handed the snake back to a guide, but to be able to watch the situation play out in front of me in this way was absolutely unique.

I mean, who can say they’ve seen a snake lay an egg before? If so, who was holding the snake while it did it?

On a side note, R.I.P. unborn baby snake. I wish it didn’t have to end that way.

Of the three snakes we were shown I was able to hold two of them, although I found the second a bit more intimidating. This was a small brown snake who has a name I don’t recall. But either way, this snake would quickly wrap itself around my wrist and constrict, and its head pushed down on my fingers.

But it didn’t do any damage, so I guess I’m alright.

The final animals were all iguanas, of which the Kula Eco Park is working on breeding. Originally, the crested iguana was home to a Fijian island that became overpopulated with goats and eventually the food sources for the iguana disappeared leading to their eventual endangerment.

The Kula Eco Park moved in to save these animals, bringing about 20 back to the park and breeding them. Since their rescue from the island, their numbers have drastically increased in size at about 250 percent.

By the end of this year, the park hopes to release some of the iguanas back to the cleaned up, goat-free land they came from.

While talking with our tour guide, we learned the government isn’t actually funding the Eco Park, and instead investors (typically tourists/visitors of the park) are the ones keeping it running.

However, the Eco Park still works to educate its tourists as well as its students, as they are frequently participating in school field trips for Fijian children around 11-13 years old.

So even in the government’s ignorance to the situation at hand, the Kula Eco Park makes the best of the situation and strives forward with their preservation practices.

Immediately following this trip, the group took a guided kayak tour with Rivers Fiji.

My expectations were high going into this excursion, and for them not only to be met, but to also be far exceeded was something I wasn’t expecting in the least.

While I’ve been kayaking before, never was I at a location so beautiful. Everywhere you looked there was a waterfall, a cloudless blue sky and endless greenery. Think of the most beautiful place you’ve ever been and imagine there’s something even better. That’s how beautiful it was.

Not only was the scenery a compelling argument for this tourist attraction, but also the hike through the forest to one of the biggest, strongest waterfalls I’ve ever seen.

The hike was treacherous, taking down several group members one at a time, but the end result was so worth it.

After taking a few photos from afar, we were able to move in on the waterfall and actually walk up to it. Normally, Rivers Fiji tour guides would lead us through it, but the current was unsafe to do so, and we instead made our way as close as we could without falling.

Back in the states, this is something that would never be completed on a tour simply for the liability reasons, and to be able to participate in this was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

During this kayaking tour we were also able to communicate with the locals, mostly children. They would run down from their houses to the river just to yell “Bula!” (Fijian for “Hello!”). Some would swim by on bamboo and others would jump off of cliffs that didn’t look at all safe. Locals were cooling off their horses in the river, and after the group ate lunch, they finished off the leftovers as well.

Through both of these experiences, I’ve done things I never thought imaginable and learned far more about the Fijian culture and values than I ever could have learned back home.

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format