Samoa

We arrived in Apia, the Samoan capital in the wee hours of Wednesday morning and were met by our transfer 'team', three big Samoan guys had been sent to pick us and another couple up from the airport to take us to our accommodation. We watched the sun come up as we passed sleepy villages and packed local buses of various vibrant colour schemes on the nearly two hour trip across the island to the Taufua Beach Fales (pronounced: fa-lays). Each fale was basically a raised platform with a roof and tarpaulin sides to keep the rain out. There was enough room in ours for a pair of single mattresses and our gear. Mosquito net was provided but thanks to the 98% DEET we'd brought with us we didn't suffer at all from bites!.

We had arrived at the beach in time for breakfast which was not only good food but a lot of fun too. All eighty odd guests sit down to breakfast and dinner together each day at two long tables to share the great food that is swiftly brought to the tables by the owners family members and other local villagers. We made some great new friends during these shared meal times and I think they are an awesome idea to help mingle with other like-minded travellers.

Although basic and a touch close together, the fales were right on the best beach of Samoa! The snorkelling was up there with some of the best sites we've ever had the pleasure of swimming. The coral was alive and well thanks to no boat use of the beach and there was an abundance of marine life much of which was new to us. We saw to name but a few; angel fish, parrot fish (blue and green varieties), blue starfish, plaice, black and white clown fish and plenty of others which we need to Google!

Each day at the beach was spent in a similar fashion along the lines of: eat breakfast, apply sunscreen, wait for high tide, snorkel for a while, snooze, snack, snorkel some more, read, shower, pre-dinner happy hour drinks with friends, dinner, more drinks, bed. Rinse and repeat for 4 days and you don't want to leave when the time comes. So much so we extended an extra day at the expense of seeing a bit more of Apia. We had a great time at Taufua Beach Fales and were very sorry to have to leave.