Bula!

Fiji was amazing. It was absolutely beautiful there and the Fijians were so friendly. We stayed on four islands in the Yasawas: Kuata, Korovou, Long Beach, and Beachcomber. Each island had a different feel to it and different things to offer. During the trip, we met a ton of interesting people from around the world including people from England, Norway, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Brazil, France, Italy, Holland, and other places I’m sure I have forgotten about.

Kuata is a smaller island where we stayed for our first two nights. The staff / locals there treated us like family and spent a lot of time with us. One of my favorite experiences while there was playing rugby with some of the local guys. At night, we took part in the local tradition and drank Kava. It didn’t really do much; it just gave me a slightly numb tongue and mouth. On our second day at Kuata, we climbed to the top of a small mountain that had incredible views of Kuata and the neighboring islands. 

The next two nights, we stayed at Korovou. It is one of three “resorts” on a stretch of beach on the island of Naviti. It had nicer accommodations and food than Kuata, but the staff and locals were a little more formal and the main beach wasn’t as picturesque. During our second day at Korovou, we hiked to a nicer and more secluded beach. It had some sweet coral reefs that we swam around with goggles.

From there, we went to Long Beach. The scenery there was amazing, but it was also very hot. We spent a good amount of time there avoiding the sun, trying not to worsen our sunburns. We only had one night there, and the day we had to leave I took a trip to the local village. It was a great experience to see how some people live in Fiji. The highlight of the village trip was visiting the school and that was a lot of fun. The kids were a combination of excited and shy, but enjoyed spending some time with us.

We spent our last night in the Yasawas at the Beachcomber Island. It is probably one of the more well known resort islands and has a party atmosphere, in contrast to the laid back styles of the other islands. The island was very small, and I could walk the entire perimeter of it in just about five minutes.