There’s nothing more relaxing than a day at Beqa Island. Located across the bay from Fiji’s main island Viti Levu, this tranquil oasis has about 3,000 inhabitants spread across nine villages… yes, nine. The native people here are known for their fire-walking skills, however, that wasn’t on our list of things to do on this day. If you’ve seen my earlier post, than you’ll know we arrived to Beqa Island by way of a European Hydrofoil called the Sea Venture owned by Sea Fiji Reefs. Since there was no dock on this part of the island, we dropped anchor off shore and were ferried to the shoreline via a much smaller boat called the Lawaki Delight.

We walked the beaches, lunched and snorkeled ourselves silly for the better part of the day. I only wish I’d had an underwater camera for the blue starfish and the other colorful fish I saw below the surface. There were little or no waves which made the snorkeling very easy. And the waters were very shallow for at least 100 feet from the shoreline, therefore, a newbie snorkeler like myself found it very easy to enjoy the water.

Our hostess Natalie Marletta, seen above, arranged this unforgettable day. Apparently it’s quite rare to be able to access this private island, but as Recio likes to say, Natalie is the First Lady of Fiji and can make things happen!  And boy did she. She gave us a day that we’ll remember for a lifetime. I so look forward to her next visit to LA so that Recio and I can return the favor. We don’t have a private island for her, but we’ve got the Polo Lounge and the Bel-Air Hotel, so we’ll see what she fancies when she arrives.

When it came time to leave the island, the Lawaki Delight had beached itself due to low tide, so an even smaller boat back took us back  to our hydrofoil. I absolutely love the shot I got of this little metal rowboat coming ashore to fetch us. It captures the serene beauty of this truly magical place. Thank you again Natalie.