Many travelers would miss the most eastern village of Upolu. Uafatu is at the end of the line. You can only reach the village by 4WD and that’s only if you knew where to go.
The way looks more like a goat track then a road. It is steep, muddy and falls away to a valley 500m below. A couple of times the wheels of our gutsy 4WD locked, spinning. Getting there is an ordeal. But what you find at the end of the road is a beautiful community so untouched by western influence, its what I would call my version of the Garden of Eden.
The village is built around the coastline of a coral reef bay and is bordered by lush green mountains. It is so picturesque, even the gods favor Uafatu. The story goes, that Tagaloa himself chose to live above Uafatu, naming it the ninth heaven.
The population of Uafatu is no more then a few hundred. It is a tight community; the village families have lived side by side for generations. The small village is known for being the center of traditional woodcarving. The forest that surrounds them has about the last of the hardwood (ifilele trees) that they use for carving. They make a host of craft from the hardwood; they are most known for their decorative kava bowls.
The tools they use are archaic and have been passed from father to son. They make some of my classic tool collection look modern. You can watch them busy at their craft, they use a hand plane and spoke shave, like I used at school as a boy. It takes one to two days to produce a finished bowl. The result is first class.
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