Cradle of Polynesia, the small archipelago of Samoa has not sacrificed its soul on the altar of tourism. Here, nature explodes in flowers, waterfalls and wild islets. It is not by chance that a certain Robert Louis Stevenson had chosen to live in this tropical paradise.
On December 7, 1889, Robert Louis Stevenson landed in the port of Apia, the capital of the Samoa archipelago, then under German domination. “I intend not to stay very long in Samoa,” writes the Scottish writer. The stifling tropical climate is ill-suited to his failing lungs. Yet it was here, in a corner of the jungle, that he spent the next five years before breathing his last breath there. The superb residence that he had built on the heights of Apia, on the island of Upolu, can be visited like a museum. It sits at the center of a vast estate where coconuts, bananas and pineapples were cultivated.
To feel at home, the author of Treasure Island had a chimney installed… in a country where the mercury never drops below 20 ° C. Native servants were asked to wear tartan kilts instead of lavalava, the traditional loincloth. The writer was beloved by locals, who affectionately nicknamed him Tusitala.
