Dec 7--After 3 really awesome days in Wellington, Liz and I were reunited and joined by Graham for our final week of awesomeness in the Pacific. We arrived at the airport on Upolu (Samoa is two islands called Upolu and Savaii) in the evening and took a taxi to the Princess Tui Inn. When we arrived we were told we had been given an updated room because they had given our original room away and we didn't have to pay anything extra. Win!
Dec 8--We woke up early, had a fruit and toast breakfast, and planned our trip to Savaii. We wanted to catch the 4 pm ferry to the other island which gave us the rest of the day to do what we wanted on Upolu. So we decided that we'd go see the Robert Louis Stevenson museum/homestead. For those who cannot place who he is he is the author of books like Jekyll and Hyde and Treasure Island. He owned a really beautiful home in Samoa and is actually buried at the top of the mountain right by his home. We took the museum tour, and with time to spare, we decided we'd hike the 45 minutes to his grave. What we were NOT prepared for was how much of a hike it really was!! Liz and I were in sun dresses and all three of us were wearing flip-flops (or "jandals"). It was... interesting. Ha! It was really beautiful, but with the heat, humidity, and NO WIND... well.. let's just say it's a good thing none of us were trying to impress anyone! The view from the top was awesome and the grave itself had a lot of cool engravings and poems written by Stevenson himself.
Then we took the ferry to Savaii, and once there we took a taxi to the Regina Beach Fales in Manase. The beach was literally 4 footsteps outside our fale (pronounced fah-lay). For those who don't know-they are little huts that are made of a floor, columns, and a roof. There are "curtains" that can cover the whole open sides... but usually its just one with nature. We got mattresses and mosquito nets and I fell asleep to the sound of crashing waves. :D We met up with our friend Mike (who we had also met in Sydney) and his friend Nathan. They were staying at Regina's as well. YAY reunion!
Dec 9--We all woke early for breakfast and then spent the morning snorkeling around!
After lunch and showers, I witnessed the other 4 partake in Kava. It is a "mud drink" made from a root and is actually a mild narcotic. The chief of the village happened to be the owner of Regina's and so he told us about it and held a little ceremony and told us that only special guests get to partake in Kava. I opted out of this as drinking a mild narcotic kind of scared me! But according to the others, it was weak and the most they felt was an odd numbing in the throat for a few minutes.
Dec 10--Mike and Nathan left to go to Upolu and it was just Graham, Liz, and I. It rained most of the morning so we spent the morning just reading in our fale. Then we headed out to swim with sea turtles.. which sounds cooler than it actually was. Actually.. it was kind of dodgy. It was 5 tala (their currency) and you just kind of went into this pool where there are a lot of sea turtles in captivity. Graham and I got in and then went.. "ok.. now what?" ha! It was cool, but definitely not as cool as it sounds.
Then we took a little walk to the lava fields. An eruptions left fields of black lava that is now a pretty touristy place. There is a really cool church that was destroyed and the lava flowed through the windows and dried in the church. It looked awesome.
And then there's the Virgin's Grave... a woman was buried there by the church. When the eruption happened, the lava flowed AROUND the grave for some reason. Its completely untouched. Very cool! It was very hot, so we took a taxi back to the resort and then took nice, cold showers.
Dec 11--We woke up early to catch the early bus to the wharf. The public transportation is awesome in Samoa. The buses are brightly decorated and colored, the music is blasting, and the buses are always full. As we got on, people moved around so we could have a place to sit.. it was very nice!
At the wharf we took a taxi to the waterfalls where there is fresh water and a little lake to swim around in. We climbed up about 30 feet or so and jumped off into the water! Cliff diving--item #26 on the Bucket List crossed off! It was FUN! And the water was SO nice. We met a couple guys from the States there: Dan from Hawaii and Fortino from LA. They are traveling together for a travel company, trying to come up with the best packages for tourists--basically they are paid to vacation. They were really cool and we ended up getting drinks with them at the end of the day. We ran into them again at the blowholes. They are these holes in the rocks over the ocean and the waves are so intense that when they crash, they go up into this cavities and water sprays everywhere! It was awesome. We were throwing coconuts into the holes and watching them come back up!
Dec 12--We spent our last night at Regina's on the 11th. We spent all this day traveling back to Upolu and got a room at Valentine's Motel. We lounged around all day lazy from traveling and frankly feeling the humidity and heat too much! All 3 of us were pretty Paradise-d out! But that night we went to the Aggie Grey's Lagoon Resort.. one of those nice, 4 star kind of places. Mike and Nathan were staying there (from a packaged deal) and so was Dan and Fortino. So we all met up, had a buffet dinner, and then watched a Fiafia.. a fire dance! Very cool.
It was also the first meal we'd had where nothing was fried.... finally some real, healthy foods! Then we sat around and talked and hung out till about 10:30. Then Liz, Graham, and I went back to Valentine's.
Dec 13--We spent a lot of time at the flea market souvenir shopping and doing some last minute Christmas shopping. :) We ran into Mike and Nathan and then headed to the Sliding Rocks. They are SO cool! A series of mini waterfalls with tons of pools of water and it is quite literally a natural waterpark. The rocks are smoothed out by the water and helped by the moss growing on them. So its not painful to slide down them! Liz and I noticed that we were both concerned with safety and whatnot and that the locals were simply there to have a good time and didn't think about it. Interesting cultural observation. At one point, I was hesitating to slide down and so Liz said she'd go first. I scooted over to let her through, but in the process started sliding and didn't have anything to grab onto. So I slid down the wrong part and ended up sliding further than I was supposed to on rocks where there was no water! My butt hurt and I'm pretty sure I actually bruised it. Ha! The locals thought it was hilarious. As did I... it was really funny. haha! We had pizza for dinner and then packed!
Dec 14--Our flight out wasn't till 11:59 pm. This gave us the whole day to do nothing. So we spent the entire day at Aggie Grey's Lagoon once more. We swam around in their pool, read in the shade, made use of their pool bar (you sit IN the pool!)
and the beach. At around 2, Graham took us sailing. He had been sailing pretty much his whole life and was teaching us a bunch of stuff! It was really fun!! Then we came back, had lunch, and read the rest of the day. Liz and I found a nice little beach on which to relax on till the end of the day.
We took showers, packed, and then were off to the airport around 8:30 where we waited for our flight.
And thus Samoa came to an end. We were all, quite frankly, ready to leave. You can only spend so much time in THAT much heat and humidity. The vacation was fantastic... but never could I live there! But for the time we were there.. well, it was fantastic.
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