More samoa!

We enjoyed another night at the fantastic Falelupo. We were the only guests so enjoyed having the beach all to ourselves. The seafront shower for particularly liberating. Did some more snorkelling, which was phenomenal- schools of fish passing by and beautiful coral, all within 20m of our fale. In the absence of other guests, we made 2 pals- there were a couple of pigs who always seemed to want to join the fun! We did a short trip to the canopy walkway, where our guide also decided to show us his house and family- he grows cocoa so we tried local cocoa drink, which wasn’t the biggest hit with us tbh.

Being on the west, we got a great sunset and the stars here are phenomenal- you can spend quite a while lying on the beach gazing up at them. It was a little scary being the only ones sleeping on the beach, but also pretty cool to be on our own beach with a fantastic view of the beach and the waves.

After a final sunrise yoga, swim, breakfast, snorkel and beach chill, we continued our trip around Savai’i. We pulled in at Pepe’ea cave, a long lava tube home to some small nesting birds. Next we thought we’d have a bash at the “4WD only” track up to Mount Matavanu crater. Sure enough, Valerie, our small and distinctly not 4WD car, didn’t make the cut and we opted to walk. It turned out to be quite a trek! 3.5hrs in total and uphill in the blazing sun! The track winded through farms and plantations, which was interesting to see. As we neared the crater, we passed “da kr8terman”s fale and started to see various signs made by the man himself, with quotes from various visitors to the crater praising the “world famous” kr8terman. We’d read about the craterman, who apparently is quite something- he maintains the track, collects the entry fee and acts as a guide. Unfortunately we didn’t ever come across him, but very much felt his presence with the abundance of signs. Unhelpfully, the signs seemed to disappear at a crucial moment deciding between 2 extremely faint tracks to the crater. Fortunately we guessed right and reached the viewpoint for the crater! We also got great views across the forest and right down to the sea as we walked back to the car. Less fortunately, about 5 minutes from the car a dog came running into the road out of nowhere and bit Katriina’s leg! Thus, I got to add to my tour of South Pacific hospitals, where they were pretty helpful, even if a little slow. We got away just in time to catch an amazing sunset on the road just outside Manase, our destination for the evening. Tailia fales took us on very last minute and we enjoyed an amazing dinner- so many vegetables for once!

Our morning swim in Manase brought an unexpected finding- we bumped into a couple of turtles! We followed them for a bit as they swam out towards the reef before returning for breakfast, where we enjoyed the proper coffee, produced locally.

Enjoyed morning on the beach before returning to the wharf to catch the ferry back to Upolu Island and then a bus, that was crazily full, back to Apia.

We’d returned to Apia for the Independence Day celebrations. Lukas and Rocco had also decided to return to Apia for this, so we enjoyed being reunited in true “Lukas and Rocco” style and went to a restaurant/ bar by the waterfront. Lukas and Rocco bought multiple jugs of beer and rounds of shots while Katriina and I stuck with our one or two beers! We’d been told various times for the beginning of the independence parade (classic samoa) but arrive for 7:30 and caught the latter half. Every single organisation in Samoa seemed to be marching- schools, organisations, charities etc. Later in the day there were all sorts of cultural performances, which were impressive. Katriina and I particularly liked the outfit some or the kids were wearing, so with zero expectations I asked if there were any spare sets and got given two for free! Once we’d had enough of the hours of dancing and music we headed across to Matareva beach, stopping at Robert Louis Stevenson’s house and some waterfalls on the way.

Matareva beach is lovely! We again have a lovely open fale. The beach is different to many of the others- more rocky with a few little islands off the coast. We’ve mainly been chilling on the beach here; snorkelling, exploring the rocks. We found a really cool cave/ tunnel in the rocks with several underwater openings to the sea! Mine and Katriina’s matching new outfits were debuted for the “fia fia” night, along with the flower garlands that Rocco had randomly bought us all! This meant we were picked on quite a bit for audience participation. The “singles dance” was quite an experience- all the male performers took it in turns to dance with each of us!

Final night in Samoa tonight! Really going to miss sleeping in an open fale on the beach! Off to Fiji next!