the other Samoa: a child's perspective

We let Everett use our old camera while we were in Upolu. I think he loved taking pictures more than actually being there! Simon was able to get his hands on it long enough to take a few pictures too.

When we got home, he used the delay function to pose with our newly acquired war clubs:

Poor Ila got stuck posing with the fan -as if he needs anymore reason for people to think he's a she! I guess he just doesn't do a very convincing scary face, and it's necessary for posing with weapons.

the other Samoa: Apia again

We went back to Apia for the rest of our trip; the draw of semi-urban-ness was just too much to resist!

We stayed in a fancy hotel: Manumea Resort. It has real walls (unlike our house), hot water (unlike our other "hotels"), a pool with a lava rock waterfall, traditional designs carved into the doors, an indoor/outdoor bathroom, and an ocean view. I've never stayed somewhere that nice so I would have been impressed anyway, but coming from our screen-walled housing for government employees and all its resident critters, it felt like heaven!

We went to Palolo Deep.

We weren't impressed with the snorkeling there, but the sunset sure was beautiful!

Of course, no trip to Upolu is complete (at least for a nerd like me) without a tour of Vailima, Robert Louis Stevenson's Samoan home.

Tired and happy, we headed back home - just in time for the Arts Festival!

the other Samoa: Lalomanu

Lalomanu is an incredibly beautiful white sand beach that stretches for miles along a portion of the South West coast of Upolu. There are a bunch of beach fales along the road so we chose to stay in one that would be having fiafia night (dancing) along with dinner.

We jumped right in for a long snorkel before dinner. The water was clear and beautiful. The fish were the same kinds that we see here, but they were a lot bigger and didn't see to be afraid of us. We even saw an amazing red starfish with white spots (Simon pointed it out and was so proud he wanted to show it to all of us!). Lalomanu made the snorkeling off Tutuila seem very limited. We only have a couple places to snorkel and our biggest doesn't come close in size the the amount of reef you could explore at there. I was impressed. It was a great place to relax and enjoy ourselves.

The kids showing off their beach-combing treasures. See what Ruth found?

Everett had the best luck - look at those shells!

Scary face.

the other Samoa: the road to Uafato

We attempted to visit Uafato on our way to Lalomanu. Uafato is the place where the war clubs, kava bowls, and other carvings are made. We didn't make it all the way because the road turned out to be too much for our rental car, but we did get to see some beautiful jungle along the way (untouched jungle from the mountaintop to the villages that line the shore).

the other Samoa: Puiloa Cave Pools

These two pools are connected by a cave. I was really excited to see them, but it turned out to be much less interesting than I originally thought. Mostly because I had thought that you would actually be able to swim through the caves into a cavernous area when I heard about them, instead of two pools that are connected underground. It was still something cool to see though, just not something I'll go out of my way to do on return trips.

My favorite part were the restroom signs: "Ladies & Cents."

the other Samoa: other stuff

Apparently there's a bit of a speeding problem on Upolu. We didn't see any posted speed limit signs, but we did see a bunch of hand written signs saying "slow down, it's not worth it" or "slow down - heaven is full."
We stayed at a budget/backpacker hotel the first few nights we were in Apia. The accommodations weren't the best, but the owners kids lived there (insta-playmates!).

And they fed us delicious breakfast every morning. And there was a pig in a pen in the backyard (a really little pen), which the kids thought was really cool since we kept seeing pigs and piglets roaming the villages we drove through.

We saw the 100 meter high Papapapaitai Falls.
And we had delicious Giordano Pizzas - mmmm!

the other Samoa: Papaseea Sliding Rock

The Papaseea sliding rocks are incredible! They are waterfalls that are sloped enough that you can slide down the rock to the pool at the bottom. It was so much fun! There's a fairly short one that the kids did over and over.

And there are a couple huge ones too. I am not much of a thrill seeker and was a little scared to go down at first, but after a few times it became easier and more fun!

This was probably the most fun thing we did on the trip. When we go back to Apia, we'll definitely come back to sliding rock!

the other Samoa: the vegetable market

The vegetable market was a lot of fun. The touristy stuff is sold at the nearby flea market - we spent lots of time there! - but, obviously, the vegetables and food are sold at the vegetable market so it tends to be more of a local hang out. We saw Samoans playing checkers, drinking kava, and just relaxing while we were there.

These things are used to strain/squeeze the coconut cream from the coconut meat.

We've had this poky looking fruit before. It's tart and sweet - grainy like a pear, but mushy like a banana, and really juicy. I've heard it called a Samoan apple, but I don't know what it really is. It's good though.

I love how the bananas are sold by the stalk at the market. At our roadside stands here, I've only seen them in bunches. When we cut down our own and have a whole stalk, it takes forever to eat all of them. They ripen from the top down so it's actually possible to eat them all without them going bad. We just don't want any bananas for a few months afterwards!