Cyndi and Rich aboard Legacy
September 12, 2012
The west side of the island isn’t on the recommended tourist route as there “isn’t much to see,” but we were happy we went through it. Mostly we saw villages, but these particular villages were some of the most beautiful and well-tended on the island. In this area the ocean is shallow and there are some beautiful stretches of light blue-green water. -Cyndi
September 12, 2012
We continued on the south side of Upolu after lunch. I had an “ouch” moment after I made Rich stop so I could take a picture from a small dam we had just crossed over. I ran back to the dam and carefully made my way over slippery rocks before walking to the center to get my picture.
As I made my way back over the rocks, I held the camera up as I focused on protecting it at all costs, not wanting it to hit the ground if I fell. I didn’t actually plan to fall, but as I balanced on the slippery rocks, I could hear the sound of a pack of dogs that seemed to be heading my way. In my subsequent hurry, I slipped and fell right on the back of my ribs behind the arm holding the camera up.
The lesson I learned here is that there are some parts of the body whose safety should come before that of the camera. I was able to get up and get back to the car, and thankfully the dogs, perhaps thinking I’d been punished enough, dispersed. As we headed on, the pain mostly subsided, although for the next couple of days sneezing or coughing was agony. The lump took a few weeks to go away, but it is gone now (as I am writing about this in Tonga). After all I went through to get it, I am making sure to post that particular picture; so here it is: -Cyndi
September 12, 2012
We had a very nice lunch at the big fale across from the reserve. It is an inn with a simple restaurant where we could lay back on deck chairs on the front patio and enjoy a sandwich. -Cyndi
As we made our way around the island, we came across a surprise: a marine reserve that wasn’t mentioned in our guidebook: Savaia Marine Reserve. It’s a sanctuary for the giant clams that have been over-harvested and now need protection. The reserve was set up by the Savaia Village.
It was a beautiful area, with a small inn, La Valasi’s Beach Fales, that served sandwiches. Unfortunately we didn’t bring our snorkeling gear so we contented ourselves with enjoying the view while having some lunch. -Cyndi
September 12, 2012
As we didn’t have enough time to do everything, we decided to pick one from the three choices on the next stretch of coast. There was a beautiful set of beaches called Salamumu or the Return to Paradise beach (which was featured in the movie of the same name) or Matareva, which was described as having “delightful” coves and rock pools. The last one sounded best to us.
Once again, I only spotted the smallest street sign as we passed it, forcing us to turn around and head back to where a few large Samoan men were lying around a roadside fale like a pod of beached whales. We pulled up, hating to interrupt the group nap, and asked about heading down the unpaved road. It would be 15 tala, which was a little steep, but we decided to pay the price and head down.
It was a couple of miles down an unpaved road to the coast, but worth the drive once we got there. We found yet another fale resort on a beautiful crescent of white sand beach. Enclosing one side of the cove was an area of black lava rock and pools that we could walk out on. It was quite beautiful and well worth price we paid and the risk we took in disturbing the pod of large Samoans. -Cyndi
