alifeworthtripping

We had been told that Upolu would have a bit more hustle and bustle to it than Savai’i as the county’s capital city of Apia and Faleolo International Airport are both on the island. Instead of parking our cars underneath the main deck, and enjoying a kung fu movie and orange fanta in a breezy hall, we were left in our cars on the main deck, bumper to bumper while the sun broiled us through our windshield. Once the ferry ride got underway, we leaned our seats back, rolled the windows down and enjoyed the coolish sea breeze as our car filled with the smell of sun baked coconut. This is one of the thing’s that Samoa still seems to be figuring out, catering to tourists who want to leave their home and still feel at home versus tourists that want to leave their home and experience a new culture.

Locals range from friendly, offering a smile and wave as you wait for their chickens to cross the road, to suspicious, giving you a stare down as you pass by, to unruly, making a gun shape with their hand and pointing it directly at your head, pulling an imaginary trigger when you lock eyes. The Alofaaga Blowholes are fun to witness in that childlike ‘who doesn’t like to see water suddenly shoot 50ft in the air’ type of way. If you choose to DIY, be sure to get a feel for where the blowholes are located as we were told that people have been caught off guard and blown/swept away into the ocean. After a short pep talk with your better half, muster the courage to swim towards the fall (why does the water suddenly get so dark? ? ) and climb up the rocks to the back side of the waterfall.

We boarded the Lady Samoa III, parked our rental car in the bottom deck, and sat in the covered main deck where we enjoyed a kung-fu movie and orange fanta. We booked a beach fale at Lusia’s Lagoon Chalet, located in an ancient rainforest, that was as beautiful as it was, um, crawling with local wildlife. If bugs are not your thing, then the lagoon may not be for you, but if you can handle a few (hundred) mosquito/ant (or something looking like a mosquito crossed with an ant) bites then the lagoon is a beautiful place to relax and stuff yourself with mini-bananas. You can circle the island by car in one day and the trip gives you a deeper understanding of how villages are laid out and what local life truly looks like.

The first step off the plane was a breath of hot, sticky, salty, fresh air. After spending the last 9 months wrapped up in clothes, living in un-insulated buildings during a particularly freezing winter, the tropical climate was literally the warmest welcome. Open-air structures, called fales, allowed us a peek into the everyday lives of Samoans. We drove an hour to the Capitol city of Apia, never going above 25mph because what’s the rush?