Samoa Day 4: South East Coast and Fales

We headed over the Cross Island Road from Apia after breakfast, driving by the Bahai temple before coming across the Papapapaitai Falls (what an awesome name!).
Once on the other side of the island we went to the magnificent Coconuts Beach Resort for lunch. This is one beautiful resort and we relaxed here for a number of hours on the edge of the ocean. We suspect this has been rebuilt since the Tsunami on this coast in 2009. The food here was also excellent.
The resort was very quiet. Wandering in either direction yielded beautiful views.
We then popped into the Togotogiga Waterfall which was along a beautiful track.
Driving along the coast was very sobering as we approached the South Eastern portion of Upolo. This area was hard hit by the Tsunami and there are many vacant buildings.
We stayed at the Taufau beach fales in Lalomanu for the evening; well actually Chris and Wendy stayed at the beach and Jane & I stayed 2km away at their self-contained mountain view rooms which actually overlooked the ocean from the top of some huge cliffs. The accommodation was nice with a beautiful bathroom but no hot water.
Chris unfortunately got bitten by a dog on his way back from our place to their fale; there are lots of dogs wandering around. When you’re on the island and you don’t have much in the way of first aid, a clean in the ocean followed by cleaning it with bacardi (on the cut directly and from the inside out) was required.
We did have dinner and breakfast down at the beach at a long table which was a great way to meet others. Dinner was at 7pm island time (i.e. 8pm).

Samoa Day 3: Driving around the North Eastern Coast of Upolo (inc. turtles)

We got a car today and headed out of Apia along the north eastern road that runs along the coast. The speed limit in Samoa is slow so going anywhere takes a while; 25mph in towns and 35mph between towns.

Our first stop was the Malua Turtle Feeding Site. The was free and after trying to feed the turtles vanilla wine biscuits, which didn’t work, Jane had the idea of feeding them coconut. There was a coconut nearby so once some flesh was extracted we were pleased to see that the turtles liked it and this attracted others too.

We then headed further along the coast, past the airport to Aggie Grey’s Lagoon Resort, which is a lovely resort in quite a secluded location. We enjoyed some lovely cocktails and a nice meal at the poolside restaurant. I had a coconut lime curry accompanied with jasmine rice and roti that was excellent. Jane had a grilled chicken salad that was okay, but not spectacular.

Wendy also had a salad.

Chris had a good looking burger.

Driving further along the coast we passed through lots of small villages and on some roads that were more like tracks than roads until a local flagged us down to help them out. They hadn’t seen a car for a while and their truck was in need of a jump start. We got the feeling they were quite used to jump starting their truck once we saw the heavy duty and long jumper cables they had. A short time later (and a Tala$10 entrance fee for the car) we arrived at Return to Paradise beach (apparently after a movie was filmed there) and we were the only people on the beach. To get to the beach required driving past a sign saying Keep Out Construction Zone (or word to that effect) and over a rugged track. There was a worker nearby with his son in a fale but they slept and didn’t wander from the fale.We relaxed in a small tidal pool that was super clear and watched little fish scarper around us.

We took a road back through the middle of the island, with the gps coming in handy to find the correct roads to take (they weren’t always marked). It was a nice journey back passing through lots of small villages.

Dinner was at Amanaki’s on the other side of the by from Club X in Apia. It was a nice meal.

We concluded the evening with a night out at Club X again. Saturday was a little quieter than Friday but once we got onto the dance floor inside about 11pm after a huge downpour of rain people emerged and we had an excellent time dancing with the locals until the bar closed at midnight.