We arrived in Apea in the early morning to a dancing and singing groups of natives on the dock. We had a tour arranged through the cruise line for a tour of the town and then to a beach resort. Our guide, Laalue, was on time and ready to go. He is an interesting guy, son of a village chief (his dad was chief), and son of the daughter of another village chief. He was on the Samoa Soccer Team and worked for the International Soccer League to further soccer in the island nation. He talked to us as we drove through the town and headed up on the cross island road toward the western side of the island. The beaches on the eastern side are volcanic rock, but the western side has nice sand beaches. We stopped along the way at Sopoaga Waterfall where we bought a coconut from a vender who opened it for us and we drank the sweet coconut water from inside. We also were shown how they open coconuts, shred the meat from the hull and then squeeze the shredded meat for the coconut milk. It is a lot of hard work! The waterfall was at a distance, but beautiful. As we drove through the small villages, we noticed the people were not rich, but the houses were well maintained and the grounds well-tended. We also learned that the villagers owned the land they lived on (and could not sell it, its passed through the family) but reported to a village chief. They also buried their ancestors in the front yard! The road climbed up over a steep ridge that the bus had a hard time climbing. They had to turn off the air conditioning to have enough power to make it over the top. We arrived at a small beach resort at the end of a poorly maintained road. There we were served a lunch of delicious BBQ chicken. The we wandered down to the beach, stripped down to our bathing suits and enjoyed a warm swim in the South Pacific Ocean. It was a lazy couple of hours! Then we piled back on the bus for the drive back to the ship with a stop at Papapapaiata waterfall (it chose to start raining when we pulled up into the parking lot). Our drive back took us past Laalue’s home and through the village of his father. As we approached the ship, Laalue explained that we were then in the village of his mother and that he was destine to become chief of one of the two villages at some point. We arrived back at the ship with time for a cool shower before martini time.  |
| David at Sopoaga Waterfall drinking from a coconut |
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| The Regatta in Area |
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| Papapapaiata waterfall |
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| South Pacific Beach |
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| BBQ Lunch |
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| Sopoaga Waterfall |
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| Dancers when we arrived in Area |
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