Samoan Bus
The next morning we were off to catch the ferry. The terminal is on the far west
end of the island and a bus ride away. We had heard a few stories about Samoan
buses, but were we in for a ride. The buses are all brilliantly painted,
beat-up, patchworks of metal. They all have loud stereos, home-made subwoofer
enclosures, and way too many tweeters and they jam Samoan pop music at obscene
volumes at all times, day or night. Few Samoans have cars, so the bus is
the primary mode of transportation and they pile into these buses. Our ride to
the ferry terminal had us sitting in the aisle of the bus, while everyone
fortunate enough to have a seat had someone on their lap. We saw some buses
where people were piled three people high on each others' laps.
From the Ferry
A brief ferry ride later and we were on Savaii. This is what we were looking
for, one road that encircles the island and that's it: peace, quiet, blue seas
and white beaches. Savaii is the third largest South Pacific island,
after New Zealand and Hawaii, but one of the least developed in the
region. We spent the night in a little hut perched on a lagoon near the
wharf. Unfortunately, the mosquito netting wasn't up to snuff and we were
massacred by bites that night.
Feeding Turtles
We grabbed our bus the next morning and got a bit of an impromptu tour of the
northeast side of the island. In 1905, Mt Matavanu erupted, blowing open
a massive crater and beginning a seven year lava flow that made
its way from the middle of the island all the way to the ocean. We
stopped and explored this flow where it hit the ocean, called the Salealua Lava
Fields - an amazing site of black lava as far as the eye could see.
We also stopped at a facility that raised and reintroduced green turtles.
Our guide gave us a bit of a show by feeding them papaya. Our day ended
in what would turn out to be the highlight of our Samoan trip.
We got a little beach fale in the town of Manase which would be our home
for the next several days.
The Lava Fields
This place was awesome, open air and ten feet from a stunning beach. Over
the next few days we picked up a great pattern. Get up and go explore for
the morning then come back to the fale and swim and relax for the
afternoon.
Our Fale
Our first field trip was to a small village called Paia to see the Dwarf
Caves. We found a local guy to walk us up to the caves. Once we got
to the caves, out came the headlamps and in we went. These caves where
amazing - a long narrow passage from the surface down that opened up into a
massive cavern with natural stone ledges running along both sides. Side
tunnels jutted off in both directions as far as we dared venture. When we
returned to the surface, we were greeted at the cave entrance by our guide and
a few other villagers who were up in the hills working their small
plantations. They cracked open delicious fresh coconuts for
us. Samoan mythology says that magical dwarves still live down
there, so few locals will actually go into the cave with tourists.
Dwarf Cave
The next day we were off to the Matavanu crater, one of the longest hikes in the
country at 8 hours round trip. We went back to the same village and
met our guide from the previous day and began walking. It was a
fascinating walk in that there are no roads that go into the center of the
island, only an occasional dirt track. Most of the
villagers that live on the beaches have small plantations in the center of
the island where they grow all of their crops, mostly coconut and taro.
The trail led through these plantations for a while before ascending into the
lava fields formed by the 1905 eruption. At the top of the lava field, we
came upon the shack of the local guide who watched over the crater. He
referred to himself as "Da CraterMan".
Craterman's HutIn
order to see the crater, we needed to pay him a small fee and he would
accompany us to the top. After another short walk we arrived at the
crater and it was massive. The hundred years since it had erupted had
allowed Nature to take her course and the crater was teeming with plant life,
but it was a giant hole in the earth hundreds of feet deep and a quarter mile
across. On the way back to the village, our guide showed us how they
actually get the coconuts out of the trees. He put a loop of dried palm
fronds around his feet to hold them together then he jumped on the tree,
wrapped his arms around it, pushed his feet against it and shimmied
up. Thirty seconds later he was 150 feet in the air tossing coconuts
down to the ground. Overall an awesome spectacle and a great walk.
Another few days in this fale then we moved on. We stopped on the
western-most point in Savaii, Cape Mulinuu. This was a unique place in
that it is the last place in the world to see the day end - the point closest
to the International Date Line. Apparently, this was a big gathering
point for the Millenium. From there we traveled onto our next fale in the
town of Satuiatua. We were treated to an amazing spectacle that evening,
constant rainbows. It had started sprinkling a bit over the ocean and
everywhere you looked there were rainbows. We actually saw the beginning
and end point of rainbows as well as double rainbows.
Big Fat Rainbow Over the South Pacific
The Blow Holes
The following day we decided to head back to the ferry. On the way we stopped
at the Alofaga Blowholes. These are natural rock formations on the south
coast that occur on rock cliff jutting out into the ocean. They are
tunnels in the rock that open up to the ocean as well as on the top of the
outcropping. These tunnels funnel the waves through then as the tunnels
constrict the waves build pressure until the blow out of the tops of the
tunnels. Guys throw coconuts into these blowholes when a wave comes in
and then they erupt hundreds of feet into the air, taking the coconuts
with it. An amazing show of natural force.
Check out the Blow Holes in action
Because we had some extra time before the ferry, we hiked up to the Afu Aau
waterfall. This was a secluded 150 foot waterfall that cascaded into a
giant pool that made for some excellent swimming. After we finished our
swim, we headed back to catch the ferry.
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