Vaisala Hotel Savai'i

... cataratas, plantaciones de coco a lo largo de toda la costa... y además fue la residencia del escritor y aventurero escocés Robert Louis Stevenson (La Isla del Desoro).<br><br>Trás el Tsunami que golpeo el sureste de la isla el 29 de septiembre, muchos de los Hoteles y poblados de la zona fueron destruidos, incluido nuestro hotel. Por desgracia, 129 personas fallecieron y cuantiosos daños materiales que aún están por arreglar.<br><br>Nuestra llegada a Samoa ha ...

... around to see if I can gently shove it out of my fale....ticktickticktickticktick IT DISAPPEARS. Well, ****. Armed with said stick I got back into bed and tucked the mosquito net tightly around my mattress in hopes that if it were to suddenly appear on the floor, it wouldn't be able to get at me easily. I slept, sort of, and dreamt of massive pinchers that looked like pitchforks clawing out my eyes. I wrote the next morning: A massive storm is coming over ...

... we had the opportunity to "help" Sung and his guys net fishing. Fishing with the net means two guys spreading a net in a big circle, hoping to catch fish in the middle, and at least three people then running inside the net circle, splashing water and making as much noise as possible to scare the fish to swim into the surrounding net. Much more fun than fishing with a rod and bait, especially since we did it at around 7pm in the darkness! We caught ...

... where we ended up after our early morning adventures turned out to be a jackpot - more about that in the next entry! Une fois de retour sur l'ile d'Upolu, il a fallu nous rendre une fois de plus sur Apia pour changer de bus, revenir sur nos pas et enfin partir en direction du Sud vers Matareva, ou nous avons reservés deux nuits à Matareva Beach Fales. Après avoir passé une bonne partie de la journée à voyager, nous sommes finalement arrivé à destination vers 14h00 ...

... the following morning and then parting our separate ways, our plan was Matareva Beach Fales on Southern side of Upolu. In Lusia's Julien made a new friend with the resident cat and it sat in his lap through dinner and followed us to the fale where it slept for the night. Hope it doesn't have any fleas! We are now thinking of getting a cat once we get a home... whenever that is going to happen, nobody knows and seems that our "year ...

... Samoan vodka mixed with drinking coconut and lime - very organic! Falealupo peninsula, the westernmost point of Samoa, was hit by cyclones in 1990 and again in 1991 and the ruins of the villages are still there. The force of wind must have been huge to wreck the houses and churches - people never moved back and the villages now seem like a ghost town. There is a big banyan tree in the new village with a platform (banyan grows around other trees and eventually kills ...

... võimaluse siiski kasutamata ning läksime edasi. Mahajäetud küla oli üksjagu trööstitu, kuid õnneks ei olnud selle orkaani ajal inimohvreid ja inimesed on täna ehitanud endale juba uued kodud märksa kõrgemal mägedes. Õhtuks jõudsime oma ööbimiskohta - La Lagota Resorti ning olime parasjagu näljased. Kuna menüü oli rikkalik ja maitsev, siis lubasime endale tõeliselt maitsvaid mereande ja olime endiga väga rahul.

... is very, can't think of the word...umm...desolate, perhaps. Definately a must see if ever visiting Savai'i, I'll say that. When I put pictures up, they won't really do it justice but I hope they do in some way. Ok, that's me done for Samoa. Just back in Apia for three days now and then we fly to NZ, excellent :-) I'm gonna be well confused for a few days I think, because we lose a day :-s We leave at 2:20pm on Sunday and arrive at 6pm on Monday, but the fly is only three and a half hours!!

... banyan tree poking out above the canopy, for great views of the surrounding forest to the ocean. Our next main sight was the Alofa'aga Blowholes, where the ocean rushes into holes in the rock to erupt spectacularly high into the air, complete with a local showman throwing coconut husks into the hole with perfect timing to add to the effect. This was also our lunch stop, where one of our guides lopped the tops off ...

... the ferry terminal followed by a long journey on the hard wooden seats of a local bus. We arrived to torrential rain but thankfully the weather cleared the following day &amp; we had beautiful sunshine for the rest of our stay. During our time in Savai'i we swam with turtles, stuffed our faces some more, snorkelled, swam &amp; generally relaxed. We also saw our third 'FiaFia' night (a display of traditional Samoan singing &amp; dancing (including fire ...