Taking our time, we hiked the main road to the new bridge over the river, which is being re-done. Japan happens to be helping with the funding for this bridge. Directly across the street is the Sheraton Hotel, and the place where we would end up for lunch.
Further up the road is their visitor's center, a nice air-conditioned building complete with maps and restrooms. While chatting with the director, she mentioned that it had been raining heavily the last two days and having a sunny day was lucky. We agreed.
From here we went to the fresh fish market, finding that ¾ of the catch was already sold. Among the larger fish, we also saw many colorful tropical species, such as parrot fish. The other choices were yellow fin tuna, snapper, lobsters, crabs, rockfish, barracuda, eel, and marlin. The vendors kept busy by fanning the fish with palm fronds, keeping the flies away. One thing we noted was that none of the fish were cleaned (gutted).
Across the street was a large food court, where the locals were buying breakfast. Next to that was their flea market. If you can't find Samoan treasures here, you'll find them nowhere. And much better prices. Cuff bracelets in green and turquoise were a good buy for one of us. Samoa is famous for their traditional arts of carved hardwood bowls and platters, as well as tapa cloth-making, coconut jewelry, and body tattooing. Most all of the men and women sport tattoo art on their bodies that represent their beliefs and values. These services and products were available in this area.
Checking the map, we looked for the street that would lead us to the produce market. However, the map showed street names, but we saw no such signs at the intersections. We knew to go uphill from the Town Clock, passing many small shops and cafes along the way. An interesting fact is that their three largest supermarkets stock goods mainly from both New Zealand and Australia. Passing by a large lumber yard, we found the Fugalei Market, where every type of vegetable and fruit can be purchased. Fresh flowers too as well as more souvenirs. And a three piece coconut jewelry set was only $5, not $20 like at the pier.
There was even a Do It hardware store, similar to our Home Depot. Passing through this store, we exited a side door, and came out at another church, a Seventh Day Adventist Church. Directly down the street from here was a McDonald's, where we briefly stopped hoping to buy sodas to cool us off. We soon realized that they were not taking US dollars, but local money ( Western Samoa tala, which equals 2.67 to 1 US $), and credit cards. So we continued on to our next destination.
That was the Catholic Cathedral, Immaculate Conception, a truly impressive work of art. The carved wooden ceiling was most beautiful, as was the series of stained glass windows. A dome feature over the altar is created in the Samoan fale, with the structure actually extruding from the roof of the church. We have read that their church choirs are some of the finest, and if we had visited on a Sunday, we would have been invited to join the services.
Finally, we were more than ready for cold beers and lunch at the Sheraton. The poolside restaurant there is Aggie Grey's. Of course, we ordered a Margherita pizza and two or three Taula Draft beers. Had we been here on Friday, the beers would have been $5 during their happy hour. Today and the rest of the week, the drafts were $10. Expensive, but this was our first pizza of the trip, and it was really good. However, their desserts were outrageous. One conservative slice of cheesecake was a whopping $25, and a bowl of vanilla ice cream was $20. Really? And we thought $11.50 was bad in Pago Pago. At least we knew ahead of time, and decided the fruit in our room would do just fine. By the way, credit cards accepted here were Visa, Mastercard, and more recently, American Express. Always good to know.
Thankfully, a strong breeze accompanied us all the way back to the dock. We happened to discover a hidden marina café area very near the dock area called The Edge. And their beer was half the price of the Sheraton. That is probably why the place was full of customers.
We got back to the ship by 3:30pm, and the all aboard time was 4:30pm today. Our veranda was so hot, we could have fried an egg on the end table. Once the ship left the harbor, the Captain took us past a few of the smaller islands where folks spend their day snorkeling and kayaking. Surfing is accomplished in parts of the island, but recommended only for the experts. Coral reefs, high waves, and currents can be powerful here. We did watch for turtles, but the most of those we saw were in the form of wood carvings in the market, not the waters. There was a chance to still spot some humpback whales, as their season is August through November. They come here from 4000 miles away to mate, give birth, and rest. No sightings today…..darn.
Dinner was good once again with salmon and a roasted chicken with ½ leg bone. What? Had to order it to find out what it was. White breast meat with one little leg sticking out of the middle. Sometimes their descriptions are comical.
As we are heading further west, the clocks went back one hour tonight. Fine with everyone.
Bill & Mary Ann
