Well, 2019 was a challenging, fascinating, busy, educational year, and I can't believe it's over! I have gotten tragically behind on posts, due in part to having less time to write, but even more to having so many blog-worthy things going on! Anyway, J and I wish everyone a Happy New Year and all the best for 2020, which will be another amazing year, I'm sure!
As you know, back in September I went to Samoa for the cousins/best friends trip that Maria and I have been intending to go on since we were kids. We've both had extremely busy lives, and lived in a lot of different places (but almost never the same one), and so a natural time has not presented itself. But we finally got our acts together and made the time, and it was just as incredible as we always hoped it would be! It was amazing to have such an extended time (9 days) to talk in person and catch up in more satisfying detail than we ever could on Skype, and then to combine that with being in a truly stunning place... who could ask for more? I plan to do three posts about Samoa, but feel that I should just start out by saying that I highly recommend it to anyone who has the time to fly to the middle of the Pacific - I was very impressed!
Upon arriving to the airport in Apia (on Upolu, the more populous island) and reuniting with Maria (who had to hang around for hours waiting for my flight to get in, poor thing), we caught a taxi to Matareva Beach Fales, on the south coast. We intended to take the famous (or infamous) Samoan bus, but found out that they barely run on the weekend, and the ones that do apparently weren't swinging by the airport, so... taxi! (More on Samoan buses later, by the way.)
Upon arrival at the stunning Matareva beach, Maria decided to take a well-deserved nap, while I elected to read in one of the many hammocks scattered around. It was glorious, let me tell you. I took a rather nice picture of this moment, but this isn't it. This is a photo I found online (of a hammock a few minutes down the beach) because my second act upon arriving was to set my phone down on a rock that turned out to be well within reach of the waves. That photo is lost forever, as the phone never recovered. (In its defense, I'd already thoroughly soaked it once while snowboarding in the sleet, so it really had tried.)
Maria kindly let me take some pictures on her phone, I tried not to be monstrously annoying borrowing it all the time, and it's not the highest quality either, so I've supplemented the pictures we took with some that I found on the internet. Samoa is so gloriously beautiful that many people have taken pictures, and I appreciate being able to piggy back off of their efforts.
We spent the rest of that day relaxing and exploring the beach, which was just what the doctor ordered. The contrast of the white sand, blue water, and black rocks is incredible.
That evening there was one of the most mind-blowing sunsets I've ever seen. We had walked around the nearest cove and sat down to watch the whole thing, and every moment was stunning. Days later, at a different fale (definition coming, I promise), we were still talking about it, and another tourist pulled out her phone and said, "This one!" As if it could be confused with an other sunset! Horrified that we hadn't photographed it, she kindly emailed me this picture.
After dark that night was the weekly cultural performance, put on by the local youth community, and it was fantastic. Pictures would have been useless, plus we couldn't take our eyes off the performers, but click here for a video on Matareva's Facebook page for a glimpse into the show. Of course ours wasn't exactly like that, but close enough.
The next day was Sunday, which we discovered means not only no buses, but no anything else. All of the attractions we were interested in were closed, which turned out to be completely fine, because we had a fantastic day further exploring the beaches. We walked quite a long way down the beach, and every sight was good for the soul.
It was the perfect temperature, too (at least for me, who likes heat). We often dipped in the water to cool down a bit, or just waded along. We saw all kinds of shells, coral, and sea creatures, as well as fascinating plants and driftwood. We also did some snorkeling right at our accommodation, which was great!
No other sunset will compare to that first night, but they continued to be beautiful.
I love the way the light reflects so strongly off the water at sunset.
So... fales. Fale is the Samoan word for house, and can be used for any kind of house. However, "in general, traditional Samoan architecture is characterized by an oval or circular shape, with wooden posts holding up a domed roof. There are no walls. The base of the architecture is a skeleton frame" (Wikipedia, Architecture of Samoa). These are semi-traditional beach fales, and are the most popular kind of accommodation in Samoa. We stayed the first two nights in the closer blue-topped one. The roofs are made of woven waxy leaves and are theoretically waterproof, but have obviously been supplemented by rather modern tarps in this case.
On the third night a storm was blowing in, and our hosts asked us to move to a sturdier fale, this one with a metal roof. We also put down all the walls, which are on strings kind of like blinds. I don't know how bad the storm was, because I slept better that night than I had the two previous nights.
I forgot to take a picture of the inside of our fale, but it looked like this but better, because our sheets had crazy-cool-clashing patterns on them. Sleeping basically outside (just a mosquito net around us) on a warm night sounded like paradise, and it was idyllic as we were relaxing, chatting, and reading before bed, looking out at the ocean and listening to the waves. But I rediscovered that I like complete silence for actual sleeping, and there was no silence to be had. There were lots of birds, as well as the sound of the waves, which I would have said would be pleasant white noise, but in fact kept me up. I thought that this was plenty, and then the million roosters got going at about 3:00am, and all was lost. Maria slept through it all (except sometimes the roosters), so apparently it was just me, but it wasn't until the night of the storm that I got any sleep. It was completely and utterly worth it for the experience of staying in a beach fale and for all the awake parts, but also I like sleeping.
The fales themselves were stunning, but what was even better (certainly about Matareva Beach Fales, but also about Samoa in general) was the amazingly genuine, warm, inclusive way we were embraced as immediately part of the community. These fales are owned and operated by a whole, big extended family, and everyone from toddlers to grandparents (or very likely great-grandparents) is involved. There is no public land in Samoa, but rather every bit of it is owned by Samoan families who have often passed it down through many generations, and who often both live on it and run a business out of it, as this family does. So we really were staying at their place, and it felt that way. Hospitality and kindness will continue to be a theme during my posts, and if I ever forget to mention it, just assume that every Samoan we met was truly lovely to us.
I intended to include Day 3 in this post, but realized that the Adventure Tour we went on that day is more than enough for a full post all by itself, so I'll save it for next time.
