Samoa

Samoa lies in the Western Hemisphere but is also west of the international date line, giving it the rather odd time zone of UTC +13 hours. Apparently the country used to be east of the date line, but with much of their business oriented around Australia and New Zealand partners they moved themselves west of it in 2011.

We spent a lot of time fussing over plans for the day, trying to accommodate the weather, the locations of various things we might want to see, and whether the boys would get tired of snorkeling. We cooked up a series of stops we could visit, but when Thomas looked at a BBC weather forecast that showed temperatures in the high 80’s and humidity levels up to 95%, he suggested we just snorkel. So we ditched the carefully crafted itinerary and decided to go to the giant clam sanctuary, which we had as our target early on.

We took the shuttle into town where it was easy to get a driver willing to take us around the island. We hit a snag, though, when I discovered that I’d come without my ATM card. This was an aftereffect of my New Zealand banishment, where I’d gotten used to walking around with a wallet again. My ATM card was in my wallet on board, I had no way of getting cash with my credit card, and both the taxi and the sanctuary wanted cash. So the driver took us back to the ship (turns out the shuttle wasn’t really necessary) and Liz ran up to grab the card. We got cash and were on our way.

The drive was lovely, going through Samoan villages, plantations of coconut palms and pineapple, and natural jungle landscapes. It took us about 45 minutes to get across the island to the sanctuary. Once there Devin and I jumped right in to explore. We found the clams about 100 yards out in an area lined by ropes. There were all kinds of giant clams with different colors: blues, greens, oranges, and pinks. There was also some coral and some fish, but the clams were the attraction. Liz and Thomas followed and saw at least one large sea turtle – either more than one or the same one multiple times – which was a thrill.

The boys found the clams eerie and didn’t really like the experience, but Liz and I loved it. We got rained on, but there was a shelter to keep our stuff under and we were wet from snorkeling so we did not mind at all. The rain cooled the air and washed off the salt water. Aside from one family from New Zealand who left about twenty minutes after we got there, we were the only ones at the sanctuary.

After we were done we told our driver we were ready to go and he took us back, going a different route. He took us through the village where he lived, which was cool, and we stopped at a couple of other sites to take pictures. It was a fun time and we felt like we saw a good chunk of real life on the island. Good day.Baca lagi