Savai‘i - What a Beautiful Island

The 1.5h drive to Falealupo was beautiful as I passed many colour villages. I met up with Fernando to check out a nearby old church that was heavily damaged and abandoned by a hurricane in the 1990s.

Afterwards, we went snorkelling right off our beach fales and saw a colourful reef and plenty of fish.

At dinner, Ares and Anna from Manase had arrived and we ate and chatted for a couple of hours before heading to bed. Also, we had the entire place all to ourselves.

The next day was Sunday, i.e. church day when an already slow life grinds to an almost complete halt. We dressed up a little and attended a church service. While in Samoan, occasionally, the priest switched to English and at the end blessed our travels. He and his wife also came over after the service to thank us for stopping by. A beautiful start to the day.

Even though it was Sunday, we were nonetheless yearning for some adventure. So we hopped on our scooters and headed towards a cave. It wasn't easy to find and we needed the help of some locals to get to it. When we arrived, the owner of the property on which the cave is located, took the time and guided us towards it. While the first cave was not really great, the second one was really cool, with a hole in the roof that lets sunshine illuminate the cave.

By the time we left the cave, we were all hungry. But since it was Sunday, lots of places in Samoa were closed. We found a restaurant by the beach, however, had lunch and rented some snorkelling gear. It was a decent snorkel with some distant turtle spotting. Fernando and I did another sunset snorkelling at our beach fale as well. That pretty much was a typical Sunday for us: Church, Caves and Snorkels.

Since it was our last evening together, we had dinner (still the only guests), sat on the beach, watched the stars and talked for hours about life, adventures and travels. We had such a great time together. After all, travelling is not just about sightseeing, but meeting people and sharing adventures together.

After saying goodbye the next morning, I was heading to my last stop on Savai’i and to the main attraction of the island (although the shipwreck dive is difficult to beat) - the Alofaaga Blowholes. Essentially lava flows created a series of tubes connecting a flat clifftop of lava rock with the ocean below. Waves breaking against the lower end of the lava tubes send water at high pressure up through the tubes, creating fountains that spray every few seconds - these fountains of water go up as high as 40 meters. I spend at least 40 minutes there to literally soak it all in. It truly is a phenomenal feat of nature and I can see why it is regarded as the highlight of Savai’i. Truly spectacular.

Savai'i was pure blizz. Colourful villages, incredibly friendly people, a laidback vibe, awesome diving, beautiful snorkelling, interesting nature, fascinating history and great beach fales. This is what I will take away from my fantastic time here in Savai’i. It reminded me why I travel and why I travel far - to experience places like these. I am happy.Read more