Upolo - Nature At Its Best

After a rough 2h ferry ride to Upolo, I jumped on a local bus to town and rented a scooter. In Upolo life was faster and busier compared to Savai'i and the houses less colourful.

Anyway, the ride to my beach fale in Faofao took me 1.5h through hilly but lush green terrain. For my first full day on Upolo, I decided to go waterfall hopping. So after breakfast, I checked out two of the main waterfalls on the island. They were gorgeous to look at, but unfortunately, there was no opportunity to swim at their bases as the viewpoints were at eye-level to the drop-off with no path down. I did, however, stand right on top of one waterfall, which was great. The rest of the day I lounged on the beach, read my book, took a few photos and just chilled out.

On the second day, I drove to the Giant Clams Sanctuary on the other side of the island. It was so worth the 1h drive. I haven't really seen a clam underwater. Basically there were two types of clams: the giant ones and the 'normal‘ ones. The giant ones were huge and impressive (c.1m-1.5m long), but mostly greenish-dark. By contrast, the 'normal' clams were stunningly beautiful with shiny shades of turquoise and bright green. I knew clams existed, but I had no idea that they were this amazing. I was truly mesmerised and wen mt down any times to see them up close.

Then it was already my last full day in Samoa and I kept the best for last: The most photographed spot in the country - the To Sua Ocean Trench. A really beautiful and magical sinkhole.

A couple of people I met at my beach fale and I decided to get there early to avoid the crowds and we did indeed manage to get the ocean trench all to ourselves for a while. It really is a beautiful and unique spot with green surroundings and a beautiful setting. We jumped in, swam for a bit, took plenty of photos, and really admired the place. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and felt it was a perfect end to the sights in Samoa.

For lunch, I was heading to a beach restaurant. I ended up chatting to the owner until 6pm. We ended up talking about his life story (involves homelessness, riches, fishing and a suicide), customs and traditions in Samoa, business, etc. By the end both of us had 8 beers each and I still had to drive back in the dark (luckily just 10 minutes on empty roads).

Just like that, my Samoan adventure was over. I was very glad that I ended up going to Samoa. It's a beautiful country, where life just follows its own pace. It has enough things to see and do, is not overwhelming and leaves plenty of time to slow down and live the famous island life.Leer más