Atua

I left Savai'i with a big smile, because I had such a great time there. To get to Samoa's main island, Upolu, I took a rough 2h ferry ride before jumping on a local bus to take me into the capital, Apia, where I rented my scooter for this island. My first impression of the island was that the pace of life was faster and busier compared to Savai'i and the houses and villages were a bit less colourful.

Anyway, to get to my beach fale in Faofao, where I would stay for four days, the ride took me 1.5h through hilly but lush green terrain. When I arrived, I didn't do much today, but just lounged on the beach and in my fale.

For my first full day on Upolo, I decided to go waterfall hopping. So after breakfast, I jumped on the scooter and 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 - of course at a safe distance to the drop-off. On the way back, I did a little detour drive along the southeastern coast, before spending the rest of the day on the beach, reading, taking a few photos and just chilling out.

On the second day, I followed a recommendation to go and pay a visit to the Giant Clams Sanctuary on the other side of the island. So I drove a bit more than an hour to see them, and boy was that worth it. During all my diving and snorkelling in the previous weeks, I haven't really seen a clam underwater. So I was excited when I put on my snorkel and swam 50m to the point where they could be found.

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 duck dived many 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 and popular spot in all of the country - the To Sua Ocean Trench. It's basically a sinkhole with sweet and salty water that, due to its vicinity to the ocean, rises with the tide.

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 (a bit like the cenotes in Mexico) with green surroundings and a beautiful setting. We jumped in, swam for a bit, took plenty of photos, lounged in and around the trench and really admired the place we were at. It really is a lovely place that I thoroughly enjoyed and a perfect end to the sights Samoa has to offer.

For lunch, I was heading to a beach restaurant. While I had expected to just eat lunch there and then go back to my beach fale, I ended up chatting to the restaurant's owner until 6pm. We ended up talking about his life story (involves homelessness, riches, fishing and a suicide), customs and traditions in Samoa, beach parties, business and what not. I think by the end both of us had 8 beers each and I still had to drive back with the scooter in the dark (luckily just 10 minutes on empty roads). But yeah, that was my final day in the country.

The next day, I headed back to the capital, dropped of my scooter, took the local bus to the airport and flew out. Just like that, my Samoan adventure was over. In the next post I will do a little recap of my time here, but I can say that 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.Read more