Samoa in a nutshell
Mawari
Bob & Sue Dall
Tue 16 Oct 2012 09:08
All yachts have to stay the marina in Apia, which is a very pleasant experience, direct access to fresh water and land again! Also a very safe place to leave the boat and explore .
Arriving in time for a week of festivities that was just the beginning, dancing, fire eating, beautiful singing and canoe racing . . . The daily morning Police brass band parade , men in skirts. . . and great ice cream.
We hired a car for a week with Heather and John and toured the two islands, Upolu and Savaii staying in Fallas ( which strongly resemble a band stand with a mattress on the floor) This is a beautiful country the people are very friendly and take a real pride in their country. Even the poorest Fallas have beautiful gardens and neatly trimmed grass. The tall mountains in the center and its location in the tropics ensure warm weather and plenty of water (it rains a lot). Samoa has plenty of arable land so subsistence based on growing coconuts, bananas, taro, yams, sweet potatoes, mangoes, pawpaw is easy and the people have leisure to enjoy their country. However most of the income in Samoa comes from expatriate Samoans sending money home from New Zealand.
In the western end of Savaii we met a group of ladies who were singing beautifully as they wove a huge mat from leaves of the Pandanus tree. As we watched they started clapping as they sang and an old lady got up and started dancing. To their enjoyment Sue and Heather joined in. As we left they all smiled and waved as they got on with making the mat.
While Samoa had few truly unique or stunning features to attract tourists it is a thoroughly nice place with nice people living in a very sustainable way having very little impact on their environment. We enjoyed it immensely.
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