Upolu - Part 2

       The interior of Upolu island, Samoa, is sparsely settled even now.  A few homes lie along the few roads.  Villages mainly dot the coastline.  We saw pigs and chickens crossing the road (to get to the other side, of course, need you ask).  Many, but not all, homes are open fale style - think of the fale pictures from earlier posts, a rectangular concrete (or sometimes wooden) base with posts and a thatched roof, all open to the air.  Now add furniture - couches, chairs, beds or mats to sleep, a TV - and that is home.  Better yet, picture a ranch home in, say, Richfield.  Remove the walls (and garage) but leave everything else as it is.  That the Samoan home.  Perfect for conditions here. We didn't photo any as it felt like an invasion of privacy, you can see right into the home from the road.

     Cyndi and I rented a car to drive around Upolu.  They drive on the left here, converted to that a couple years ago to match New Zealand again.  Rick drove, did OK too except that our car's wiper and turn signal controls were reversed, so when I signaled to turn the damn wipers kept coming on.  Luckily there were virtually no cars around to confuse with my inability to adjust.  And I kept trying to enter the car on what was the passenger side; the driver sits on the right side.  It kept Cyndi amused, though. 

   The scenery was just fantastic, views of the ocean, the mountains, waterfalls everywhere.  Here are some highlights:

Papapapaitai Falls, central Upolu

In case you didn't believe that name.

Falls at O Le Pupu Pu'e (I kid you not) National Park

Huge Tuilia (wild ginger) bush - about 15 feet tall

Sopo'aga Falls

Road down to the sea

We went to a place called the To Soa Trench; that was an open hole in the ground, well inland, but open to the sea underneath so that it is filled with water that ebbs and flows with the waves and tides.  We climbed down there to swim!  Also, the views were incredible, not to mention the area of rocks and blowholes nearby.  Here are photos:

To Soa Trench.  It's a good climb down into there.

Rocky blowhole and tidal area, from cliff above.

Views down to the sea from To Soa park.

Also, here's a video of the blowhole area, from up close:

      Upolu has a bumpy road around the island along the coast.  It links a series of small villages, with much open space in between.  Nothing at all is large, at most a few hundred people in a village, usually fewer.  Three roads go up and over the central mountains to link the north and south coasts.  These also have a few homes and farms alongside.  People lie around, or sit in small groups, hanging out and talking.  The impression you have certainly gives the term "laid back" a distinctly new flavor.  There is no industry outside the Apia area (and rather little there either) except for subsistence farming.  Families have rights to certain lands from which they harvest coconuts and other foods, or keep a cow, chickens, and pigs.  We often saw people, mainly teenagers, carrying piles of coconuts tied to a wooden staff over their shoulder much as how things were transported in the middle ages.  In fact, much of life here is little changed from the traditions of centuries past.  Seldom was there another car in sight on our road.  Only the jungle, the trees, the mountains and ocean.

     There are a few tourist facilities along the coast, maybe 10 or so altogether around Upolu outside of Apia.  Almost all are quite small.  Most offer "guest fales" with simple accommodations on the beach.  A couple claim to be more upscale in a relative way.  Our choice would be ranked, perhaps, above the norm but not 5 Star by any stretch.  Let us show you.

     We eventually arrived at the Virgin Cove Resort, accessible only over a narrow, rutted path along the shore, past a mangrove swamp, and pure delight when we finally made it.  We had a fale by the sea, and spent a couple days on the beach, snorkeling, reading, and lazing about.  It wasn't crowded at all, only three other couples were there.  But it had a nice little restaurant, a bar, and what else do you need - or want?  Here are photos from Virgin Cove:

Cyndi on the beach right outside our fale.

Sunrise from our fale.

Path from dining/bar area to the fales.

Looking to the west from our fale beach.

Overview of beach; our fale in the middle of photo.

Our little piece of paradise - our beach and fale.

     Virgin Cove is built on sand, which also was the home of a myriad of other critters, mostly sand crabs and the larger coconut crabs.  Their holes were everywhere, and you could see them moving around out of the edge of your vision - when you turned to look, they were gone.  At night, a few Samoan locals came around with flashlights, for hours, moving silently through the trees.  We think they were hunting these crabs.  At the edge of the beach the crabs dug holes too; if you watched awhile, you'd see little piles of sand thrown out as they dug down:

Crab holes.  These were all over the place.

Crab hole at beach edge.  See sand castings.  Busy little guys, these crabs.

One evening we saw some Samoans wade out in the water in the lagoon pulling fish nets:

Fishing, Samoan style.

Here are a few more photos from the area:

Log outrigger canoe

VC fale on the beach

Inside our fale.  Pretty simple.

Windy evening, but we didn't mind.  Would you?

On our last day we dragged ourselves away, back to Apia around the western part of Upolu, and somehow navigated the incredibly terrible roads - rutted, washed out, you name it - that ran into Apia, and found the airport to return home.  Tired and happy, and home.  We enjoyed our glass of wine back here watching the sunset - nice, but not quite like at Samoa.  That's the teaser photo up on top - the view from our Virgin Cove fale at the evening Saa (relaxing) time.  We thought it was a pretty nice place to be.

Sunrise on Upolu, Samoa