Today we arrived at Apia, Samoa. Wow is this place gorgeous.
We did one of the tours we’d previously arranged with a local Samoan company. The first stop was at a fresh water swimming hole that was under a cave. After the initial *brrr* shock it was actually quite nice. I was SO happy Grant didn’t freak out about the fish. We made our way to the back of the cave and dorked around in the water til it was time to go.
We stopped at a few more scenic stops while we made our way to the coast. I didn’t expect to be as impressed but it is truly a beautiful island.
We stopped for lunch at the families’ resort where they did a welcoming ceremony where we were each offered “Ava” as a welcome drink. It’s a sedative that both numbs the tongue and relaxes the body. It didn’t taste of much. After which we watched some ceremonial dances with singing. We then took a break and went swimming and snorkeling. The place is RIGHT on the beach. I would love to come back and spend a week or more in the huts they rent out. They’re around $50 USD per night and again they’re right on the beach. The beach was a picture postcard in every direction. Stunning crystal clear and warm water, sandy beaches, gentle breeze blowing palm trees. Grant and Henry actually really liked snorkeling and looking for fish.
After about an hour of swimming we went back in for some traditional Samoan food. I spent the entire trip telling the boys that it wasn’t going to be food they’d had before and that they needed to keep an open mind and try it all. We got up to the dining table and they’d made burgers and fries for the boys. They’d also put a straw into coconuts so we could drink coconut milk straight out of the coconut. Grant was really looking forward to this and both boys ended up not really liking it.
The boys actually did really well and tried some of all the food. My favorite was a taro leaf wrapped coconut cream thing that was savory and really good. Taro root on its own was ok.. it just somehow tasted of dried potato and breadfruit was ok too. It sort of had the texture of a nerf dart but tasted a little potatoey as well. After lunch we headed to this swimming hole that we were kind of iffy about anyway. It was in this huge 80ft deep hole with an incredibly steep ladder going down. We went to have a closer look and Grant got really excited about going down. Peter took a few steps down the ladder and decided it was really too steep to do it safely with the boys. This caused the first epic meltdown of the entire trip. Grant was NOT happy with the change in plans and let everyone within 50 feet of us know. As we were walking away (still arguing with Grant) a woman and man who were swimming hand just emerged and said we were absolutely right to not go down and that it was pretty scary for them. Of course the only thing that mattered to Grant was that we were suddenly not doing this super awesome cool swimming thing that he had in his mind we were doing. We came back and drove through Apia and had a quick look around and got back on the ship. The tour left at 8am and we returned around 4:30pm. During the tour they had loads of fresh fruit for us to snack on. Grant and Henry’s favorite were the Fai (pronounced FAH-ee) which were little bananas.
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