Satiuatua and blowholes
The last night at Savai'i I, Carlo, Pascale and her family stayed at some beach fales in Satiuatua. It was the most wonderful place, and even though I arrived just before 9 pm and you are supposed to order dinner in advance the staff cooked up a delicious Samoan meal for me. I got a whole 4-bed fale to myself and quickly fell asleep to the sound of the ocean once again. I woke up early in the morning when they lit the Sunday umu as some smoke travelled my way, but as I turned to the fresh sea breeze I soon fell asleep again to wake up at a more humane time (around 6 am. The Samoans are insane when waking up earlier than that to light the umu).
The fales were nested in beneath under the loveliest trees (although apparently they are invasive... Everything here seems to be invasive), in the softest sand.
Pascale who had arrived early the previous day told me that the snorkeling was the best so far, so I eagerly went out after breakfast. There was an area of massive, healthy coral and a lot of different fish.
After a while of snorkeling I turned around and noticed I was being followed. Not by one, but by hundreds of juvenile parrotfish. When I stopped they would circle around me, and kept on following me as I continued. A couple of times they would find a spot in the corals that apparently held something edible as they suddenly gathered there in their huge numbers reminding me of a wriggling snake pit. But more colorful. As I went outside the reef to the breaking surf they apparently thought that I was being to adventurous, but as I came back they soon joined me again.
A fraction of the young parrotfish that followed me.
Even though the snorkeling was really good I actually got tired of it after one hour or so. I guess the turtle experiences from the day before and all the diving had decreased my appreciation for snorkeling that day.
The wonderful colors of the ocean and the sky. Not gonna tell you what I was really trying to photograph, let's just take it as an artistic shot.
After the snorkeling I soon set of with Pascale's family, towards the ferry but with a detour to some blowholes. It was amazing to see (and hear!), and I got a good dose of salt water sprayed over me.
A video can be found here: Blowholes
And here are a few pics.
When I got back to the house after the ferry trip (and after Carlo showed me where to find pineapples) I soon herd something scrape on the door. There stood the little puppy I had been playing and scratching the other day (and that was so shy in the beginning, and when she got over that so happy to have her tummy scratched that her hind legs were kicking). When I walked out to her she was the pure picture of a happy puppy, and so exited that she peed a little. She started following me around everywhere, and just laying close to me as I sat down to read. When I went back into the house she ran in before I could stop her and went straight for my backpack. Curious about what she was so interested in I let her dig around until she got hold of one of the koko samoa-lumps I had bought in Samoa and happily trotted towards the door. Quite a heavy lump for such a small puppy to carry. She did not get to keep it for long though, as I didn't want her to get chocolate poisoned. Or me to lose my addictive source of delicious hot chocolate.
As I stood talking to the neighbours a barn owl flew past us about ten metres away. Completely quiet, as a white goast in the evening. Ironic that I have to go to Samoa to see my first wild owl as we have several species back home. But you're always a bit closer to nature here.