Turtles on Savai'i
The next morning some people had already left to catch the early ferry back to Upolu when I woke up. The tide made it impossible to go out with the diving boat early in the morning, so the dive center was picking me up 10:45 Over breakfast I was talking to Alex, one of the outside consultants arranging the advance. He wanted to see turtles, so I told him to try just outside and lent him my gear. As he was preparing to go out we could see turtles coming up for air, but for some reason he went far away from where I had told him that he should try. Meanwhile I could see the turtles keep swimming up for air. At last I could point him to the right area, but by then he had already been out a long time and soon gave up without seeing one.
When he got up from the water I took my mask and snorkel, but left my fins behind as I had been swimming a lot with fins and diving equipment and wanted some more freedom. The plan was to take a short swim, but after 3-4 minutes I saw my first turtle. Good and clear, as it was a sunny day with ok visibility even in the sandy, shallow lagoon. after that they just kept showing up, as I pretty much swam in a line front of the veranda out a hundred meters and then back again. In total I saw 13 during maybe 40 minutes. They would react differently; some would dart away as soon as they saw me while others would slowly move away. I managed to get pretty close to even the most shy ones before they noticed me (the moment when they did was pretty obvious, as they would calmly graze and then suddenly look up and dart away), probably due to not having any fins (thus moving slowly and quietly), and also that I would stop swimming and just lay still in the water when I saw a turtle.
The most amazing thing however was the ninth turtle. It didn't mind me at all, and just kept on grazing, so slowly I would advance to see what it was comfortable with. It really didn't mind me, so I would swim beside it at a distance of 1,5-2 meters as it kept grazing algae and in about 5-10 minute intervals swim up for air, in which cases I would give it a bit more space (as I thought it may feel more vulnerable at the surface) and swim up simultaneously so I could see the head above water (with the eyes slightly closed) and the body beneath it. Sometimes it would release the tiniest couple of bubbles of turtle breath while diving down. Damn that was cute.
Occasionally I would get even closer, due to him swimming closer or me being pushed by the waves. When that happened I would lay still since I didn't want to scare it by kicking or waving around with my arms. Several times I would drift towards the turtle and it would keep grazing at the same spot or move towards me. It was only when I was right above it (in shallow water, around 1,3 meters deep) that it would slowly move forward. I couldn't tell if it was due to me or just due to the grazing, as it would continuously keep moving while grazing.
I kept swimming with it for over an hour, probably closer på 1,5 hours (I was really shocked by the time when I got back) and it was the most relaxing experience. Really soon I would automatically synchronize my swimming with the turtle's, without thinking about it. Moving only my arms simultaneously and in the same way as it moved its front flippers in a slow, steady pace. I had time to observe a lot, the beautiful pattern on the shell and on it's skin, counting the scales to be sure of the identification, the little dull claw on the front flippers. The little wrinkles on the back flippers. Its really cool eyes, the serrated jaw. The pattern it would follow when going up for air, the reaction when attacked by a 5 cm long fish that thought the turtle got too close to its burrow. The fish swam straight into the turtle's head, and the turtle looked really funny as it surprised retracted its head with half closed eyes before swimming on. Amazingly the fish that previously had been very shy (natural as they are being fished) didn't mind me when I was next to the turtle. The triggerfish kept on cleaning their burrows (by taking sand in their mouth, swimming away a bit from the burrow and spitting the sand out) instead of making themself ready to hide in them.
Turtle lagoon (the very unofficial name given by myself), where I saw 23 turtles while snorkeling during 3 days. Underwater at a close range that is, I saw a lot more come up for air from a distance.
It ended with me swimming with the turtle to the reef and saying goodbye as it continued out to the ocean. I would have followed it a bit further to see where it went if I had had my fins, but I didn't want to tackle the possible currents on my own without fins and nobody watching out for me on the beach (by now I realized that the SPREPies would be on the way to the ferry). Instead I went back, checked the time and realized that I had been out for 2,5 hours on my little "short swim". And I had 15 minutes to pack all my stuff before getting picked up by the diving center. Sh*t.
Footsteps and four shades of blue.
Somehow I managed, and soon jumped in the water again but in my diving gear (without really drying up in between). After a few minutes we found a hawksbill turtle (the ones I saw while snorkeling were green turtles), swimming into openings in the reef, apparently looking for a place to sleep as he soon settled right above the reef where he lay with closed eyes swaying back and forth with the waves. At the second dive I saw yet another one. In total, the visibility was great, as was the marine life, and the dives were fantastic. These were my two last dives in the course, and I was now a certified PADI Open Water Diver. Yay!
A poor little... Something... Wandering Tattler I think, who had lost her right foot.
After the diving I went to the south coast of Savai'i, to Satuiatua. After a lot of speculating whether the bus would actually show up or not, it finally did. And so began my 3 hour drive on a bus so full that people were sitting on each other laps (not uncommon here). Unfortunately that meant a lot of time for different Samoan boys to try to convince me to merry them. And I may say that their pick-up lines are not smooth, so soon I was really angry and ruder to a guy than I have ever been. But he deserved it, since he wouldn't leave me alone after my first rant of telling him that I wasn't interested and didn't want to talk to him. He kept insisting that he loved me (a couple of minutes after meeting me) and pleading (as if that has ever worked for anyone) that I should become his girlfriend. His English was really terrible, so he kept on talking, making no sense at all, and I had to perform a couple of rants of "NO, leave me alone, I don't want to talk to you, go away" before he finally gave up. After a while some other guys started... It was a long journey in many ways, with a guy telling me that it was 12 minutes left when there actually was more than an hour, and then again that it was 7 minutes. I insisted that it couldn't be (I had located us on a map), but he said "Oh, yes, only seven minutes!". 40 minutes later we arrived at the resort, and I was so happy to see Carlo and Pascal with family. I got a four bed fale all to myself and slept like a rock.