I arrived well timed for the SPREP advance, their team-building get away to Samoa's big island, Savai'i. They were kind enough to let me come with them, and even kinder to let me use the time to take my diving certificate as one of Samoas two dive operators is located 5 minutes from the resort we were staying at.
So three days before we would be going to Savai'i I started taking the PADI Open Water e-course. It was straight forward and logical, so I didn't have to go back and review anything, but it still took some time to go through all the slides and do all the quizzes at the same time I was working on my project and doing an assignment for school. I stayed at the office until 20:20 one night to use the internet there, and of course I wasn't the last one there. The JICA-people don't really know when to go home.
Anyway, I finished the course and could relax on the way over to the other island. On the ferry I and Gianluca stood watching for living things as Tony in my office had said that he usually sees turtles in that area, and someone else had seen a tiger shark. All we saw was seabirds (although pretty cool) and one flying fish. Last time I was on this ferry I had at least seen a little school of flying fish. I said that it's probably because I was onboard as I usually never see turtles at places where you are supposed to see them.
The relaxing stopped we got on the buses that were supposed to take us from the ferry to the resort. I don't mind wooden buses, and I don't mind the bus driver playing music. But the first bus driver I had played some absolutely horrible music that could only be explained as an attempt to make people even more motion sick or at least give them a headache. So when we stopped for lunch I made sure to get on the other bus afterwards. That bus on the other hand sounded as if it was struggling to move forward even slowly and also as if it would break in half any second. The bus driver would slow down to crawling speed when approaching the low speed bumps that are found in the streets, and still the bus squeaked like crazy when going over them. I hoped he would fail to notice one speed bump just so I could have my theory tested that the bus would brake into splinters. He didn't. Instead he almost rammed a meeting car while driving around some road constructors without slowing down noticeably. I was sitting in the front seat and had a great view of how close we were to be united with that car.
We did manage to survive however. Even the part when the bus driver decided that he absolutely must park at the resorts little parking spot, even though that includes going through a small passage which had him drive back and forth at least 5 times to get through it. I could not understand why he didn't just drop us off by the side of the road. I fled the bus as soon as possible, just as the other bus was starting to go through the same procedure. There wasn't even room for two buses at the parking spot. How they ever managed to get out is a mystery to me.
Soon upon arrival at Vacation beach fales - SPREPies in the water drinking beer during sunset.
Right after I had been shown the fale I shared with three other women (we got a fale right by the sea! Yes!) I took my snorkeling gear and headed out in the water. David and Stuart quickly told me to not go out to the reef because of the currents. That felt kind of overprotective as I had already been out to this particular reef one week before. But I didn't want to be a party pooper by, well, getting pulled out to sea and die, so I stayed within the reef and thought that I would just watch the triggerfish. However the visibility was terrible. There was practically sand in the water column, so after 10 minutes I was ready to give up and just thought that I wouldn't see anything, when suddenly a big turtle sweeps past me at 1,5 meters distance from absolutely nowhere (and honestly scares the hell out of me), then turns around in a wider and wider circle until I can't see it anymore. It was so cool!
I kept swimming around trying to find it again but eventually gave up and instead ran around euphoriously telling everyone I had been discussing turtles with that I finally had seen my first wild sea turtle.
As I was talking to Gianluca we saw one come up for air and decided to get in the water again. I managed to get 4 more sightings of it (or them) under water, even if 3 of them where mostly flippers turning and heading off when they, probably as surprised as we were due to the bad visibility, realized how close we were. I even managed to point Gianluca to one so he got to see it as well, even though he has seen countless of turtles in Samoa.
Very happy with my day I went to bed early and fell asleep right away to the sound of the breaking waves.
I would not turn down waking up to sunrises like this one every morning.
I woke up to Tony's crazy morning aerobics that starts at 5:45. As I had already slept past half of it and still felt half asleep I instead took my camera for a walk before heading for breakfast. The breakfast was fantastic, a lot of fresh fruit, a koko samoa (the Samoan cocoa powder which tastes like roasted chocolate) and pawpaw/papaya kind of slurry which was really nice. And some eggs and toast as well, but you could have that anywhere.
The diving center picked me up at 9 and I got to do a little quiz and try out equipment before heading out to shallow water to learn all the techniques that are used while diving. It was a long session, but a lot of fishes would swim up right to me and look me in the eyes while we were under the water, so it was a lot more fun than having to do it in a pool. And it was really nice to have an instructor all to myself. Everything went relatively smoothly, although they had a lot of divers that specific day, so I got a BCD that was to big for me and kept swirling around which made balancing very difficult. After switching with the instructor that got better however, and I managed all the tests and the seemed happy with me.
Back at the resort (after a delicious pizza next to the diving center with a couple of Austrian divers) I relaxed for a bit while the others were teambuilding by exploring the area. I found a small fresh water river that led to the ocean. The water was unbelievable cold and I found a little freshwater eel hanging around as well as shrimps what would be totally hyonotized if you held your finger above them and would try to reach it and tickle it with their antennas and legs. There were also bigger shrimp that looked really creepy but that are supposed to be delicious, and also freshwater crabs and some fish.
Later on I swam out with three of the guys beyond the reef. It was amazing! Unfortunately it had begun to get dark, so the colours were getting duller as we were out, but there were so many different fishes and corals in amazing formations. Apparently someone saw a ray shark, but I missed it. We even managed to get back, there was a bit of a current heading out, but it was possible to just swim right against it.
I could definitely feel the swimming of the day in my legs, and I fell asleep even quicker and earlier than yesterday.
Kingfisher in evening light by our fale.
The next morning I woke up and was really exited for my first dives out in the open water.
And the sun rises!
The breakfast was even better this morning, with a koko samoa, coconut cream and rice dish which was delicious. And more fruit!
Anyway, the dive center picked me up, and I was happy to find that a guy who was a SPREP-intern for three weeks was already in the minibus, together with the Austrian divers I met the day before. We were all going to the same dive location but I was staying at a lower depth. The first dive was really cool. My instructor showed me a soft coral that will change colour when something touches it (as the polyps retracts into the coral). There were also a lot of wonderful fishes.
The second dive was even better though. We dove at a 130 year old shipwreck, and there I saw three hawksbills turtles up close, feeding and getting cleaned by fish as well as a huge Napoleon wrasse, a lot of Christmas tree worms, trumpet fishes and a lot of other cool animals hanging around the wreck.
Very happy and very tired I actually stayed on land at the resort and just hung out with the SPREPies when their teambuilding for the day was over. As this was their last day however many of them stayed up the whole night. I went to bed in reasonable time, but woke up a few hours later to the sound of drunken male what-I-think-was-supposed-to-be-singing.
