På drift i Stilla havet

Under april till början på juni gör jag mitt kandidatexjobb i den väldigt charmiga ö-nationen Samoa. Projektet är en del av min utbildning till Civilingenjör med inriktning Energi och miljö på KTH, och kommer beröra de biologiskt nedbrytbara plastpåsarna som används på Samoa samt på vissa andra ställen i Stilla havet. Därefter blir det tre månaders kringresande bland olika öar i regionen.

Satiuatua and blowholes

Publicerad 2013-05-17 04:19:27 i Samoa, Sights, Underwater photography,

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. 
Kommentarer (0)

Saturday at the South-East coast

Publicerad 2013-04-15 10:23:00 i Samoa, Sights, Underwater photography,

This Saturday I went with Pascale, her daugther and sister to the south eastern point of Samoa.
 
On the way we saw a lot of animals as usual. This however was an unusually big pig that apparently has managed to escape the Sunday umus efficiently a lot of times.
 
 
 
One of many Samoan churches to the left. 
 
 
 
I'm not sure why, but apparently we were not satisfied with this beach, so we moved on.
 
 
 
This was more like it.
 
 
 
Typical beach fales are seen here, although a bit more colorful than usually. The sand was so incredibly soft and deep. 
 
 
 
One of the small islands of Samoas South-east coast. Unfortunately we couldn't go there that day, but hopefully we'll be able to another day. 
 
 
 
Beach fales and fale dogs. 
 
 
 
I made friends with some of the dogs (and yes, I'm red from the sun). When we stod talking to a Samoan man and the dark dog in the picture came up to me and I started scratching him the Samoan asked a bit surprised if it was my dog. It's not the first time someone has asked that, and that goes for cats as well. I still haven't been chased by the supposed-to-be-vicious Samoan stray dogs, I feel like I'm missing out on a Samoan experience here. So far they have all been very kind or very shy. 
 
 
 
Of course I went snorkeling as well, but unfortunately the SE coast had been badly hit by the tsunami in late 2010, and even though the corals were starting to come back most of it was dead. However, since I swam longer and longer out for the beach I eventually came within a few metres of where the waves brake. There I could peek into the window of an underwater paradise, with huuuge Moorish idols and beatiful corals. But all I could to was peek since evety wave threatened to smash me into the shallow corals if I didn't pay attention. So between the waves I looked quickly under water, then I stod up and braced myself and tried to remain on my feet. But after a few to powerfull waves, where one knocked me of my feet I gave up and let them carry me in to the beach. Closer to the beach however there were a lot of beautiful starfish like this one:
 
 
 
I had such a great time, exploring and playing with Pascales daughter and some Samoan girls as well as trowing a ball with a little samoan boy who must have been around 3-4 years old. And so cute! On the way home we drove past a wonderful garden, and Pascale wanted to ask about a plant and if she could get some cuttings to plant. The women there were absolutely fantastic, so kind, funny and charming. And they asked me to take some pictures of them.
 
 
 
They were decorating the roof of the veranda and made it look really cozy.
 
 
 
When we were standing there this huge bird started riding the winds above us. It was enormous! Some kind of frigate bird, maybe the lesser (although it seemed great enough).
 
 
 
I little bit further away a village had four horses standing by the road with a woman tending to them. As Pascale's daughter loves horses we stopped and said hello to them. She even got to ride around on one of them.
 
 
 
Meanwhile I fell in love with the horses, the dogs and the incredibly cute children
 
 
 
 
 
On the rest of the way home I just sat in wonder over Samoas beauty. It's incredible lushness where the plants are growing on top of each other and the beautiful mountains.
 
 
Unfortunately the perfect day and my total bliss got a bit thrown of track as the car in front of us hit a puppy while driving through a village. Hopefully it never got to suffer as many of the dogs here do.
 
Sunday didn't raise my spirits either as I was sick the whole day and mostly slept through it all (and apparently Sundays nowadays are my "avoid the sun-days" since I always tend to be a bit daring with the sun on saturdays). 
 
Tomorrow, tuesday, I'll be going to Savai'i on the back of a pickup truck. Apparently there's supposed to be thunder storms. So if you don't hear from me again I'll probably have drowned in the back of a car. 
 
Kommentarer (0)

Palolo Deep Marine Reserve

Publicerad 2013-04-08 06:00:00 i Samoa, Sights, Underwater photography,

Dag fem, 1 April

 

Av någon anledning var jag oerhört trött denna morgon och trodde att jag var påväg att bli magsjuk, så det tog ett tag innan jag vågade mig iväg. Men till slut begav jag mig till Palolo Deep Marine Reserve 5 minuter med bil utanför Apia för snorkling och bad. Precis när jag gick i vattnet kom det fram vackra blå-vita tryckarfiskar som antagligen hoppades på att jag skulle sparka upp någon mat åt dem.

 

 Whitebanded triggerfish

 

Efter att ha simmat ett par hundra meter motströms över grund korall kom jag fram till revkanten och spännande snorkling. Det var inte det bästa jag någonsin har upplevt, men det underhöll mig i ett par timmar, tillräckligt för att baksidan av mina ben upp till ländryggen skulle bli helt sönderbrända… T-shirten jag hade på mig åkte upp med än vad jag trodde att den skulle göra, och jag hade trott att benen skulle klara sig någorlunda.

 

 

 

 

Favoritdelen av snorklingen bestod i att simma igenom stora stim av blue-green chromis precis vid kanten av revet. Det finns nog inget som är så avslappnande som att se dessa oskygga, små vackra fiskar runt omkring dig vart du än tittar.

 

Blue-green chromis

Några fiskar var modell större, några var runt 80-90 cm som störst och så såg jag en smooth flutemouth på en meter. Överlag var det dock ganska små exemplar här, om än av otroligt många olika sorter. Mer kan man nog inte förvänta sig av ett rev som ligger 5 minuter från en hamn och huvudstad.

  

Smooth flutemouth, runt metern lång

 

Även om jag hoppas få se kokoskrabbor ska det erkännas att jag är mer bekväm med krabbor av denna storlek.

 

Jag blev kvar där till middagstid då David och Sue hämtade mig och körde oss till en restaurang. När jag frågade om vegetariska alternativ sa kocken att han kunde göra vad jag önskade. Hade lite hjärnsläpp (jag som har svårt nog att välja från en meny), men det blev en god pastarätt med blandade grönsaker. Vi hade en fantastisk vy över solnedgången över havet. En inte lika fantastisk sak var den stackars strövhunden som kom förbi. Den såg ut att andas tungt, var väldigt smutsig, mager och raggig samt hade en enorm tumör hängandes i ena spenen. Man kunde dock se att det hade varit en otroligt söt hund om den hade varit väl omhändertagen. Sue slängde till den en av Davids Fish and chips-fiskpinnar (eller vad tusan det kan tänkas kallas) och lite pasta. 

Kommentarer (0)

Senaste inläggen

Kategorier

Arkiv

Prenumerera och dela