(From Mom’s trip journal: Told from her perspective)
Today is a sightseeing day. At breakfast we talked with a couple who we overheard giving sightseeing advice to some other guests, so we got the scoop on the best things to see. We headed down the south coast to our first point of interest, Togitogiga Falls in Pupu Pu’e National Park. The area was just beautiful. We walked down a dirt trail for several hundred yards before we got to the area where you could see the falls. This was a double water fall but both falls were fairly short, about 20 feet at the highest and fell into a beautiful fresh water pool then trickled on down into a stream. First we took some photos to try and capture the beauty of the place but photos just don’t do it justice.
Jessie took the first turn going up to jump into the pool below the upper falls. She jumped from the upper fall then climbed from the pool and jumped from the lower fall into the pool below. I took photos to capture the event.
Now it was my turn. I climbed up to the same spot that Jessie jumped from but it was too high for the chicken. I just couldn’t make myself jump. I switched to another jumping spot which was maybe 3 feet lower than the first but still stood there paralyzed with fear. I just hate the falling feeling that comes with jumping off things. After about 15 minutes (at least) of talking to myself and being scared, I took a sitting position on the rocks to get me a little closer to the water and I finally managed to jump. After all that worry it wasn’t so bad and the water felt great. Now for the second jump; I had to do this one because once you jumped from the first pool, there was no other way down. Again, I stood there scared for at least 5 minutes then finally got the courage to jump, again from a sitting position. Woooohooo! I did it. Jessie didn’t understand my fear or the big deal but was happy that I finally jumped. We played a bit longer in the water and took a few more photos then headed back to the car.
From here we go to the Sopoaga Falls. Jessie is the navigator as we follow the island map to our various destinations. This Sopoaga Falls is extremely tall and falls down into a deep gorge beneath. The viewing area is located on the property of a Samoan lady who has created a really nice cultural experience to go along with the viewing of the falls. You enter the property through her garden, where she has signs labeling all the plants with both the common and botanical names. There are roosters and hens wandering through the garden too. We found the lady seated under a fale in the garden working on weaving a mat from the leaves of a palm grown on her property. She told us it will take about 4 months to complete the mat. This type of mat is very fine, woven from ¼ inch strips of palm leaves. This type of mat was once used as currency here in Samoa, and is now used for gifts at weddings and funerals. We saw one in the market later that sold for 2000 Samoan Tala or about $1000 USD.
Next we made our way to the Piula Fatumea Cave Pools which are fresh water pools that flow from inside two different caves located on the property of a College of Theology. Jessie decided she didn’t want to get wet again so she stayed on the edge of the pool while I took a brief swim. I swam to the back cave wall and it was pretty eerie swimming in the dark but it wasn’t too far in and you could always see the cave entrance. There were some fish in the pool but nothing too interesting. It was just a nice fresh water place to cool off. After the swim we took advantage of the changing facilities there and changed out of our swim wear because our next destination was back in Apia.
It was around 2:00 and we hadn’t had lunch so in Apia we found a coffee shop which served sandwiches and salads so we split a chicken wrap and had a drink. We wanted to visit the Marketi Fou which is the fruit and vegetable market but it also has some similar souvenir items to the flea market. Marketi Fou was a very colorful place with Samoan people displaying a variety of fruits and vegetables. Everything from bananas, pineapples, mango, star fruit, pumpkin like gourds, peppers and some things I had never seen before. They sold our favorite banana chips here and stocked up on them. Some of the children thought it was neat to see white people and would run up and say hi and want to touch us. One little girl followed us around for a while. We took a walk through the craft market and Jessie bought a few more pairs of the polished coconut earrings.
After the market we drove down to Aggie Gray’s, one of the most popular hotels on the island which was built back in the WWI era. We went in for a look around and hoped they would have a spa for some pampering and to waste some time. It was still early and we wanted to have dinner at Giordono’s Pizzeria. We left Aggie’s and just drove around the outskirts of Apia for a while but finally decided we weren’t going to be hungry for a while and it wasn’t worth waiting around wasting time so we decided to go back to Virgin Cove for dinner.
Along the route of the cross-island road which leads from Apia to the south coast, we stopped at a scenic overlook to see Papapapaitai Falls. You can see it from an overlook area right off the road. It’s a spectacularly tall water fall (about 180 feet high) that drops into a gorge. The surroundings are covered with palm trees, the biggest fern trees you can imagine, along with a variety of other vegetation. It is just so lush and green. Beyond anything I have ever seen before. A few photos and we are on our way again zipping along the curving roads through villages toward the south coast.
Once you hit the south coast the paved road takes you to the turnoff to Virgin Cove. Not long after turning toward Virgin Cove you take a very bumpy dirt road the last 10 – 15 minutes or so and pass right through a few little villages right on the road. In the evenings there is quite a lot of activity, people out walking from house to house, lots of young people out playing volley ball, rugby or other activities, and little kids everywhere. On our journey today we also encountered quite the variety of animals crossing our path, pigs frequently run across the road, chickens, a herd of cattle and 1 buffalo were crossing the road, we rounded one corner to come face to face with a horse in the middle of the road. You always have to be ready for the unexpected. We took some time to wrap up all the treasures we bought at the market today and prepare them for the airplane ride tomorrow. At a store in Apia we found these nice large plastic tote bags that we filled with most of the items. We used garbage bags and packing tape to wrap up the weapons. Jessie and I joked about what to tell the customs agent when he asked what was in the package. Weapons probably would not be a good answer; carvings might be better. We were a bit late for dinner and they were out of the one entre that didn’t include fish, so we both had a salad and French fries for dinner. The local Samoan group serenaded us again tonight. After dinner we did some packing and reading before bedtime.
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