Apia, Samoa

We docked in Apia at 10am this morning (Monday), which is the capital and the largest city of Samoa - the most recent population number is approximately 38,000. The city itself is located on the central north coast of Upolu, Samoa's second largest island. As with most arrivals, we were greeted by very friendly & enthusiastic native dancers.  Samoa is made up of four inhabited and five uninhabited islands that lie in the very heart of the South Pacific…very warm, muggy, & wet. Samoans are the second-largest group of full-blooded Polynesians in the world behind the Maoris. To our surprise, 80% of the country's land is owned communally by family groups and cannot be sold or mortgaged. Their main livelihood is agriculture and fishing - they live in villages near the seashore and families share their work and food. Each family has its own residence called a fale. It may be round or oval and without walls. Many are built on stone platforms, with mats covering the pebble floor.

As you work your way into the countryside, cascading waterfalls drop into rivers that cut jagged lines through the valley floor as they make their way to the ocean. The coastline is a wonder in itself, with sparkling white sand beaches…in some places stretching for miles, and here and there you'll find walls of sheer cliffs that drop straight into the Pacific. Beyond the beaches out into the blue lagoons are scattered the rest of the islands that make up the Samoa archipelago, some inhabited, others with only natures wildlife, protected by the fringing coral reef that keep the powerful force of the Pacific Ocean at bay. It’s truly the people, culture and nature that give life to these islands.

The first few photos pretty much summarize our visit - it was raining when we arrived and remained overcast with intermittent showers throughout the day.  Because of the weather, we stayed pretty close to the ship but what we DID see, I can share with you that Samoa is truly a postcard of natural beauty. Unfortunately, it was far too wet to be taking a lot of photos.

Scheduled to set sail at 4pm, it was a very short day, and since the local Island Gospel Children were scheduled to perform in the main theater at 2:30, most folks were back on board by 2:00. I mentioned in a previous post that a silent auction was held on the ship several days ago to raise money for Samoa’s Gospel Children – you’ll see several photos below of their native, ritualistic performance as well as Holland America’s donation presentation of $12,000 for their wonderful cause.

We’re now sailing toward Hilo, Hawaii...5 days and nights down the road - and roughly 2,600 miles. We’ll cross the international dateline tomorrow and finally be back on the same day and time as Hawaii. While we have 3 ports-of-call there & some nice tours planned, this will be our third visit and aside from our wedding vows renewal, we’re both ready to come home. It’s been a wonderful, very memorable trip with many new friendships & cultural impressions, but with Thanksgiving a few days away and Christmas less than a month, we’d rather be home with our family at this point. Less than a week after we get back to Phoenix, we’re off to Charlotte to deliver Christmas gifts & do some volunteer work at Carolina Crown for a few days.

Unless we do a complete circumnavigation again, I doubt we’ll be back this way. We now want to return to & concentrate on the Mediterranean & Black Sea, now scheduled for March 2016. There are many beautiful places we’d like to see again, & many new destinations (such as Jerusalem & Nazareth) we’d like to visit. More to follow…