After leaving Hawaii, we would have five days at sea, including crossing the International Date Line. The Princess Cruise staff made sure we were fed and entertained every minute of our trip, so for those five days, it was smooth and fun sailing!
One of the things I noticed during our days at sea, was the lack of sunrises and sunsets...but as we began to get closer to Western Samoa, that all changed! The early morning sky greeted us with it's full beauty!
Not long after we were pulling into port and were greeted with our first group of singers and dancers! What a wonderful sight! So fun to stand out in our balcony and watch and listen to this welcome!
It didn't take us long to check out the many lovely items for sale after we exited the ship and we were greeted with many friendly guides anxious to show us the island as well. Once we decided on a driver, off the four of us went on a tour of the island! Joe assured us that he would take us to all the spots on my list, including some he had I didn't know about!
Joe didn't disappoint....I wanted to see churches, and boy did we! Samoa (and and all of the Pacific Islands) are very religious and have just about every place of worship you could think of.
Some of the ones we took the time to really visit though were the beautiful Immaculate Conception Cathedral, the Gardens and distinctive Baha'i House of Worship, the Mormon Temple as well as some local parishes. I saw so many more as we whizzed by that I couldn't take pictures of...all so different!
Did you know that the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson once resided here in the 1890's? He was having problems with is health by that time and found the climate and the people met his needs. He only lived here a few years, but did manage several writings during that time. His home is now open to the public. It was quite beautiful with a large, lovely garden.
Apia has two, easily accessible waterfalls that were beautiful to visit. One was the Sopo'aga Falls that plunge through a deep green gorge.
The second is in the O Le Pupu-pue National Park (means from the coast to the mountain top). This spectacular park encompasses the summits of Mt. Le Pu'e, Mt Fito, and the magnificently rugged O Le Pupu lava fields besides the 328' majestic Papaitai Falls
We spent most of the day with Joe, and there is no way I can include it all here...but let me just say, he and his island were most charming. I spent three years in the 1950's on the island of Guam when I was young and my Dad was stationed there. This island reminded me very much of that time. So natural and still undeveloped to what today is considered a fast-paced and "modern" tourist area. I loved it. Here are few fun pictures: Their "Town Clock"; their round Parliament Building; a new Courthouse, the view of our ship from the top of the mountain and a view of the "jungle roads".
...catching up from our cruise, Marie
If you would like to see the rest of my photos, you can go to my Flickr account and it's under the Pacific Islands Album.
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