Day 2

Day 2 we headed into the central market area of Apia. There are two markets--one which boasts acres of fresh fruit, fish, tobacco, and arts and crafts and a second market that is mostly devoted to fabrics and arts and crafts.

On this particular day we headed to the first or "main" market I mentioned. It was a colorful sight to look across the rows and rows of goods for sale. It was also stifling hot. We learned quickly that if you stopped and browsed for just a second, you would have someone fanning you. I guess it is their way of coaxing you to buy.

Some of the colorful handicrafts...

The girls loaded up on handbags, jewelry and such. I went more for the finer crafted wood items. I bought the largest kava bowl I could find and bless Dan's heart, he carried all the way back to the car and then had it boxed up to be taken home. He always humors me!


After the market, we did a little bit of waiting in the lobby while Dan ran down to the closest ATM to get some local money or tala to have on hand.
Hilary, Julia, Emily and I walked across the street from the hotel and enjoyed the harbor view.




We loved seeing all the vibrantly painted buses that are everywhere. We had planned on riding in one but I felt guilty even taking any space from the locals who were almost always piled on top of each other for a seat.

The harbor was quite beautiful but sadly so trash laden. In fact, in all of the country, I saw 2 garbage cans and those were located in front of the McDonald's.

The navy ship in the background belongs to Australia. We ran into some Aussie sailors later in the day that were on a stopover in Apia on their way to Honolulu.

We learned really quick that a cold Coke is a coveted one. In fact, any cold drink is hard to come by even if they've been refrigerated. Sadly, Diet Coke was almost extinct and I had to settle for Diet Shasta. We stocked up on bottled water because the local water was said to be undrinkable. I guess you can drink it--Dan did on his mission--just not preferred.

Our next destination was Papase'ea Sliding Rocks not far from the hotel. There are a series of waterfalls in the area that feed into natural pools of fresh water. A few of the slides are smaller or medium sized and one area where they are quite steep. Let's just say that after I nearly went into cardiac arrest watching Julia slide down the steepest slide sideways I passed on the largest. The others were a lot of fun and not quite as smooth on the post exterior as I would have thought. We had a lot of laughs!

Just one view of some of the waterfalls looking deceptively small.

Hannah

Hilary

Julia being completely fearless. This is the child that a year ago didn't want anything to do with Splash Mountain at Disneyland... go figure... I guess she prefers the "real deal" because she went down slide after slide.

A series of stairs that we walked down and hiked up to get in and out of the area.

The evening we ended the day with a traditional Samoan fia fia (Hawaiin equivalent to a luau).

The entertainment was amazing and included everything you could think of-- beautiful Samoan voices, slap dances and fire dances. The only surprise was that they served dinner after 90 minutes of entertainment. By the time we ate it was 1am according to our body clock so we were famished! The food was Samoan, mixed in with a few salads that I braved. The kids were much better about trying all the food. As Dan says, Samoan food is an acquired taste.

Waiting for the fia fia to begin...

Notice the woven fans...they are absolutely essential in Samoa--pretty much everywhere you go you need them. The fans were the first thing we bought at the market.

Julia made it part way through the entertainment and then crashed on my lap.

She woke up and ate as enthusiastically as I did :)

We called it a night and prepared for another big day!