After breakfast at Matavai Beach Resort, we drove to the Manono ferry terminal and took a small boat out to Manono Island, just off the western top of Upolu. Our information was that, if you waited for a ferry boat to fill up, you could go for the local's price of 2 tala per person. But, looking like the tourists we were, we were offered an immediate departure for the 4 of us, for 10 tala per person, round trip. In the interest of making the most out of our time, we decided to accept.
It was an easy ride (inside the reef) out to the island, in our little covered launch. Our plan was to walk around the island and find a place to eat. What we didn't realize was how hot and windless it would be, and that there seemed to only one place that you could request a meal from. After 1 hour of hot walking in the sun, we finally reached Sunset Beach View (or something like that). A small establishment that had a few bungalows to rent, and whom would make us lunch. We met the crew of s/v Mary there, a Dutch family with 2 small children. They had come by bus and on the ferry with the locals, and thought that leg was the best part of the whole trip. They had spent the night at Sunset Beach, and paid double what we had at Matavai.
We had an OK lunch of rice and vegetables for about $5 US apiece, and walked the rest of the way around the island to meet our water taxi driver at 3pm.
On our way back to Apia, we stopped at Aggie Grey's Resort out by the airport. This is a full-on US-style resort, complete with golf course (looking a little parched and empty in the heat), swimming pool, activities desk, and beachfront. We didn't even bother asking the price.
The next day was Friday, and we took care of the business of clearing out of Samoa first, as we were planning on leaving for Tonga over the weekend. Roger and Dave visited Customs, Immigration, and the Port Authority before coming back to pick up Amy and I to go sightseeing. With all the paperwork done, we headed out for Robert Louis Stephenson's house, where the famous author spent the last 10 years of his life, and where he died in his mid-40's, of Tuberculosis. It was a nicely done museum in RLS's original house. After visiting the museum, we hiked to the top of the hill above the house to visit his gravesite (about 2 hours round trip, nice hike).
Our final tourist stop was at the Indian restaurant for dinner. On our way home through town, we stopped and pre-ordered our meal (friends had warned us of long prep time if you waited to order when you sat down to eat). And then had great traditional Indian curry dishes for dinner. A nice restaurant, nice family, and good food for reasonable prices. Located across from Farmer John's grocery store.
Saturday morning we did a 'grocery run', and then turned the car in to the rental car company (Friendly Car Rentals, conveniently located right across from the marina). We spent the afternoon getting Soggy Paws ready for sea, for an early morning departure on Sunday.
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Sherry & Dave
On our way from French Polynesia toward Tonga
http://svsoggypaws.blogspot.com
At 10/03/2011 12:57 AM (utc) our position was 13°58.03'S 172°16.62'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm
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