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Getting Caught Up & Getting Away

Getting Caught Up & Getting Away

Jun 23, 2017 | Travel

22

JUNE 2017

Getting Caught Up

In my attempt to blog more (consistently) this year, I’ve only been maybe 25% successful. I have so many photos and ideas of things to post but not enough patience with my Internet connection and most of the times, I get so distracted with day to day life things and blah blah blah…

Something like a vacation

Well, these days, I always feel the need to go on vacation, to take a long break and get away from my day to day routines and experience something new. So it was good timing for my college friend Scott to visit.

I took a week off work to go ti’eti’e pasi and show Scott around American Samoa, then we headed off to Samoa for a long weekend getaway.

Samoa, as usual, was a dream.

The weather in Pago was pretty drab up until the day we left, but thankfully it stayed a steady sunny in Samoa. Our first order of business: food!! We headed to town for a nice little dinner at Paddles, and toasted to me and Ian’s 3 year anniversary! And later hit up Club X with Lauren, Megan and Lagi for a fun night of dancing.

The perfect jumpstart to any day is brunch at Home Cafe – the cutest little hipster spot in town. There, we decided we wanted to go wherever the water was and drove off to Papase’ea Waterfall Sliding Rocks. I’d never been in the past because the waterfalls were dried up, but after the previous week of rain showers, we had no reason to not walk down the steep and uneven stairway down to a series of waterfall slides. I knew it was going to be fun, but I didn’t realize it was going to be really fun. We slipped and slid our afternoon away, and I almost wanted to spend the whole day there sitting in the pools!

 

PAPASE’EA SLIDING ROCKS

 

BRUNCH VIBES
AT HOME CAFE

 

 

 

 

 

 

But alas, we got back on the road and headed south towards the heavenly sands of Lalomanu Beach. We rented out a tiny beach fale and spent our day snorkeling and soaking up the sun over fresh pina coladas. We lucked out arriving on a Friday because it was Fiafia Night and we feasted on an appetizing spread of seafood and lots and lots of lobster! We also met some cool people that night, so that’s always awesome.
TAUFUA BEACH FALE
LE MANUMEA
If you’re going to the south side of the island, just be prepared to bring all the cash you need. I wasn’t really thinking ahead and only brought $400 tala (roughly $160) with us in cash. We blew through that real quick, so we had to scrounge, literally, in the folds of our rental car for loose coins to get into the instagram-famous To Sua Ocean Trench, where we sunbathed in the natural salt pool.

After satisfying our hangry bellies at Sinalei Reef Resort, we headed back into town and chilled out at Le Manumea Hotel. We were thoroughly ready for a nap. But first, dinner plans at Giordano’s Pizza with a couple of kindred spirits whom we had met at Taufua Beach Fales.

We lounged in the pool the next morning, and Ian decided to check out the SPREP offices to network with the environmental folks. We then hastily made the decision to drive south again but this time to Savaia to visit a giant clam hatchery – which by the way, was incredible! So many colors and psychedelic patterns! The clams are part of a Marine Protected Area, which makes them legally protected (and so should not be touched), and swimming amongst them was the highlight of this trip for me.

I didn’t realize how hungry I was and found myself devouring my burger at The Edge Cocktail Lounge. All our adventures had left us feeling worn out, and thankfully, we picked the perfect solution – full body massages at Touch of Samoa and a classy little dinner at Scalini’s.

To sum up our trip: we got exceptional food, exhilarating waterfall slides, beach fales, ocean trench visits, and giant clam swimalongs. The trip was meant to both show Scott our island life and celebrate me and Ian’s 3 year anniversary. It was something like a vacation.