Apia Samoa

 We are due to be in Apia today. I woke early and was able to view an amazing sunrise. The cloud formations are quite different here. This is something I would love to paint.

Yesterday we were in American Samoa and it is a territory of the United States . Today we are in Samoa and it is an independent country with its own parliament and government and prime minister. They are actually on a different time zone.

As usual we had a wake up call for 6:15 and room service breakfast delivery at 6:30. While getting ready and eating breakfast we were able to view the sail in and get early glimpses of where were would be spending the day.

We finished breakfast and headed for deck 7 to enjoy the performance of the dancers of  Samoa. It was just as special as we expected. The performers work very hard and we could see the perspiration on their bodies even though we were on deck seven.

The performance lasted almost an hour and then we headed back to our room to gather our things and head out to get out stickers and wait in the Theatre. Much to our surprise we were not long before we were on the bus.

We were pleased to see that these were modern buses with AC and padded seats. We waited until it was time to leave because the buses have to co-ordinate arrival times at different areas

Our guide was Sue and our driver could be called Mr Ed because pronouncing it would be difficult for us.

As we drove along Sue pointed out the land marks and the public buildings.

Mr Ed stopped at a shore where Sue explained that sea levels rising has made it necessary for there to be a wall surrounding the entire Island. It is a wall of what looked like bricks and there were volcanic rocks piled on the water side of the wall. Climate change is definitely real and you can see it in this part of the world.

Our guided tour continued and then we arrived at Sails by the Sea. This is where we are scheduled to have Hi Tea. We received a grand welcome by a young man blowing a conch shell

This is a fairly large open air restaurant. As we entered we were given a flower to wear in our hair and a glass of champagne. They also passed out bottled of water from Samoa. The restaurant was beautifully decorated with local flowers. As they got all of the food put out and made the tea we were entertained by 2 Samoan young men singing and playing drums.

A rite of passage for the men is to have their bodies tattooed. This picture shows the intricate pattern .Close up it actually seems to have texture.

The food choice included small sandwiches, scones, pastries and fruit. The supply was ample and you were free to go again if you wished. The tea was served in china cups and saucers.

The tour guides were allowed to enjoy lunch after the guests,

Ken and I had Julie take our picture.

The grand finale of this visit was a display of fire dancing. WOW!!

Then it was time to say good bye and head to our next stop.

We boarded the bus and headed to St Theresa Cathedral of the Child Jesus in the village of Lepea. The newly built awe-inspiring building is adorned with magnificent art work by local artists. The art depicts Samoan cultural stories on 46 stunning stained glass windows that feature Biblical stories with characters of Samoan descent.

At the end of the visit a priest from the church told us about the church and the circumstance of its creation.The labor was almost all volunteer which made this magnificent structure to be built.

Next our driver took us to the near by 100 year old cathedral. At first we were told we could only view from the outside but the timing was better so we were allowed to enter.

Our last stop was to the local market. It is large and you can buy almost everything there from clothes to food and the list goes on.

BUT for me the stop meant a chance to get an amazing tropical flower arrangement. 

I just love it and it cost only 18.00 US. Those of you who know how I love a bargain and how much I love flowers you know how excited I was about that.

We returned to the ship, had a nap, had a snack went to dinner and went to the evening show at the Princess theatre " Born to be Wild" and called it a day. Tomorrow is a sea day.