Return to Paradise, at Last

Chapter Five: Paradise At Last

Samoa

We landed on Upolu, Samoa, about 11:30 PM, managed to get through customs and immigration and into the best hotel of the whole trip: Aggie Grey’s Beach Resort.  This is our only upper class, 5 Star, resort of the trip: a couple restaurants, pool with swim-up bar, golf course being developed, all on the northwest coast of the island, with Savaii in the distance and the gorgeous Pacific all around us.  Of course, the place also comes with lots of screaming under-parented Australian kids…but a small price to pay for Paradise, champagne sunsets right outside our room and the incredible Pacific we had hoped to see. 

The original Aggie Grey’s Hotel is in Apia, the capital city (well, town) down the coast 45 km.  The Hotel has been an institution of renown since WW2 and has seen its share of celebrities.  We stayed there once 30 years, but I don’t remember anything special.  (We missed the weekly floor show and "siva" dance, originally performed by Aggie herself, now performed by her granddaughter.)

Millie at Breakfast

Beach Front at Aggie's

The cloudy weather followed us to Samoa,and we tried hanging out at the pool and working on our tans without success the first day, Saturday July 14.  We studied the possibilities, bought an hour of internet to check the weather, and decided to book snorkeling for us and SCUBA for the girls for Sunday at the dive shop down the beach. 

The weather was still a little cool, cloudy and windy Sunday morning when all of us had our first dives (girls SCUBA, Gail and I snorkeling), but by afternoon, it was clear, calm and perfect.  That second dive was a mile off shore, in a sea that deep blue and shallow emerald green you dream of, and the sunlight lit up the coral and the fish in the Fish Bowl Café, as they call the diving site. 

But the best part was that we were watching our girls six meters below us.  They have now had four open water dives and seemed completely comfortable.  Abby announced just before we left that she didn’t see herself coming back to be a SCUBA instructor here.  We didn’t know it was even an idea. 

The Wide Pacific

Monday we rented a car and drove around the island.  We caught another mostly sunny day and followed the beach road south then east along the coast.  The villages in Samoa, unlike Fiji, are colorful places with lots of flowering plants everywhere and plants that add color with their leaves.  Big ornate churches were the dominant structure in every village, each appeared to have been freshly painted just for us.  We drove slowly and took lots of photos, of course. 

The road was pretty memorable as well.  It left the shoreline after several villages and moved over a pass between the hills, then back down into a valley.  The road got less paved and narrower as we went, finally coming to a stream that we had to cross.  Actually, there was a low water “bridge” and the clear water rushing down the mountain and across the road was only a few inches deep.  Fortunately, we had rented a 4WD SUV, so I was sure we could ford the creek.  The Corolla taxi in front of us almost didn’t make it, though.  I got to wade across and push a little to get him through.  It was all part of the adventure. 

"Return to Paradise" Beach

After a few wrong turns, we found the Beach. “Return to Paradise” Beach was the set for a Gary Cooper movie from the 40s; none of us have seen the movie, but the beach was incredible—not for swimming, just for walking around and looking. In the 80s, it was just a barely marked beach you could just drive to, with a little help from the villagers.  Now, it’s a tourist attraction with a guesthouse and a couple chiefs hanging out at a "fale o'o" (coconut hut) to take your 10 Tala (about $4US.) per car.  

The beach was a hundred yards of sand surrounded by coconuts and bordered by black lava and white coral. A major lava flow had cooled at the beach, creating lots of pools, and the waves break close, so there is a constant rush of water over and around the rocks.   Gail and I came here Christmas, 1980, and we have a great photo of Gail on the beach.  The girls thought it was just as cool.  So we took lots of pictures and played on the rocks until it was time to head to the waterfall. 

Millie in the middle

Fish Bowl Cafe

Last Look at Paradise

The waterfall, on the way to Apia, is a hundred feet high and flows over a cliff in the middle of the rainforest.   The viewing area is opposite, just off the cross-island road, and that day covered in mist and fog.  The guy who lives across the road will help you down a path to the pool at the bottom for 100 Tala, but we decided to pass. 

We drove back into blue sky and brilliant sunshine in a few minutes and soon found ourselves at the waterfront of Apia.  Apia struck us as mini-Honolulu from the 50s—suburbs of sorts and lots of blooming and colorfully leafed plants.  The waterfront was recognizable, even though there has been much development.  We found the place where Gail’s dad took a picture of a boy walking a horse, with the harbor in the background. 

The last day in Samoa, we checked out and then waited around the pool and beach for our flight out of paradise.  Our next stop is six nights at a two-bedroom apartment on the beach just north of Cairns, Australia, opposite the Great Barrier Reef.  The place is a different kind of paradise with a washing machine and dryer, a supermarket down the street, and BBQ grills next to the pool.  The adventure continues.