Samoa day eleven

Am starting to feel a little melancholy as our holiday draws to a close.

Managed to get one final cheeky snorkel in this morning before departing our accommodation at Le Lagoto resort. We left about 10:45 which gave us plenty of time to get to the 1pm ferry with a midday check in. It’s Sunday so as we drove we passed many well dressed locals as they were leaving church. Most were carrying books, bibles or hymn books or prayer books or possibly a sneaky novel to help pass the time. At least some churches were airconditioned which would have been an added attraction.

The ferry trip was as uneventful as previously. There were some big swells and I kept expecting to start to feel sick but I never did. We turned right, away from the airport and Apia, and headed the short distance to our final accommodation of the trip. We got to Le Vasa around 2:30 but our fale still wasn’t ready, so instead we went to the restaurant by the pool and ordered lunch. An hour passed which didn’t surprise us as we are getting used to ‘Island Time’, and also Simon had read that it takes a while at this resort for the food to come. But as it turned out, they had lost our order. This came to light when the reception staff came to tell us our room was ready and was surprised that we were still waiting. This sort of mix up seems to happen not infrequently over here, not sure why? At least everyone is friendly.

We had our late lunch and were in our new unit by 4:30. I succeeded in having a brief nap but mostly spent the time reading the second part of the book I bought at the RLS museum the other day. After Master of Ballantrae there is a light hearted nonfiction account of RLS’s canoe trip through part of France with a friend. It’s very reminiscent of Three Men and a Boat, written about the same time about a canoe trip along an English river. I’m enjoying this much more than the novel. It’s a real snapshot of history. It must have been written about 1880. It refers to the effect of ‘the war’ on the locals, I wonder what war that was? There was something about losing Alsace/Lorraine to the Germans. I must look it up.

Writing this as the sun is setting. Somehow it is not nearly as idyllic as Le Lagoto, I have obviously been spoiled as it’s still pretty nice.