Well....having got to St Louis earlier in this trio and been in the midst of extreme weather there ( from 70 F - (21C) to the midst of a mini tornado) we've done it again!
David is at the Air Pacific office as I type...waiting to hear what the plan is should the CYCLONE warning turn into an actuality.
We know we have a place to stay here..and if the winds don't get up too much our landlady is taking us out to dinner tonight!
Will keep you posted...
Friday, January 21, 2011
What every waterlogged world traveller is wearing!
I'm going into business manufacturing these for every place the Hoblyns visit....
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Tropical Rain
Well....I spoke too soon. We haven't seen the sun now for over 24 hours but we do have PROPER rain. It's hurling down out of the sky, banging on the tin roof of our carport and assuring us of a day of rest. We are very cosy in our hill house and I can potter around making delicious stuff to eat from the produce Maria has given us. Huge papayas are a favourite and are the traveller's friend....I'll leave that to your imagination. Last night we ate a bacon, watercress and avocado salad; the avocado was splitting its skin with ripeness and the size of two tennis balls. Pork is a staple in tropical climates and wild pigs wander about everywhere here-a family was crossing our drive as we drove in yesterday!
Email may be a problem but the phone signal is usually great...it worked well enough on a ferry crossing from our main island of Upolu to Savaii to be able to text Louise in Glasgow. Isn't that amazing? And this morning she let me know that she's been offered a place on the PGDE (primary school teacher training) course at Glasgow uni in September...only 80 places and she's got one!
Here we can get a grainy terrestrial TV station that brings domestic news from New Zealand ( the Hoblyn weather effect is on target....the rear end of cyclones affecting south island!), local news in Samoan and English and lots of Christian TV. Religion is really a large part of the culture here with an endless variety of Christian denomination churches; also lots of Latter Day Saints and now a Bahai temple and a Hindu retreat. There is still a curfew in every village between 6 and 7 pm for family prayer time but the creeping changes are there. Until recently no shops were open on Sunday and now they are. Whether the young will continue the culture, I'm not sure. The average age on Samoa is a staggeringly low 22.
What have I loved about this place? Apart from the peace of the lush countryside and the open-ness of the people it's a visual treat. And I love the generous proportions of the people, at ease in their skin. I've even got to like tattoos a bit.....on Samoans anyway!
And that neatly links to my latest reading matter, picked up in the airport in Hawaii, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I've just begun and so far it seems a good holiday read. My copy is saturated as a bottle of water leaked on it yesterday and the atmosphere is so humid it hasn't dried yet. I'm not going to try and help it as I've had two disasters trying to do that; I carefully put some waterlogged shoes (result of wading a river) in the warmed oven in Costa Rica and they dried nicely but shrank...so I had to buy more in Hawaii. And I put my all
weather vinyl travelling handbag (soggy from same bottle of water) in the oven here but forgot to turn it off. Result one melted bag! Luckily no damage to oven or house though....
I began this blog at about 9 a.m and it's still raining at 3.30 Ok...enough now....and the wifi is still preventing picture evidence...but soon, I hope!
Email may be a problem but the phone signal is usually great...it worked well enough on a ferry crossing from our main island of Upolu to Savaii to be able to text Louise in Glasgow. Isn't that amazing? And this morning she let me know that she's been offered a place on the PGDE (primary school teacher training) course at Glasgow uni in September...only 80 places and she's got one!
Here we can get a grainy terrestrial TV station that brings domestic news from New Zealand ( the Hoblyn weather effect is on target....the rear end of cyclones affecting south island!), local news in Samoan and English and lots of Christian TV. Religion is really a large part of the culture here with an endless variety of Christian denomination churches; also lots of Latter Day Saints and now a Bahai temple and a Hindu retreat. There is still a curfew in every village between 6 and 7 pm for family prayer time but the creeping changes are there. Until recently no shops were open on Sunday and now they are. Whether the young will continue the culture, I'm not sure. The average age on Samoa is a staggeringly low 22.
What have I loved about this place? Apart from the peace of the lush countryside and the open-ness of the people it's a visual treat. And I love the generous proportions of the people, at ease in their skin. I've even got to like tattoos a bit.....on Samoans anyway!
And that neatly links to my latest reading matter, picked up in the airport in Hawaii, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I've just begun and so far it seems a good holiday read. My copy is saturated as a bottle of water leaked on it yesterday and the atmosphere is so humid it hasn't dried yet. I'm not going to try and help it as I've had two disasters trying to do that; I carefully put some waterlogged shoes (result of wading a river) in the warmed oven in Costa Rica and they dried nicely but shrank...so I had to buy more in Hawaii. And I put my all
weather vinyl travelling handbag (soggy from same bottle of water) in the oven here but forgot to turn it off. Result one melted bag! Luckily no damage to oven or house though....
I began this blog at about 9 a.m and it's still raining at 3.30 Ok...enough now....and the wifi is still preventing picture evidence...but soon, I hope!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
The Blogger is Willing but the wiFi is Weak
The Blogger is Willing but the Wi Fi is weak
It seems a very long time since we left the Big Island on the 14th Jan. Now we're in Western Samoa and, despite tropical rain, we're loving it. We do see the sun at some point in each day and are never cold. The temperature ranges from 27-30ish degrees C and the humidity is high (I've never had such voluminous wavy hair!) The place is lush and abundant...in everything but wi fi.
Following the theme of angels ( as in day one of this blog) we seem to have our own guardian angel here. We'd booked only one night of our 8 night stay in 'the' hotel in Samoa- Aggie Grey's - and knew we really didn't want posh hotel living but hoped we'd find something suitable on spec.
As we were waiting to get off the plane at Faleolo International Airport ( spot the difference between it and a field) we struck up a conversation with a Samoan lady - Maria. Suffice it to say that between plane and baggage carousel (where we were serenaded by a Samoan quartet) we had been offered a house to stay in. And that's where we are now - in a place in the hills, big enough to sleep 10.
This is the friendliest place on earth. We strayed on to a beach on Saturday (aptly called Paradise Beach) and the extended Samoan family who were barbecuing there, invited us to share their food.
On Sunday I was welcomed to a Catholic Samoan service at Maria's church and the choir was out of this world (think Polynesian harmonies) After church David and I were fed royally on breadfruit, yam, taro root, smoked fish and palu sami - a delicious confection of taro leaves
(like spinach) and coconut milk at Maria's family 'bake'.
Apart from lovely people, this island is a visual delight...even grey clouds and rain can't make it look drab. There's a great pride in their homes, they paint them in marvellous colour combinations; orange and pink, limes and yellows, sanguine and black... and the garden planting is also dynamic, to say the least. We 're lucky to have Maria's sister, a teacher and a village chief, to tell us about Samoan culture but I know this is why we're enjoying this part of our trip so much- because the Samoans do have such a strong culture and we are able to share it. Tourism here has an exciting edge...I've been a little 'thrilled' a couple of times, particularly when we were guided to the very top of a 500 foot waterfall, wearing only very slippery flip-flops, by a couple of small children!
I'm aware we are living in a bubble to some extent -especially as we don't plug into the Internet each day- so we have only heard vague things about the floods in Queensland or the Brazilian earthquake; what news we've caught has been very local...and that's a relief in some ways. Just to be able to wake up each morning and react to the weather or our mood is a blessing. We're here until Saturday when we move on to New Zealand and I'm not sure when I'll be able to blog again so will sign off until next time. (ps...there were meant to be pix with this but the Internet is so slooooow...I'll try another time)
It seems a very long time since we left the Big Island on the 14th Jan. Now we're in Western Samoa and, despite tropical rain, we're loving it. We do see the sun at some point in each day and are never cold. The temperature ranges from 27-30ish degrees C and the humidity is high (I've never had such voluminous wavy hair!) The place is lush and abundant...in everything but wi fi.
Following the theme of angels ( as in day one of this blog) we seem to have our own guardian angel here. We'd booked only one night of our 8 night stay in 'the' hotel in Samoa- Aggie Grey's - and knew we really didn't want posh hotel living but hoped we'd find something suitable on spec.
As we were waiting to get off the plane at Faleolo International Airport ( spot the difference between it and a field) we struck up a conversation with a Samoan lady - Maria. Suffice it to say that between plane and baggage carousel (where we were serenaded by a Samoan quartet) we had been offered a house to stay in. And that's where we are now - in a place in the hills, big enough to sleep 10.
This is the friendliest place on earth. We strayed on to a beach on Saturday (aptly called Paradise Beach) and the extended Samoan family who were barbecuing there, invited us to share their food.
On Sunday I was welcomed to a Catholic Samoan service at Maria's church and the choir was out of this world (think Polynesian harmonies) After church David and I were fed royally on breadfruit, yam, taro root, smoked fish and palu sami - a delicious confection of taro leaves
(like spinach) and coconut milk at Maria's family 'bake'.
Apart from lovely people, this island is a visual delight...even grey clouds and rain can't make it look drab. There's a great pride in their homes, they paint them in marvellous colour combinations; orange and pink, limes and yellows, sanguine and black... and the garden planting is also dynamic, to say the least. We 're lucky to have Maria's sister, a teacher and a village chief, to tell us about Samoan culture but I know this is why we're enjoying this part of our trip so much- because the Samoans do have such a strong culture and we are able to share it. Tourism here has an exciting edge...I've been a little 'thrilled' a couple of times, particularly when we were guided to the very top of a 500 foot waterfall, wearing only very slippery flip-flops, by a couple of small children!
I'm aware we are living in a bubble to some extent -especially as we don't plug into the Internet each day- so we have only heard vague things about the floods in Queensland or the Brazilian earthquake; what news we've caught has been very local...and that's a relief in some ways. Just to be able to wake up each morning and react to the weather or our mood is a blessing. We're here until Saturday when we move on to New Zealand and I'm not sure when I'll be able to blog again so will sign off until next time. (ps...there were meant to be pix with this but the Internet is so slooooow...I'll try another time)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)