Tales of the South Pacific - Apia, Upolo, Samoa

Cruise Day 21

Monday, October 20, 2025

In case you’re wondering, I didn’t skip a day in the blog; last night we crossed the International Date Line and jumped ahead a day, so no Sunday, October 19 for us this year, but we’ll make up for it by having the same day twice when we cross back over the International Date Line later on in the cruise.

We are in the city of Apia on the Island of Upolo in Samoa.  Unlike yesterday this is the independent Samoa, not American Samoa.  Samoa has a population of 219,000 and the city of Apia is quite large for the Polynesian islands with a population of over 40,000.  Samoa is in the Polynesian area of Oceania.  It consists of two main islands, two smaller inhabited islands, and several uninhabited islands.

As you might guess, the Samoan Islands are very close to American Samoa.

The two main Samoan Islands.  We are docked in Apia on the smaller island of Upola.

We arrive in Upolo.

Today is a first for us as we have signed up for a car and driver/guide for half a day as a ship excursion.  They sometimes do this in select ports for either a half or full day car or vans for two people or groups.  We have booked a car and driver before, but this is the first time we’ll be doing it through the ship.  This is the excursion they asked us to fill out a form telling our driver what we wanted to do.  Thanks again to Jessika for helping us out with this.

Our alarm went off at 7:30 this morning and as we got up we heard a lot of noise outside.  We went out on the balcony to investigate and found a group of Samoan singers and dancers performing on the dock beside the ship.  They were very good and we watched them longer than we should have and had to hurry to stay on our schedule.  We are docked in an industrial area and pretty much surrounded by containers, but the performers found enough space for themselves and put on a wonderful show.

 

After rushing to get ready and have a quick breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we made our way to the World Stage to wait for our tour to be called.  We were one of the first to be called and as it turned out, the only ones who had reserved a car and driver.  After making our way off the ship, we met our driver/guide Asa and we were on our way.

We drove through Apia which despite its large size looked like a nice place to live.  Asa told us about the city and pointed out various points of interest along the way.  They have an interesting custom in Apia that every morning, all of the police march from the police station to the Government Building where a band plays and they sing the national anthem and raise the Samoan flag.  We were just in time to see that happening and it was very interesting.  It seemed like a great way to be patriotic and show a love for your country to start the day.

As we drove through the town we could see our ship docked across the harbor.

Every morning the police march from the police station to the government building and raise the Samoan flag and sing the national anthem.

From there we went to the Fugalei Public Market that was very interesting.  We love going to the public markets in various places as they give you a look into the culture of an area.  They always have crafts and often tourist types of things, but the heart of the market is for the locals with fruits, vegetables and meat.  Val and I wandered through, and I bought my second T-shirt of the trip and Val purchased several things.

I did forget to mention that before we went to the market, we had to stop at a bank so I could exchange some American dollars for Talas, the local currency.  I tried to buy Samoan Talas from our bank before I left, but it was one of the few currencies that wasn’t available.  I was told it was because there just wasn’t enough of a demand to make it worthwhile.  My ATM card didn’t work so I had to go in and wait in line to exchange my money, but that finally got done and we were on our way again.

We drove by the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum that we thought we might visit, but because of the time it took me to get the talas, we decided to skip it and move on.  We continued our drive through town up into the mountains to view the Papapapaitai Falls and it was pretty impressive.  Sometimes on these tours they exaggerate things a bit like how big waterfalls are, but this one was really tall dropping 330 feet into a pool and then a shorter falls out of that.  As soon as you leave town you are in the jungle passing through small villages and towns, it was a very interesting drive.

We drove back down into the city where Asa showed us different parts of the town including some of the various embassies and institutions.  One ironic thing was the Chinese and American Embassies were right across the street from each other.  These just aren’t buildings by the way, these are lush compounds with very nice residences and offices, I wouldn’t mind living there at all.

We also drove up to look at some of the nicer homes in Apia and there was one very large home up in the hills with an all-glass front that had a beautiful view of the city below and the coastline.  When we asked him how much that would cost he said around 160,000 tala, that’s only about $60,000 US.  That seems a bit hard to believe, but the cost of living is much lower than where we live so maybe that’s true.

From there we drove to the Samoan Cultural Center where a group of people from the ship on an excursion had just finished weaving head dresses and bowls from some of the local plants.  Evidently as part of the show, they were going to be served lunch in the bowls they made.  We were too late to participate, but we did get to see some entertainment and then participate in a local Kava Ceremony.  A Kava Ceremony is the same as the Ava Ceremony we saw yesterday, but for some reason the American Samoans called it Ava.  The ceremony wasn’t as complex as what we saw yesterday. 

I'm standing by our guide, Asa.

Our tour was nearing its end, but Asa continued driving us around town showing us points of interest.  Apia does seem very nice and is a growing and flourishing area.  This was a great tour today.  We were able to preplan what we wanted to see, and when we started, Asa already had everything scheduled.  Because it was just us, we were able to modify and change things as we went.  So, with what we planned and what Asa suggested we had a wonderful tour today.  Asa was great and we really liked being with him today. We had some great conversations with him about daily life and customs in Samoa.

One interesting thing we learned about him was that his wife was born in American Samoa, so she is an American National.  She went to Moreno Valley in California several years ago to work and Asa has applied for a green card to join her, but getting a green card takes a very long time.  This must have been quite a culture shock for her as Moreno Valley is a town on the edge of the Mojave Desert that is very hot and dry; that’s a long way from the lush, tropical paradise she is coming from.

They have five children who are staying with Asa, so it is a difficult situation.  Their hope is that they will both work in the US and then have enough money to return to Samoa and retire, building their dream home on the land that Asa owns in the village he lives in.  We really hope their dream will come true.

We got back to the ship around one and immediately went to lunch as we were hungry.  We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon until it was time for trivia.  After trivia we watched the sail away from our balcony and then I wrote up the blog for this morning while it was still fresh in my memory.

We sail away from Apia and Samoa.

After that I relaxed until it was time for dinner.  It’s another formal night so it took a little longer to get ready.  We had a nice dinner, but we cut our visit to the casino a little short tonight.  Val started having a sore throat today and it seems to be getting worse, so it seemed like the best thing to do was go back to our room early and let her rest.  Tomorrow is a sea day and tonight we get another extra hour of sleep as we move the clocks back again so hopefully a lot of rest will have her feeling better by the time we get to Fiji.