ready for Rarotonga... and Am. Samoa

Days 16-19

On Thursday, we were ready and rearing to go for Rarotonga. We bought a round-trip ($7 each) on the bus and took it about ½ way around the island to a little roadside stand called “Fruits of Rarotonga” that was right across from the best snorkeling beach on the island. We could see lots of fishys in the shallows before we even got our gear on. (I was a bit more hesitant because the water was slightly frigid!) But snorkel we did to our hearts content and then just relaxed in the sun, soaking up the sounds of the surf and the tropical air.

When we had enough of that, we decided to walk the beach awhile back towards town and just pick up the bus wherever we got tired. We walked quite a ways (still carrying our gear) till we ran out of beach, then some more up on the roadside… we got out our map thinking maybe we were close enough to just walk the rest of the way back into town, but were dismayed to see how little progress we’d actually made despite going several miles… definitely time to catch a bus! Finally a bus came by and we got a nice tour of the rest of the beautiful island on our way back (funny to see everything in English again… I’ve gotten so used to not having it everywhere else) and after picking up some postcards and such, went back to the ship and collapsed.

I’ve been hitting my “I’m done” point the past few days, since it feels like we’ve been gone so long and some of our prettiest places are behind us, but I’m sure I’ll catch my 2nd wind as we get to Australia. Chris could pretty much do this forever, but I’m more tied to home I think… and the kittys! (yes, I miss my babies very much). I think smaller doses of vacation are good for me… or maybe I could handle more if we were at least bringing everyone with us!

Anyways, we docked in Pago Pago, American Samoa yesterday. Chris got super excited when he spotted a McDonalds AND Mt. Dew. (I think that instantly made it his favorite place so far :)) We decided to hop on a funky jacked up bus (by which I mean that it was the highest off the ground of any ones we saw) for a tour of the island since there wasn’t much in the way of beaches and we didn’t have time to get into the interior. We saw the areas hit by the tsunami… sad to see the destruction, but glad to see that it was far from destroying everything. Mostly parts of a few villages that were closest to the ocean. Everyone was quite friendly and always waved to us as we went by and it looked like relief efforts were well underway.
That’s all for now…. Hugs and love to all….