Vatia Tide Pools and Tisa's

Sundays are a dead day in Samoan society. Few stores are open and most people spend their day in church or sharing a massive umu meal with their family. I really don't have much of an issue with this, only that the Samoans use it as a excuse to close down their beaches and not allow any swimming or activities near villages. Thus, non-church-goers and non-binge-eaters like Sara and I end up trying to to plan activities at some of the few spots that remain open on Sundays. Luckily for us, there's a large portion of the palagi community that's in the same boat, so when one of our friends suggested the Vaitia Tide Pools, Sara and I jumped at the opportunity to get out and go to one of the few swimming areas that's not close to a village.

We and some friends from paddling rallied up in the late morning at the house of another married lawyer couple and headed out. Sara and I got to see the island in style - we rode in the back of our friends' pickup truck in beach chairs, which is the true Samoan way to get around the island.

There's really no better way to see and feel the mass of the rainforest-covered volcanic peaks than from a truck bed. Though my hat kept trying to fly off, it was a blast. It makes me want to have a pickup truck just for transporting our eventual visitors.

I'd been down to the tide pools previously, after a long hike in the National Park. It's a beautiful spot that looks out on the Cocks Comb rock formation on Vaitia Bay. This time I also had the benefit of bringing a camera (and my lovely wife).

The hike down to the tide pools from the National Park fale isn't long. It's a little steep and rocky, but there are a few interesting archaeological sites along the route. The Park Service has some good signs explaining their finds from a dig five years ago, and if you take some side trails you can see a few artifacts that have been allowed to remain in place.

The trail down also offers some some great views of Pola Islannd (the Cock's Comb). Every few weeks I need to remind myself that I live in one of the most beautiful and dramatic island landscapes around. Too often I get mired in the suburbs-lite feel of the Tafuna Plain. I need weekend trips like this to balance out the trash and traffic of the south side of the island.

The wind was blowing pretty hard once we reached the rocks above the tide pools. This was driving some large swells. Even at low tide, the pools were getting refreshed on a pretty regular basis. We set up camp on the rocks and a few people walked down to the pools and snorkeled around the largest pool. I worked up a little courage and did a dramatic entrance by taking the plunge into the water from the overlooking rocks. I also coached one of the other attorneys from my office into making the jump. It's a little spooky since the landing area is narrow and the footing up top can be a little slick when it is wet.

Another member of our party lost his wedding ring in the pool. A frantic snorkel search was commenced, but the wave action that was feeding the pools turned out to be a little too much and the ring became a permanent resident.

Sara, still a little gun shy after her last tide pools experience, opted out of the swimming. Turns out, she might have been on to something. Soon after the low tide, the waves picked up. They were regularly crashing over the rocks and aerating the tide pool. These occasional surges were dramatic and shoved those of us swimming in the pools around, but didn't cause too many problems. The real danger was that the waves were crashing over the only exit point for the tide pools. As a result, each person needed to use some spotters from the high ground, since they couldn't see the waves coming when they were in position to climb out. I made it up without issue, but a few of our group did get caught in some waves upon exiting the pools. Not being able to offer assistance against the crashing walls of water or the slippery, sharp rocks, I did the next best thing, I captured it on video.

After the pounding, cut short our trip to the tide pools, we decided we needed another activity to fill the remainder of the afternoon. With few places being open, we opted for the palagi standby of Tisa's Barefoot Bar. Something about Vailimas, banana fries and Pina Coladas on the beach do an amazing job of patching up bruises to the body. Just another weekend in paradise.