We checked the map and saw it was less than 1/2 a mile to walk into town. What we didn’t take into consideration was how hot it was going to be. I think we had drunk all our water within about 20 minutes and had to stop and buy some more!

One of the first things we noticed about Samoa was how friendly the people were. E”veryone we passed whilst walking stopped to say “welcome to our country, and cars would slow down and open their windows just to say the same thing. We felt like royalty!

We stopped to have a look at the huge Cathedral of The Immaculate Conception, and it was a blessed relief to explore this lovely building in its relative cool interior!

Something which is not unusual to find on these islands is a beautiful building set very close to something that is in dire need of a little TLC!

Across the road from the Cathedral is the Samoa Cultural Village where we watched the traditional underground cooking using hot rocks…………sadly it was too hot for us to hang around and taste the results!

We carried on walking along the sea front until we got to the fish market. I have never seen such brightly coloured fish on sale before……….all caught that very morning!

It certainly was a day for exploring markets, our next stop was the fruit and veg market……………

.. where it seemed that each vendor specialised in just one or two fruits or vegetables!

A full homemade bag (looks like banana leaves) makes its way back to the kitchen!

Next to the markets is the bus station, full of multi-coloured buses all with air conditioning (i.e. they had no windows)!!

If you didn’t want to go to the market you could try the local supermarket……..

After all that walking about it was time to head for somewhere that was guaranteed to have air-conditioning and free Wi-Fi. Well, one out of two was OK, as this was the only MacDonalds I have ever visited without Wi-Fi. Well at least the coke was cold!

After lunch we found a beach close to the ship for a bit of snorkelling. The current was quite strong but the water was lovely and warm and the fish were beautiful and very colourful!