traveldiary.stracke.us

We spent the last 6 weeks south of the Equator and had some interesting encounters with the “animal kingdom”, above and below the surface.
The “Hitchcock birds” at the Aggie Grey Resort in Apia, Samoa:
Gabi and I were sitting on our balcony at dusk when suddenly hundreds of chirping birds descended into a huge Banyan tree, about 6 feet away from us. The commotion lasted for a good half hour, with the first birds getting the best sleeping spaces, until everybody settled in for the night. Fortunately, the birds kept the noise down during the night.
Cats, centipedes and roosters at the Hotel Kitano, Samoa:
The cats were surrounding our table at the poolside restaurant, jumping up on the diners’ laps and trying to reach the food on the plates. The centipedes were only outdoors on the walkways and easily circumnavigated. The roosters were living on the hotel grounds, welcoming us to Polynesia every morning around 5 AM!

We were safe from the wild dogs on Savai’i, since we were traveling in a rental car. I was able to avoid the dogs, people, chicken and pigs, sharing the road with us. Only on one occasion did I see some flying chicken feathers in my rear view mirror.
The “Roach-mobile” : We rented a Geo Tracker on Upolu and discovered roaches living under the seats and floor mats. Gabi did not want to keep her feet on the floor and we returned the car the same evening.
The birds and geckos at Club Med, Bora Bora:
We had only small geckos running around our bed, but when I went to the bathroom one night, a larger gecko and I were both startled. Soon we had heavy ant traffic across our bathroom sink, the geckos apparently not doing their job. Our 40% DEET spray took care of the ant autobahn.
In the Club Med open-air restaurant, the bread and baguette baskets were covered with a mosquito net, otherwise the dove-size birds would have had our food.
Roosters, cats, dogs and a giant spider in Huahine:
The roosters living outside our fare at “Fare Maeva” were extremely early risers. The crowing concert began anytime between 3:30 and 4 AM. This usually was the end of our sleep. I also killed one giant spider, who would not vacate our shower.
On the bright side, we usually had three 8-week-old puppies playing and tumbling around our feet, as well as a mother cat with 4 kittens. The sacred eels with the bright blue eyes were just minding their own business, hanging out in a small stream.
Ibis Birds in Brisbane, Australia:
We were on the Southbank Parklands along the Brisbane river, having our 30th anniversary dinner in a garden restaurant. The setting was subtropical with beautiful gardens, streams and big trees. The trees were populated by large Ibis birds, who would swoop close above our heads, landing on tables around us and cleaning up the left-over French fries.
Watchdog “Kiwi” at Fatumaru Resort, Port Vila:
Kiwi was actually our friend and guardian. He watched our property day and night. Only once in a while did he have a little argument with the dog next door and their barking would wake us up at night.
Rats, moths and roaches at Coral Quays, Espiritu Santo:
We had dinner here al fresco on a nice French veranda, in a very romantic setting. The only creatures trying to ruin the peaceful atmosphere of the tropical night with the stars above us, were 2 rats, who kept running around our feet and giant moths, who were dive-bombing around our heads. Incidentally,the steak was very good.
The same night a giant roach was running around our room and fell victim to my crushing flip-flop.
Our last island on this South Pacific adventure was Bokissa Island. This was a very pleasant surprise: no crowing roosters, no barking dogs, no low-flying moths or birds, no crawling roaches, spiders or ants in our room. Just the sound of the waves on the beach, only 20 steps from our fare.
We went scuba diving on the beautiful reefs around Bokissa. The Reef Sharks kept to themselves, the poisonous Lionfishes were holding still for Gabi’s underwater photography and the white and black banded sea snake passed us without incident.
We liked it here so much that we stayed for 9 days. Except for the earthquake!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 8:24 pm and is filed under Australia, Bora Bora, Huahine, Samoa, Vanuatu. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.