Day 333, Year 1: A Visit to Vailima—Home of Robert Louis Stevenson
Date: Friday, September 15, 2006
Weather: Beautiful Weather with Some Intermittent Showers
Location: Apia Harbor, Upolu Island, Samoa

Today we had a relaxed breakfast aboard, and then we headed into the town. As always, our first stop was at the internet cafe. Mark and I left Lynn and Justin there and went to Aggie Grey’s to arrange for taxis for an island tour tomorrow. About 20 of us want to tour, so we needed to arrange for two van-type taxis. While doing this, Margaret and Patrick from Aqua Magic came by and wanted to join us for our tour of the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum. We also went to one of the nine Bahia Temples in the world just a couple of miles north of the Stevenson Museum. The gardens surrounding the Bahia Temple were absolutely beautiful. The grounds surrounding the home of Stevenson are also beautifully landscaped and the tour of his home was fascinating. The house was full of memorabilia that belonged to Stevenson and the walls were papered with tapa cloth (called Siapa in Samoan). The house was built in the typical colonial style with white clapboard siding and a veranda all around. It contained some of the nicest original Samoan artifacts we have seen.

We returned to Apia and had lunch in a little sidewalk cafe. After that we returned to Windbird. Justin and I took the dinghy out of the harbor to check out the possibility of snorkeling. We both had a great swim and will return here on future days.

060915 Day 333 Samoa–Baha'i Temple and Vailima Tour