Last week excitement rose as we approached a rare and wonderful three day weekend. Friday started out with a relaxing dinner and Jessie and Julia's and Saturday we spend nearly the entire day at Sadie's by the Sea eating, drinking and swimming. Sunday was the day the adventure began. We decided last weekend that we wanted to do something new that we had been meaning to do since we all arrived on the Island – climb Mt. Alava. This hike is maintained by the National Park and is a moderately (or deathly) strenuous 3.6 mile hike up to the top of Mt. Alava. The trail is actually an old road that used to service the cable car station that once existed on the mountain and ran cable cars across the harbor to near Samoana School. They kinda ended that when a navy plane carrying paratroopers for the Flag Day celebration hit the cable line and everyone in the plane perished. So now you have to hike up.
Being the crazy palagis we are we decided that it wasn't good enough to just hike up the mountain, so we chose to camp overnight in the fale'o'o (traditional style Samoan house) on top. We still don't really know if this is allowed, but we figured we'd stick to our motto of "fa'asamoa" and just do it anyways. On Sunday afternoon ten of us met at the trail head loaded up with supplies and all the water we could carry and set out on our jaunt.
A half hour later we were literally soaked with sweat, winded and taking a break already on our two hour hike. Going up a mountain is hard work for the not so in shape of us. However the views were awesome, the day beautiful and the nature exquisite so we just kept on trucking and after much ado we finally made it to the top. The view was amazing, and we all were in fantastic spirits and ready for the night which started with an amazing sunset. Once it got dark we relived our younger years by making cold s'mores (the boys tried to start a fire but everything is just too dang wet) and playing some Mafia. I felt like I was back at a middle school sleep over - just on a mountain and with some adult beverages - and eventually we headed to bed.
Sleep was not so good for some of the group, with two people actually getting sick, which was the only sad bit of our otherwise awesome adventure. After a leisurely morning of breakfast, staring into the ocean, and Thanh going to put on her hat and finding a giant ticked off centipede inside, we headed down the mountain. The hike back was lovely and much easier than the hike up and we arrived at the car exhausted but exhilarated and loving life.
Now I'm back at school but the week started on such a positive that I am still riding out the high. Check out the pictures to see just how awesome this weekend was.
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| Camping on Mt. Alava |
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