And now the tropical bit begins. Thirty-one degrees of tropicality to be precise. Now I’ll be honest, but I hate the tropics. That probably sounds odd given that pretty much everywhere I go is in the tropics, but I can’t stand the heat and especially the humidity, I just put up with it because that’s where all the best wildlife is. All things considered I’d rather be in Iceland. But the tropics are what call me and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Samoa’s international airport is 35km from the capital Apia, and most people take a shuttle for 25 Tala or a taxi for 60 or so. The other option, the one I and exactly no-one else on the plane took, is to walk fifty metres out of the airport building onto the road outside and catch a local bus for 3 Tala. (There are roughly 1.9 Tala to one New Zealand dollar, according to XE.com). The bus takes about an hour to get to Apia – cheaper usually does mean slower – so I had plenty of time to scenery-watch. The only birds I could note down firmly were common and jungle mynahs, red-vented bulbuls Red-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer)and Polynesian triller. I did see a Samoan fantail and what was almost certainly a Samoan starling, but because they are both endemics I pretended I didn’t so that I could see them for the “first time” in better viewing conditions than from a bus window.
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