Hiking and eating in the Amaluia valley

We went for a nice walk up the valley above Amaluia on Saturday. It ended up being an eating tour, as we ate more than we walked (almost). There is a stream and a waterfall and several plantations that grow taro, sweet potatoes, banana, oranges, mangoes, papaya, awa (kava in Hawaii), and several other things.

(click on any picture for slide show)

: Amaluia Bay

: Church in the village

: The pipe is the source of the village’s water!

: Some sort of food item, maybe cocoa?

: Sweet potatoes and awa grow along the bamboo poles

: Drinking the young coconut (niu)

: Our guide was VERY handy with a machete!

: View of Leone

: Knocking oranges down with a big stick to eat them

: Amaluia Bay from higher altitude along the trail

: Husking a bunch of really sweet coconuts

: Sabrina and Kelley enjoying our eating tour!

: Eleven year old went along with us. He was pretty entertaining. He walked barefoot the entire way. When Lee went down ahead of us and the guide caught up to the group, he asked where Lee was. The immediate response from the kid: ‘we killed him’.

: A section of husk makes an excellent scoop for the very young, gelatinous coconut

: Next our guide made a basket to take all the husked coconuts back down with us

: Discussing how to prepare banana flowers to eat. Kelley was the instructor, she has learned all sorts of Filipino dishes!

: View from the plantation

: Hiking back down with a heavy load of coconuts and taro for the next day’s umu (food cooked over hot stones).

: Very slippery trail, we all skated down numerous times

: Grove of gingers

: Samoan chili peppers. The same peppers in Hawaii are Hawaiian chili peppers.

: Stream crossing

: Pacific pigeon or lupe. They have very nice calls.

: More gingers along the trail.

: The creek

: Gingers along the creek

: To the waterfall! Standing under it felt like being punched, a lot of water was flowing.

: Kelley and Sabrina

: Our group photo. Our guide let us know that he was looking for palagi girls. He needs a wife and wants to see the states. Mostly so ‘no more plantation, and I can sit around and watch tv’. We pointed out that then he would get fat….