.: The biggest samoan orgy... I am all in!!!

There is not much to do an island at night... i often end up just hanging out with friends or going to bed around 9.30... but there is one night, one special night... every year, on the third/quarter moon of October, when few people sleep, and many gather along the beaches of Samoa and take part into the biggest orgy these islands will ever see.
How can you sleep this night? How can you lay in bed knowing that you are missing the biggest feast of the year? For how tired I have been, I just could not justify bed time.
On Monday night after dancing practice, I drove all the way to Alega with a friend, and went straight to bed in Naomi's house... the party does not start until after midnight, and you never know when it is going to finish (I participated to this party 2 years ago on Ofu island... at 4.oo I called the night, but there were still people there!).
At 12.30, we hit the beach... bonfires has been lighted along the whole beach, and small crowd are sitting behind them (for how romantic the view can be, i think the purpose of the fires is to keep the mosquitoes away...). But the party won't start until the moon will rise above the mountain and the sea will send a very special messenger: a worm...

At this point I should specify that whether the feast is for us, the orgy is not. The palolo is a sea worm that lives in the corals, and that once a year, at night, swims to the surface to release eggs and sperm... Palolo is considered a delicacy in Samoa, and during these spawning nights the island join the worms in the water and collect and eat as much as possible.
Monday night: not much spawning in Alega, and we ended up going to bed empty handed. Still a good time though.
Next morning I felt like I was sleep walking all day... I think I kind of woke up when I saw a little yellow fish with black stripes swimming around the tank of my buddy. Then I though: "uh... life is interesting. It is lunch break, and I am scuba diving wearing my pajama (italiani! "pajama" e' inglese per "pigiama"! jajaja!). Again, how did I get here?"... you truly never know where live will take you and what it will bring you...
Tuesday night we tried again. This time we all slept until midnight and then we zombie walked to the beach. The moon rose over the mountain and the palolo came!
Now, it is wild game. People magically appeared from all over and entered in the water with buckets and home-made scoop-nets, sieves, flash lights.... I took off my long pants (mosquitoes-repellent...), entered the water and the party started!!

My goal this year was to take few good pictures, but our "palolo team" (I proposed the name "orgy team" which I believe is more folkloric) collected enough palolo for...

People were laughing, being serious, walking around the reef flat... Some were wearing everyday cloths, other were wearing a fancy puletasi... Tisa was playing the ukulele and singing...

On my opinion, it is totally worth the lack of sleep, and it is always great being part of this feast! (picture will give you a better idea... to come on monday).

So... we did it, we collected it, now we had to eat it... Naomi is a genius and prepared a great pizza we topped with fresh palolo. Of course our pirate loved to just eat it. Taste? it taste like salt... salt and some nutrients, like the sea... Palolo is a delicacy here but, personally, between palolo and strawberry, i would still go for the strawberry...