GALLERY: Seta'olepai Turtles

This afternoon I swam with turtles. It was amazing.

There is a small, unfunded, family-run conservation project in the village of Seta'olepai on the north coast of Savai'i. The family buys turtles, mostly green turtles and hawksbills, off fishermen (who would otherwise eat them) and keep them in a large fresh water pool. They have even built a sandy beach in the the enclosure to compel the turtles to them to lay eggs.

The setting is so serene. Nothing but palm trees, traditional wooden fales for resting and few well designed fresh ponds that have the feel of water gardens. The place is few hundred meters off the main road so there's there's no one around, no cars whooshing by and it's blessedly quiet.

There are something like 15 turtles at the moment. They are so incongruously graceful as they float around their pool. I wish I had an underwater camera. The view under the water was surreal. The dust from the bottom hung like a mist from the turtles would emerge like some kind of beneficient prehistoric beast. I was entranced.

I swam with them for about half an hour in the cool waters of the enclosure. Then I sat by the edge of the pool, taking photos as they would glide by or breach to breathe and check me out. This is one of the best things I've seen in Samoa.