The lady at the Budget Rental had told me that she may have a car the following day and that she would call me if she had. They took me to a store to get a free SIM card, but it turned out that my phone wasn't unlocked. I didn't see a need for that for this and the previous phone I had, since I could make all the calls I wanted for about the cost similar to a SIM card cost. But this place was off the beaten pass. So I gave the lady the Matareva Fales phone, and let the people at Matareva know that I may get a call. But the lady never called, and I realized that I hadn't actually paid for the car, it was just a reservation. The first day was spent getting used to the situation, getting to know the three couples that were there, all Kiwis, all of them were familiar with the South Pacific area. None of them were what I would call typical tourists. Dinner was available at 20:00 and was a buffet type, included in the price. Beer, mixed drinks or wine was ordered at the outdoor bar. Tables were arranged outdoors, overlooking the ocean. There were distant cumulus nimbus and one could see the lightning in them, but they were too far away to hear anything. I kept taking pictures of the changing scenery and was surprised how long it took to get completely dark. The weather was perfect, midday temperatures mid to upper 80s (about 31-32 C), night time about mid 70s (24 C) with the Southeast Trade Winds gently blowing, and water temperature 86 F (30 C). This was considered the wet season, with precipitation in Apia about 18 inches each in December and January. The coastal areas of Upolu Island, the Island with the capitol city Apia, receive about 3,000 mm (~125 inches) annually, and inland (the island is about 45 km wide by 70 km long) precipitation was 6,000 to 7,000 mm (~about 250 inches) annually. The winter solstice was on 21 December and the sun was back on its way north, travelling about 8 degrees each month. The time I was there it was roughly about 10 days past the solstice, so in the middle of the day the sun was nearly vertical, about 84 degrees, i.e, very strong. The only fly in the ointment was that there were zika and dengue fever carrying mosquitoes and I was told to apply insect repellent with DEETS liberally, which I did, including before taking a shower, because turning on the water got the mosquitoes going. .. This picture was taken at 19;40 on 28 December 2017, Sig... BTW, I lost one day coming to Samoa - I left on the 26th and arrived on the 28th. Three flight, the longest 10 1/2 hours and total time 20 hrs.