Saturday, February 1st—Our 29th Cruise Day—Pago Pago, American Samoa

Saturday, February 1st—Our 29^th Cruise Day—Pago Pago, American Samoa

We left Bora Bora about 5:30 PM on Wednesday, January 29th, with our ship continuing in a westward direction. We had Thursday, January 30^th and Friday January 31^st as “sea days” and—1100 miles later—at 8:00 AM on Saturday, February 1^st—we reached American Samoa.

The first European known to visit the Samoan Islands was the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen in 1722.

American Samoa consists of 5 volcanic islands; Anuu’u, Ofu, Olosega, Ta’u, and Tutuila—with most of the land area and population on Tutuila. All of the islands together are about the same area as the state of Oregon, and an 1899 treaty gave the United States sovereignty over the islands. About 90% of the islands are untouched tropical rainforest, and the National Park of American Samoa is the only US National Park south of the equator.

The main settlement on American Samoa is Pago Pago—pronounced either “Pango Pango” or “Pongo Pongo” depending on who you ask—but the pronunciation definitely contains an “n” even though there isn’t one in the spelling. Pago Pago is located at the head of Pago Pago Harbor on the south side of the island of Tutuila, but it is really just a series of villages spread out around Pago Pago Harbor.

One of the things we enjoy while on board the Amsterdam is playing trivia games. We are on a team of 6 for the game at 11:45 AM, and a different team of 6 for the game at 5:00 PM. And we have become very good friends with our teammates on both teams. We mention this because we decided to explore Pago Pago with two teammates from our 5:00 PM team—Al and Erica Wehrle.

We had visited American Samoa during our 2012 world tour, and on that occasion, we took a Holland America organized tour around the island and to a traditional Samoan Village where we saw native dancing and enjoyed Samoan food—including breadfruit. (See our 2012 blog) So for this visit, we definitely wanted to strike out on our own—with “all aboard” being at 4:30 PM.

One of the wonderful things about American Samoa is that it is an American Territory—which means that the official currency is the U.S. dollar, there are U.S. Post Offices where we can mail a post card for 34 cents (rather than $2.60 in Australia!), and familiar snacks like Cheetos and Fritos are available. And after a month at sea away from home in foreign countries, an “American” island was most welcome!

So we met up with Al and Erica on shore at about 10:00AM, and first took a quick look around the shopping at the pier. Next, the four of us walked up to the Post Office—Pat wanted to buy some stamps and mail some postcards. How odd it was to see and use U.S. stamps on this remote tropical island!

After our snorkeling adventures in Moorea and Bora Bora, and because we had been in American Samoa before, we were looking for a relaxing day on the beach—hopefully one with a restaurant and bar. Bill had heard that “2-Dollar Beach”—east of Pago Pago—might fit our requirements, so we decided to head that way. And just to make it more interesting, we decided to take public transportation rather than a taxi. Public transportation may be a bit slower, but is definitely a better way to see the local culture first hand.

On American Samoa, the main form of public transportation is the “Aiga bus”—a small, brightly colored, open window bus with wooden seats. So after our visit to the Post Office, we flagged down an Aiga bus that seemed to be heading east out of Pago Pago.

When we first boarded the bus there was one other passenger, but he soon got off, and from that time on, the bus and the driver (named Clarence) became our own personal tour service. We were under the impression that a public bus had a regular route which must be followed and was not available to be commandeered by individuals. But not so on American Samoa—the driver was more than happy to negotiate with us a “per hour” rate and take us wherever we wanted to go. So off we went with 2-Dollar beach as our goal, but with the mindset that our ultimate destination could change depending on how the day went.

On our way east, we saw many interesting things—fruit bats hanging from trees, a beautiful shore line which included “camel rock”, and the interesting practice Samoans have of burying their loved ones in front of their houses—complete with headstones. Presumably houses stay in the same family—we aren’t quite sure how it would work if a house—with graves in front—was sold to an unrelated family!

Another interesting thing we passed was a tuna processing operation with a statue of “Charlie the Tuna” out front. The smell from the plant was very strong and reminded us of the salmon cannery where we met each other in Kenai, Alaska, over 43 years ago.

After about 45 min we reached 2-Dollar Beach, and initially were disappointed because the beach was very small and there seemed to be a private party in residence. We were asked if we wanted to join in for US $2 each—and at that point it dawned on us why it was called “2-Dollar Beach.” But we politely declined and decided to head back the way we came—Tisa’s Barefoot Bar and Restaurant was just a short way on the road back and we were looking for lunch and a beer.

And what a wonderful place Tisa’s was! The restaurant and bar was a rustic, wooden structure on pilings right on the beach, so the view was fantastic. When we first arrived, we were the only ones there, and the bartender—a barefoot man in a tank top with the nickname “Candyman”—was friendly and welcoming. We immediately secured a table on the balcony with a view of the beach and ordered the local beer to go with our lunch. And then Tisa came to our table and made us plates out of reeds on which to eat our food.

Initially we had only planned to stay at Tisa’s for an hour or so, but the place turned out to be too much fun to leave. Clarence, our Aiga bus driver, came in with us, and was willing to wait, so we ended up staying over 3 hours. While we were there, we met and got to know Tisa—who performed a “Kava Ceremony” for us—considered to be a great honor. The Kava Ceremony consisted of Tisa mixing some sort of liquid ingredients in a large bowl and when finished, she dipped a half coconut shell into the brew, and implied that we should drink. Although we had no idea what was in the coconut shell, it seemed impolite to decline, so we all took a few sips. The mixture was very thin, had an odd taste—and most notably made our tongues and lips go numb. [NOTE: The Kava Ceremony reminded us of the song “Love Potion No. 9”…”She bent down, turned around and gave me a wink. She said I’m gonna mix it up right here in the sink. It smelled like turpentine and looked like India Ink—I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink”] But we all thanked Tisa and felt privileged to be chosen for this traditional Samoan ceremony.

Later, Bill decided to go down to the beach for a swim while Pat wrote some postcards and sent text messages to our kids back home. Although the beach was sandy and inviting, once in the water there was broken coral which even with aqua sox made walking difficult. And the deeper, swimming water was a long walk through shallow water. So Bill got a few photos from the beach and was back to Tisa’s in time for the next round of beers!

Later a few others from our ship came in, but no one came earlier or stayed later than we did. Tisa also has a couple of rooms that she rents that are right on the beach and connected to the restaurant. Before we left, we had a tour of these rooms—open air and complete with mosquito netting over the bed—and felt that staying in one of these rooms—although primitive—would undoubtedly be interesting. Maybe someday!!

Eventually it was time to leave Tisa’s if we were going to make it back in time for “all aboard.” So Al, Erica, Bill and Pat, and driver Clarence made our way back to the Aiga and returned to Pago Pago. But our stay at Tisa’s really made our stay in American Samoa wonderful and memorable. It was one of those serendipitous moments where what we didn’t plan was so much better than what we did plan!

Before arriving at the pier, we convinced Clarence to stop at “Sadie’s by the Sea” hotel/resort where we were able to get wine and bourbon as well as Fritos and Cheetos-- this would be our last American port and these would have to last us until the end of our trip! It is interesting that W. Somerset Maugham wrote his novel “Rain” while staying at Sadie’s.

Back at the pier where our ship was docked, we had some time to shop at the colorful market of local ware that were set up for our benefit. For sale were mostly shirts, hats, sarongs, carvings and other trinkets, but there were also flowers, and Pat bought a lovely display for our room.

As we returned to the gangway, we were entertained by a group of men and women performing traditional Samoan music and dance. And of course there was the sail-away party on the Lido deck after we were back on board!

We would depart Pago Pago and American Samoa about 5:00 PM on Saturday, February 1^st. The next 2 days would be “sea days”, and our next port of call would be Lautoka, Viti Levu, Fiji at 8:00 AM on Wednesday, February 5^th. One might think it was 3 sea days, but we crossed the International Dateline, and February 2nd didn't exist for us!