An American Paradise
Day 68, Grand Asia 2017
Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017 – Pago Pago, American Samoa
“Did you use up your local currency?” people asked as we boarded the ship after a day in Pago Pago. It was a joke, because the official currency on American Samoa is the American dollar. For weeks we had been trying to use up our foreign change as we left each country.
This is an interesting American outpost in the South Pacific. It’s a beautiful mountainous island, and must of it is the National Park of American Samoa – the only U.S. National Park in the Southern Hemisphere. Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango) sits on an almost hidden deepwater harbor, anchored by a Starkist tuna cannery.
Seventeen of us spent the day with Tisa, the owner of a small beach club. She led us on an hour-long tour of the island in one of the iconic local open-air buses. The LBJ Hospital is named after the only president to visit the island. At one time, regular PanAm flights helped to support a five-star hotel, but when PanAm shut its door, so did the hotel. Now Hawaiian Air flies in twice a week.
As we traveled along the coastal road, we traversed from village to village, each with an open-air pavilion and a commune of tribal houses, with the chief’s being the largest. Tisa, the granddaughter of a chief, described island life and history.
We spent most of the day at Tisa’s Barefoot Bar and Grill. Despite its popularity as a place cruise passengers flock to, Tisa had limited the joint until 2 p.m. to just our private group. The tide was in, providing ideal snorkeling conditions. The bar was open. Tisa played the ukulele. What more could we ask?
As it turned out, lunch was the highlight. While we toured, our lunch was cooking in a traditional Samoan oven, which is built of rocks and wood above the ground and covered with many layers of banana leaves.
Buried beneath was a whole turkey, two hams, papayas with cinnamon, bananas, breadfruit and coconut halves with fish stew and relish. It was a feast, and you might have thought the 17 of us hadn’t eaten in days.
As we prepared to sail away from American Samoa, the afternoon rains came, obscuring the view of the nearby mountains. Rain seems to follow us to and from many ports on this trip.
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If you are paying attention, you might have noticed that this post is the second one for Thursday, Dec. 7. As I wrote yesterday, we crossed the International Date Line so we repeated the day. We are sometimes confused, too.
Sounds like a really fun day!
I’ve been following your beautiful experience and I’m very impressed with your comments and great pictures. Jan 2019, I will be on the Amsterdam for the World Cruise and I’ve been searching on ways to post my travels, your postings are well organized and easy to follow. So, my question is, do you have a laptop to write your post and then connect to the SLOWWW internet to do the actual posting? I’m planning on my iPhone 10 for pictures, but wonder if it’s better to have a separate camera. Any information you can post regarding this issue would be appreciated it. Loving your trip! Thank you!
Maria, I am going backward through the comments, to explain why you are getting multiple. I wrote a blog entry on cameras, but essentially think that the iPhone 10 would be fine unless you are wanting to print large enlargements or do professional photography. As they say, the best camera is the one you have with you.