Pago Pago, American Samoa

Our port of call today is Pago Pago in American Samoa. Pago Pago is actually pronounced “Pango Pango”. We were not scheduled to arrive in Pago Pago until 10:00 AM local time, which is now 7 hours ahead of Eastern time since we shifted our clock ahead one more hour again last night. I think this is due to the fact that American Samoa actually participates in Daylight Savings Time, so they are one hour ahead of Hawaii, which is not on Daylight Savings time.  Anyway, we temporarily gained another hour of sleep last night.

At about 6:00 AM, we were able to actually see the island of Tutuila, on which the city of Pago Pago is located. There are several islands that make up American Samoa, and Tutuila is the largest.

As close as we seemed to be, we did not think that it would take until 10:00 AM, another four hours after we sighted the island, to actually get into the port, but it did. The island is fairly long, and the port was at least half way down the island’s length. Whales are often sighted at this time of year here, so we decided to go for a “take out” breakfast at the buffet, and bring it back to the room to eat on the balcony as we approached Tutuila, just in case we might see a whale as we approached the harbor.

Sure enough, as we were eating, we saw three areas of mist arise from the ocean indicating whale “blows”, as in “Thar she blows”. It was unfortunate that they were so far away, even with the zoom lens, we were not actually able to see the whales themselves, only the mist from their blowing at the surface of the sea. They re-appeared several minutes later, having traveled quite a distance from where we had seen them the first time. Again however, they were still too far away from the ship to see anything other than the spray form their blowing at the surface.

The port for Pago Pago was in a valley between a narrow channel and and the mountains. The water was clear and made a very scenic entry to the dock. There were several large buildings on one side of the port where tuna is processed. One was a Star-Kist tuna processing plant, and is the main employer in Pago Pago. We went up on deck to take pictures while we were heading to tie up at the dock.

Once were were secured at the dock at about 10:30 AM, we were allowed to depart the ship. We did not have any real plan, other than to ride some of the local buses around to different parts of the island, and eventually make our way over to Tisa’s Barefoot Bar. The buses were a little confusing. They each have a city name on them sort of indicating the direction they are traveling, but it did not seem consistent, we saw various buses going in opposite directions, but with the same hand painted city name on them.

 

We boarded what we thought was the correct bus, and asked about the fare. Apparently, the “normal” fare is around $2, but less if you don’t go very far, or slightly more if you go all the way to the end of that route. The buses are all converted from something else, possibly a truck frame with a wooden top added. The seats are wooden, and there are no real windows, just openings.

Needless to say, we did not get on the correct bus the first time. It had a city name that was in the direction we thought we wanted to go based on the map we received when getting off of the ship. However, as we left the harbor area, we could tell that it was going to the opposite end of the island from where we had initially intended to go. Stephanie talked to a man seated near her and he was able to show us where we were, and which direction we were going, which verified we were heading in the opposite direction than we had intended.

We  passed some really beautiful beaches on our ride, so it was not all a waste of time. We got off a few stops before we arrived at the airport, the buses destination, and headed across the street to take another bus back into the harbor area. Apparently, the main bus station is near the market in the harbor, and all bus routes officially start or end there, depending on your direction of travel.

We were able to ask some other ladies at the bus stop about the correct bus to take to go the other direction, towards Tisa’s Bar. We got off at the main station, which was just an open area with buses lined up in rows, some of which said East and some West, indicting the general direction of travel. After asking a few more times, mainly to find someone who spoke English, we were able to determine we needed one of the smaller buses to go to the eastern half of the island. Finally, we were on the correct bus and going in the  direction we needed.

We were able to get some good photos of the ship at the dock as we headed the other direction towards Tisa’s. We also passed by the Tuna processing plant, which of course, smelled very fishy when we went by. There were several scenic beach areas heading in this direction, and after a few miles, we were at the Tisa’s Barefoot Bar, which was right on the coast, on a nice sandy beach. We headed to a spot on the beach and set our towels and backpacks down and went for a swim. It was not the best place to snorkel, there was a fair amount of waves breaking on the reef area, making the water somewhat cloudy. There was also some bad areas of current, especially right in the middle of the crescent shaped beach area. The surf came in on both sides, and then flowed out the middle, causing quite a rip current.

 

We took some underwater photos of the fish, but due to the poor visibility, most were just not very clear.

However, a few of them did come out fairly well.

We headed up to the beachfront bar and table area, and had one of the local Samoan, beers called Wailima. They came in 25 oz. sizes, large like the Samoan people.

 

We sat at one of the tables, and started talking with some other couples from our ship that were there on a tour, arranged by Tisa’s. One couple was from Canada, and the other was from Atlanta. We also got to witness a rescue from the rip currents that were flowing right out of the middle of the crescent shaped beach.
One of the workers at the Bar had to swim out to a snorkeler who was trying to swim back against the current, and was struggling. The “lifeguard” swam out with a lifeguard type buoy, and showed the person how to swim sideways to the current. After the rescuer got back to shore, we heard him say that this was the 109th person he had to rescue from the current. It was pretty obvious where it was in the water, you could actually see the water’s surface boil where the current was the strongest.

We hung out there for a while longer, (read another large beer), then decided to catch a bus back to the harbor.   We headed out the the main road in front of the bar to try and catch a bus.

The tour group that we had talked with was also assembling to leave at the same time, their tour buses were already there. We saw one of the small buses going in the opposite direction, but flagged it down anyway, and it actually turned around and picked us up.

There was another older couple that also decided to get on the bus with us.  The bus driver had to wait for them, and apparently he was not stopped in a designated pick-up spot.   Unfortunately, a police truck happened by and told him to move.

When the police went by, we were already on the bus, but the older couple was not.   The man had a cane and was unable to get there quickly. The bus driver moved up some along the shoulder of the roadway, making it even farther for the older man to walk to catch up with us and get on. The police did not like what was happening, apparently they must have told him to move altogether.  When the bus driver did not move far enough off of the road, the Police turned around and pulled over the bus driver and gave him a ticket. I am sure he wished he had not delayed to pick up that older couple, but he did, and he got a ticket for it, just ironic. The older couple asked us about the fare, and we told them it was $2 for each person, and we hoped they were going to give him a little more since they were the cause if his getting a ticket, but they did not. Oh well.

We got off at the market once we arrived back at the harbor, and walked through the various vendor tables. There were not many vendors there, I think more of them were set up in tents by the ship at the port. We walked over to the seawall and took some pictures of the ship, and of us us sitting on the sea wall in front of the ship.

After walking the remaining 3-4 blocks back to the ship, we boarded, and then headed to the buffet to get some lunch. After lunch, we got back off the ship to look around in the tents that had been set up for the various vendors. It had rained during the time we were eating on the ship, so some of the vendors were packing up. We bought a few items, and then re-boarded the ship.

We were not scheduled to leave port until about 7:00 PM, so we headed to the balcony to relax and take some pictures, and enjoy some refreshments. We were tired from being on the go all day, and from the time change last night; plus the snorkeling, walking and drinking the large Samoan size beers in the middle of the day out in the hot sun.

After the ship pulled away from the dock and headed out to sea, we decided just to go to the buffet and get a couple of plates “to go” and eat in the cabin. We lose the hour we got last night when the clocks change back again tonight. Tomorrow, we will be in Western Samoa, stopping in the port of Apia. We are scheduled to arrive at 7:00 AM, and are doing a ship’s tour.