02/20/12 Pago Pago,American Samoa

 We just left the city of Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango) on the island Tutuila in American Samoa, which is the only US Territory South of the equator. As a territory, we understand that they do not have all the rights of citizens, but can come and go to the US as they please. They have a governor and a non-voting member of Congress and they pay taxes. There are 6 other, smaller, islands in American Samoa, including 2 coral atolls—one privately owned. Even though American, there is no “can you hear me now?” from Verizon, but there are 2 McDonalds, Carl’s Jr., KFC, Pizza Hut and True Value Hardware. Gas is $4.35 per gallon. And for the Survivor junkies—it was not filmed here.

Interestingly, Captain James Cook never landed here—one of the few he didn’t chart and claim for the British. It was, however, visited in the 18^th century by the Dutch and French. In 1899, Britain, Germany and the United States agreed to divide up the islands.  The Eastern Islands became a US territory and the western islands became German, after Britain dropped its claim. The western islands have become independent and are now just called Samoa. During WWII, marines outnumbered American Samoans and Pago Pago remained an active navy base until the early 1950s, when the Department of the Interior took over management of the territory.

As the first 2 pictures show, this is a very beautiful island. It’s very mountainous and houses cling to the hillside close to shore—the rough terrain and jungle make finding a spot to build a house very difficult. The airport is entirely on landfill because there were no flat spots on the island long enough. If we were plant people, we would be able to list all the native tropical plants that we saw growing along the road, but usually see in plant stores and hot houses. The vegetation is so lush because it rains almost daily—although we were in and out without rain. The rocks are black because the islands are volcanic. The beaches are small, but the sand is white instead of black because the local parrot fish are pooping up a lot of the light stuff. You may doubt this last statement, but we had dinner with the marine biologist who has been lecturing and he informed us that a large male parrot fish can poop a third of a ton of sand a year. I’m sure I could go further with this conversation, but I think I’ll pass….

 Today is Presidents’ Day in American Samoa, as it is everywhere else in the US. People still live in villages with a chief and we saw extended families and villages picnicking, playing cricket (it’s that season here) and practicing for Fautasi Races, as shown in picture 3. These large canoes require 49 very strong men to race—pretty amazing to watch that many men rowing in coordination.

We visited one of the local villages, watching them perform some of their crafts and preparing their food in the traditional way. We ate breadfruit dipped in coconut milk, which is their version of chips and dip. Picture 4 shows how they will roast a meal. They heat river rocks using a wood fire, then they remove the wood and place the food on the hot rocks, cover everything with a heavy layer of banana leaves (40-50) and roast for 1.5 hours. We sampled roasted breadfruit, bananas, chicken, tuna cooked in coconut milk and their “spinach”—some kind of greens shaped like a cup with coconut milk inside. I asked our guide if they cook like this just for festivals and she said no, that they cooked like this most days, but especially on Sunday. I asked if they had stoves in their houses and she said they did, but that this is what they preferred doing. I think it’s a conspiracy of women—with all the rock and wood preparation, cooking becomes the men’s jobs—not such a bad idea.

Our final picture shows our second rescue at sea. Last night about suppertime the ship slowed and the captain announced that we were going to stop to check on a small fishing boat, where 3 men were waving at us. We lowered a small boat and found that the boat had stopped working and these 3 men had been adrift for 3 weeks—having run out of food and water at some point. They were brought onboard, checked by medical, fed, cleaned up and dropped off today in Pago Pago to be repatriated to Samoa. Once they were on board and the bridge collected enough information from them, they were able to contact their boss, who was quite happy because he assumed they had been lost at sea. Quite an adventure!

Two days at sea and then Kiribati.