Talofa from Pago Pago!

Pago Pago, American Samoa

Eastern Time minus 6 Hours (now minus 7 hours)

Talofa from Pago Pago!

We have now traveled 10,774 nautical miles from New York. Today marks 4 weeks aboard the Queen Victoria.

We got up early and watched the approach to Pago Pago. The word that comes to mind is lush!

We decided to do a short overview tour from the ship in the morning and spend the afternoon on our own. As we got off the ship the Samoan Dancers were performing a welcome show. I saw this beautiful little girl standing and watching. One of the dancers was probably her mother.
The guides were waiting to welcome us in their lava lavas (skirts). Our guide was named Samoa Junior Wilson. We were to call him Junior. Here he is with Jeff. Junior explained that they still wear lava lavas on important occasions such as weddings, funerals and any other time they want to show respect. They were happy to have us there, so they wear their lava lavas.

Junior had a very interesting saying. You may want to try to remember it to use in conversation. “I'm not really sure, but I know for a fact…”

The buses were made on the island. They got the trucks, sawed off the tops and then built the tops including wood with carvings. Our driver owned the bus and was very proud of it. The buses were the main form of transportation on the island. The locals ride them all of the time. There are just a few roads so the buses just go up and down the roads, back and forth. The reason the buses we rode in were decorated with flowers etc was that they wanted to know which buses we were in. The people saw the buses coming and would stop and wave and yell hello as we passed.

We toured the island which was very picturesque. We saw various landmarks including Faasilasilga which legend says were a mother and father turned into these two little islands. It was an interesting legend, but I can't remember it.
Another was a mountain they call The Rainmaker because if the top is covered with clouds it will rain and if it isn't, it won't. We were lucky, it wasn't covered. We were unlucky, it rained anyway. The rain here is very heavy and then it stops almost immediately so it really doesn't affect your day. It is like Florida in the summer.

We saw the islanders practicing for competitions in Cricket for a big holiday.

They will also race outrigger canoes that hold between 25 and 28 paddlers each as another part of the competition.

The families are very close on the island. They spend lots of time together. We heard that at 5:40 each night they sound drums (which turn out to be huge empty gas canister). At this time everything stops and people head for home. At 6 PM everyone needs to be home eating with their family and discussing their day. At 6:30 people may leave their home and continue whatever they were doing.

Sundays each tribe spends together. All of the families gather and bring food etc for a big feast after church. All of the families in each tribe must bring food etc for the Chief and his family as an offering. This pavilion was at a church, but most large homes had one almost this size for the extended families to gather. There are 7 chiefs on the island. The people are very religious and belong to a variety of religions but most were Catholic, I think. We visited this missionary church.

After extended touring of the island we went to one of these large pavilions (called a fale) and were met by the chief and other members of their group (tribe?) Traditional island music and dances were performed. It was great. One part involved a Kava ceremony. Ava is a drink produced from the Kava root. The drink was prepared by the young men of the village and presented to the Chiefs daughter. She is on the left in the headdress with the yellow thing on top.

We got a chance to try this tongue numbing drink if we wanted to.

Our friend David from Naples got drawn into the thing because no one else volunteered. He was a real trooper. They had him follow this young dancer and he even had to run and jump and shinny up a pole after sliding across the floor on his stomach. It was very funny, but he was fantastic and very gracious!

We had planed to go to the Pago pago Yacht Club on our won for their Saturday racing. W saw the PPYC as we drove past on our tour, so we got the feel nothing much was going to happen.

Instead we met Bob, Jo, Greg, Daneen and Chief for lunch at Sadie Thompson Inn for lunch. It was a neat place with lots of atmosphere and great burgers. It was made famous by Somerset Maugham.

We took a low walk though the small town on the way back to the ship. Jeff even found a Whaler!

We bought this beautiful flower arrangement on the way back for $7 and it is full of orchids. The cabin smells wonderful!

We had sail away on Kazzie's big balcony this time. Stirling even found a place to hide so he doesn't have to get off in Sydney!

The weather looked threatening, but it held off and we headed back out to sea.