Today was another port day - Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango) in American Samoa. Our tour was in the afternoon, so in the morning we decided to walk into town to see if we could find some t-shirts for the boys that said ‘Samoa’ on them. As soon as we got off the ship, there were some stalls set up with people selling various souvenirs and clothing. We found two wonderful t-shirts for the boys and they were only $5. US. We had found a bargain finally! :-)
Since we had found them so quickly we decided to continue walking to the main street in town (about a two minute walk to there) and we found out that the main street is not that long and that there are very few stores. We found a store called ‘Metro’ on the way back to the ship (by this time we were sweating buckets like yesterday) and so we were happy to be in a shop which was cool. While we were looking around the store, we found some pop for .75c US and some 1L bottles of water for $1. US. We have not bought any pop or bottled water on board the ship and it’s expensive and so we decided to treat ourselves to the pop and bought three cans each and then got the bottled water for our tours as you can only take off bottled water when you are going ashore and we figured we would need them now that we are in the southern hemisphere and the days are so hot.
After our shopping ‘spree’ we headed back to the ship and quickly got into our bathing suits and into the nice cool pool. We were never so happy to be able to get in and cool off so quickly! We didn’t have much time to enjoy the water, however, as we had to get changed ad go for lunch so that we could be ready for our tour which began at 1:30pm.
Our tour was titled ‘A Taste of Village Life’ and it was a great tour! We had a driver on the bus whose names was John and he was driving a bus they call ‘Le truck’ in the Polynesian islands. It’s like an old school bus with plastic windows that come down so that the ‘air conditioning’ is natural. We had two tour guides (both young girls: 17 and 19) Serah and Julie who did a great job telling us what we were seeing and also telling us about different legends from the Samoan people. They also sang some Samoan songs to us along the way.
The description of the tour is as follows: Take in the sights on a drive along Tutuila’s south shore. See Flowerpot Rock and the first missionary monument. Visit a home in a traditional village for a taste of island life. Listen to music as your hosts prepare food in the umu, the Samoan version of the traditional Polynesian earth oven, and sample the local cuisine. That was a great description of what we saw and did.
We saw some beautiful sights along the way - the land is incredibly lovely and green and the ocean waves made for some incredible picture taking moments. Our tour guides took a little detour to show us what the tsunami had done to part of their island. It was absolutely devastating to see how much damage had been done.
It was fun going to the Samoan village and seeing how they lived. We were shown how they make their food in the earth oven - they made chicken, fish, bananas, spinach and breadfruit. We were a little leery about trying anything other than the bananas so that’s what we ate. We found that when it was cooked in the oven, it didn’t taste the same as what we are used to, but then maybe the bananas are not the same either.
They also had huts which showed various aspects of their life such as weaving items from tree leaves, doing laundry on stones and hanging them on a string, and making sweets such as chocolate, papayas, sugar cane and coconut. Part of the ‘show’ was some of the young people doing their traditional dancing to traditional music. Again, we loved watching them - they are so graceful and it’s beautiful to watch.
After arriving back at the ship, we had to hurry and get on as they ship was getting ready to leave for Fiji. We were so hot again that we rushed back to our cabin, got on our bathing suits and quickly got into the pool. It was so refreshing and we didn’t want to get out. We stayed in for a while, but then got out as Mike wanted to see the ship pull away from Pago Pago. He went up on Deck 7 and took some photos from both sides of the ship while I sat leisurely in a deck chair and read my book.
After dinner, which was beef medallions for me and braised beef for Mike, we decided to do the laundry as we figured that most people would be at the show and we weren’t interested in watching another instrumentalist. The only thing that happened when we did the laundry was that our whites became pink from a dress of Sue’s mom’s which was three different tye dye colours so we thought it wouldn’t run, but we were wrong. We will have to get some bleach so that we can get our whites white again.
Since we had found them so quickly we decided to continue walking to the main street in town (about a two minute walk to there) and we found out that the main street is not that long and that there are very few stores. We found a store called ‘Metro’ on the way back to the ship (by this time we were sweating buckets like yesterday) and so we were happy to be in a shop which was cool. While we were looking around the store, we found some pop for .75c US and some 1L bottles of water for $1. US. We have not bought any pop or bottled water on board the ship and it’s expensive and so we decided to treat ourselves to the pop and bought three cans each and then got the bottled water for our tours as you can only take off bottled water when you are going ashore and we figured we would need them now that we are in the southern hemisphere and the days are so hot.
After our shopping ‘spree’ we headed back to the ship and quickly got into our bathing suits and into the nice cool pool. We were never so happy to be able to get in and cool off so quickly! We didn’t have much time to enjoy the water, however, as we had to get changed ad go for lunch so that we could be ready for our tour which began at 1:30pm.
Our tour was titled ‘A Taste of Village Life’ and it was a great tour! We had a driver on the bus whose names was John and he was driving a bus they call ‘Le truck’ in the Polynesian islands. It’s like an old school bus with plastic windows that come down so that the ‘air conditioning’ is natural. We had two tour guides (both young girls: 17 and 19) Serah and Julie who did a great job telling us what we were seeing and also telling us about different legends from the Samoan people. They also sang some Samoan songs to us along the way.
The description of the tour is as follows: Take in the sights on a drive along Tutuila’s south shore. See Flowerpot Rock and the first missionary monument. Visit a home in a traditional village for a taste of island life. Listen to music as your hosts prepare food in the umu, the Samoan version of the traditional Polynesian earth oven, and sample the local cuisine. That was a great description of what we saw and did.
We saw some beautiful sights along the way - the land is incredibly lovely and green and the ocean waves made for some incredible picture taking moments. Our tour guides took a little detour to show us what the tsunami had done to part of their island. It was absolutely devastating to see how much damage had been done.
It was fun going to the Samoan village and seeing how they lived. We were shown how they make their food in the earth oven - they made chicken, fish, bananas, spinach and breadfruit. We were a little leery about trying anything other than the bananas so that’s what we ate. We found that when it was cooked in the oven, it didn’t taste the same as what we are used to, but then maybe the bananas are not the same either.
They also had huts which showed various aspects of their life such as weaving items from tree leaves, doing laundry on stones and hanging them on a string, and making sweets such as chocolate, papayas, sugar cane and coconut. Part of the ‘show’ was some of the young people doing their traditional dancing to traditional music. Again, we loved watching them - they are so graceful and it’s beautiful to watch.
After arriving back at the ship, we had to hurry and get on as they ship was getting ready to leave for Fiji. We were so hot again that we rushed back to our cabin, got on our bathing suits and quickly got into the pool. It was so refreshing and we didn’t want to get out. We stayed in for a while, but then got out as Mike wanted to see the ship pull away from Pago Pago. He went up on Deck 7 and took some photos from both sides of the ship while I sat leisurely in a deck chair and read my book.
After dinner, which was beef medallions for me and braised beef for Mike, we decided to do the laundry as we figured that most people would be at the show and we weren’t interested in watching another instrumentalist. The only thing that happened when we did the laundry was that our whites became pink from a dress of Sue’s mom’s which was three different tye dye colours so we thought it wouldn’t run, but we were wrong. We will have to get some bleach so that we can get our whites white again.
Downtown Pago Pago.
Houses on the hillside in Pago Pago.
Huts near the shore in Pago Pago.
'Le Truck' - our transportation to the Samoan village.
Flowerpot Rock - on the way to the Samoan village.
Seashore on the way to the Samoan village.
Grave in front of a Samoan home.
Dog scavenging - there were many running free on the island.
Samoan gathering hut - these are found all over the island - it's where the Samoan people gather to socialize with each other.
Some of the devastation caused by the tsunami suffered by the people in Samoa.
More devastation
More devastation
More devastation
More devastation
More devastation
Mike at a lookout point on the way to a Samoan village.
Young Samoan villager climbing the tree to pick a coconut.
Samoan villagers husking and cracking the coconut.
Samoan village men cooking the food for the guests (us).
Samoan village women serving the food which the men cooked - chicken, fish, bananas, spinach and breadfruit.
Sue with some sliced bananas cooked by the Samoan villagers.
Young Samoans performing a traditional dance in the Samoan village.
Samoan children at play in the Samoan village.
Samoan police officer on duty at the pier.
Scenic view of the harbour at Pago Pago.
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