January 27 – Pago Pago, Tutuila Island, American Samoa

This morning we arrived in Pago Pago, American Samoa to light rain.  The harbor is surrounded by small towns and tall mountains.  

American Samoa is the only American territory south of the equator.  And it is home of the National Park of American Samoa, the most remote national park in the park system and, again, the only one south of the equator.  The National Park covers three islands and includes both rain forests and coral reefs.  Too bad we weren’t able to make it to the park.

Mid-morning we boarded the “tour bus”.  Not like the usual air condition buses with plush seats.  Instead they were pretty old school buses that seemed to have been rebuilt on the inside with wood and fairly hard seats.  

But our tour guide, Andrina, was sweet and informative.  Every time she named a place or town she had us repeat the name.  Most were not particularly easy to pronounce.

One of the first stops was Camel Island that looks like a camel taking a swim.  One of the three buses in our caravan broke down and we didn’t see them again. 

Camel Island from the side that doesn't look like a camel.

Our tour ran along the east coast of the island...

to a point overlooking the nearby small island of Aunu’u.  

Along the drive we noticed what looked to be graves in front of many of the homes.  It turns out that is exactly what they are.  While we did see some cemeteries it turns out that the Samoan's like to have their ancestors close by so they often bury them in their front yard. 

Home with a family tomb in the front yard.

Then we headed back with a couple more stops before stopping for an hour at Two‑Dollar Island.  We spent an hour here doing some snorkeling.  The beach wasn’t very large and much of the coral had been destroyed from too many human feet.  

But there were some small and very pretty reef fish, including some very small neon blue ones.

We were back on the ship in time for a late lunch and then hung around the ship.  Mary did take a walk back down to the shops that had set up on the wharf but didn’t find anything to buy.

Tonight’s entertainment was incredibly silly and very funny.  It was a cobbled together musical that featured Cruise Director Gary and World Cruise Hostess Stacy as lost explorers on an island with monkeys with no tails.  The male dancers were out in force as the monkeys and the female dancers were hula girls.  The dance team members were Tarzan and an ape and the dance routines were energetic and funny.  Everyone had an uproarious time.

We finally had a very good sunset tonight.  So far it is the only real sunset we have had on this voyage.