February 10, Talofa (Hello in Samoa)
We arrived here in Pago-Pago at approximately 8am. Pago-Pago is a US possession and the zip code is 96799. The harbor here is the remains of a collapsed volcanic crater. The main industries of the island are the huge tuna canning factories. Pago Pago is the home of Charlie The Tuna!
The Apollo 13 astronauts first set foot here after their rescue. Also the only U.S. National Park south of the equator is here. Pago Pago, pronounced Pango Pango, has the only US national park south of the equator.
We were eager to be on land again, although the last 5 days have been nice. The weather as been gorgeous and we were able to sit on our balcony every day.
The weather was great here today, sunny and a nice 88 degrees. It is their rainy season and not a drop of rain fell. We walked around the island and visited some shops. I got some nice pictures of the locals, like the one below with Samoan women playing bingo. The other picture is of a couple policemen. On the sail in we got a picture of the Government House and hope to get one of the Raintree Hotel, advertised as the shabbiest in the South Pacific when we leave here.
The first thing we did was mail a package of papers home. Bill I mailed it to your house, there is a book in there you might be interested in.
After walking for a couple hours we needed a break, so we went to Sadie Thompson’s Restaurant and Inn. The infamous Sadie Thompson lived here. The movie titled “Rain” starring Joan Crawford, is about Sadie’s life on this island. We both had the local fish (Wahoo) and chips, and I of course found a local beer and had a few. We had a nice chat with for the bar tender/waitress. The people here are very friendly and we enjoyed our stay. We were very hot and returned to the ship for a nice cold shower. We then attended a talk put on by two Samoan rangers that work for the National Parks System. They explained how the Samoan culture, wildlife and vegetation are intertwined. Despite the American influence, the Samoan way of life still retains its basic unit, the extended family. Dress is an important aspect of the Samoan culture, the women wear traditional puletasi (tunic and long skirt) bedecked with fresh flowers and leis. Men wear bright knee high wraparound skirts named lavas. Betty wanted to buy me one, I don’t think I could wear that at home so I passed.
Above is a picture of one of the local buses. We sailed out of the harbor at 4.30 by backtracking through the reefs and back into the Pacific ocean and headed south westerly to the Fijian island Dravuni, our next port.
The above picture of a couple tourist wearing goofy hats. At 12:36 the sun was directly over us as can be seen by the shadow in the picture. (We don’t know who these people are!)
