Pago Pago American Samoa

26^th August – Pago Pago American Samoa

Two more sea days and we slipped quietly into Pago Pago harbour, there was a lot of low cloud hanging around what was obviously steep rugged peaks. It turns out the previous day it had rained hard all day. During the day the heat of the sun managed to burn off the misty cloud and it became quite steamy.

Pago Pago harbour is a natural inlet cutting right into the south western side of the island so it would appear fairly well protected from storms etc.

On one side of the harbour are two large fish processing factories (canneries) and a large Tuna fishing fleet with a smattering of Japanese long line boats amongst them. Presumably fishing is a lucrative business around these waters.

The township is situated on the other side of the harbour where we berthed at about 0800.

We couldn’t get over how many large 4wd vehicles there were, large Toyotas and Ford F150’s and F250’s were everywhere.  We were told fuel was cheap and measured in US gallons.

The place is very Americanised, they drive on the right hand side and the traffic cop even looked as if he was straight out of New York riding his big Harley Davidson.

There was not a lot to see, shops were few and the most popular place was MacDonalds where I had a massive flat white and Nancy had an ice cream Sunday all up less than US$5.00 (that is the local currency).

We wandered far and wide and at a market purchased two huge paw paw for $2.00.

Basically the place looked a bit scruffy and most things could do with a coat of paint.

However friends who did a tour around the island said it was beautiful and they saw a lot of substantial homes. There are still a lot of remnants from the US occupation during the second world war such as the roads and the airport that were built then.

From our brochure:

Polynesians inhabited the Samoan Islands around 1800BC.

Europeans caught a glimpse of the region in 1722.

Contact with the USA was made in 1839 when a navy ship anchored in the area.

The harbour was used as a naval base by the Americans during WWii.

The island itself is called Tutuila and is the largest island of American Samoa part of the Samoan archipelago.

Population: 11,500 (2000)

Language is English and Samoan

Currency is US dollars.

We are now on our way to New Zealand in very rough conditions.