February 7, 2023:
We pulled into the small town in the port of Pago Pago (pronounced “Pango Pango”), American Samoa this morning. Our approach was beautiful. There was a rain shower between us and the main island of Tutuila, which created a rainbow. We also saw flying fish sailing around the ship. Jim and I have visited this port before, and I can say there’s not a very deep tourist infrastructure here. Basically, there’s about one tour of the island’s highlights, and Jim and I had seen them all on our prior visit.
Instead, we waited until the rain showers had passed in town, and we walked off the ship after watching the enthusiastic greeting from the local people, like the high school band and Miss American Samoa. We are only the third cruise ship to return to American Samoa since Covid was over. Everyone on the island seemed very enthusiastic to see us.
Jim and I had two missions for our time in town: 1. Hit an ATM and stock up on American dollars, because this is the last time we’re going to be able to do that on this trip; and 2. Find a jewelry store so I could add to my collection of charms. We walked around the port area a little, and bought some Polynesian print garments. Then, we found a taxi driver and negotiated a fee for him to take us to both locations.
Amusingly, it turned out he had no idea where the jewelry store was, and there was only one bank in the entire town. He obviously thought he was going to be able to expand his ride into more of a tour of the island (so he could charge more) by driving us first to a tourist spot, but we let him know in no uncertain terms that we didn’t want an island tour.
We had him take us back to the bank (which he had passed already without stopping). When I went into the bank, I found a very nice teller who was able to tell me exactly where I would find the jewelry store we were looking for. Interestingly, none of the houses or businesses in American Samoa have actual addresses, and the locals describe where they’re going by geographical markers, like, “it’s the third house on the left with the flowering Mango tree out front, and a stone by the front door”. We tried hard to wrap our heads around that concept, and even harder to be able to communicate it to our taxi driver, but the helpful teller in the bank told me the jewelry store was in the second mall (think, strip mall) just past the Carl’s Jr. With those directions, the cab driver was able to find our location, and my friend and I were able to buy our charms for our charm bracelets. Mission accomplished, we went back to the ship and cooled off! After lunch, Jim and I walked over tot he post office, and mailed postcards. Thus concluded another exciting day in the South Pacific! Stay tuned, because our next stop will be in Lautoka, Fiji.
Vaya con Gringos 