American Samoa

From Wikipedia – The southernmost national park is on three Samoan islands and protects coral reefs, rainforests, volcanic mountains, and white beaches. The area is also home to flying foxes, brown boobies, sea turtles, and 900 species of fish.

• Established: 10/31/1988
• Annual Visitors: 28,626
• Size: 8,256 acres

American Samoa National Park January 21, 2020

Gary – January 21 – 7AM
We are now in Pago Pago, pronounced pongo pongo. All smooth travels. They had gale force winds and heavy rain yesterday. The pilot warned it would be a rough decent, but for some reason the winds died down and the rain stopped for us to land. The rains came back and it has poured all night. Birmingham Alabama is the rainiest city in the lower 48 with 69″ of rain per year. Pago Pago’s average rain fall is 128″, 253 rainy days a year. In a few days we go to Hilo, Hawaii where they get 130″. We were just in Kona, 70-mile drive from Hilo where they get 8″ a year. Hawaii has big mountains that cause the rain difference. Mauna Kea is 13,800′ high.

Well, there is your meteorological lesson for today.

Samoans are big people. It was interesting on the flight last night how many really large people there were. The young lady next to me was taller than me ( I am 6’) and she had to be 300 pounds. The guy behind Elizabeth was probably 6’6″ and 400 pounds. I don’t remember ever feeling like I was small.

January 21 – End of the day summery
Today was a quiet day for us since it rained most of the day. We walked the one mile plus to the American Samoa National Park Visitor’s Center and got our NP passport book stamped, bought our pin and post cards. This park is different than the rest since the US government leases the land from local families. The land is protected, but there is not much to do on it. There are a few hiking trails, but the main trail is closed for maintenance right now. This island has very little tourism, so there are only a few tours offered and prearrangements need to be made. There are about 18 cruise ships a year that stop here. I am not sure what people do when they get off.

The water is beautiful. This evening was cloudy, but not raining. We have a small beach at our hotel. There were 4 other guests that went snorkeling and loved it. There was a big sea turtle cruising around.

We have a rental car lined up for tomorrow. They drive on the right here which will be nice. Our last NP we visited was on St. John, USVI and they drive on the left. Side Note: the distance between our parks #’s 3 and 4 in FL were 11 miles (Everglades and Biscayne) …the distance between our park #’s 5 and 6 was 7000 miles! (Virgin Island to American Samoa). The top speed limit on this Island is 35mph. The roads are actually very nice and wide. There are a lot of bigger vehicles here, very unlike our experiences on other islands. A large number of newer model Toyota Tacoma trucks here and a Toyota dealership. We noticed immediately since Elizabeth has a new Tacoma. The main road goes from the far east end, 32 miles to the west end. The 9 islands of American Samoa have only 77 square miles of land and 55,000 people. The city of Phoenix is 517 square miles.

G – January 22
What a great day. The forecast was for more rain this morning but the rains had stopped and we saw the sun for the first time. We headed out to hike the ridgeline above our hotel overlooking the harbor. It was very interesting with several old military cannons that were put in place to protect the harbor from the Japanese. It was typical rainforest jungle, so very wet and slippery going. The 1.5 mile ridge includes lots of ups and downs. There were a few views, but the jungle has grown up since the military left years ago. Near the end was an old tramway station. The tram used to go over Rainmaker Mountain (1,716′) down to the village of Vatia. This saved a 10 mile drive up and over the mountains. Unfortunately, in 1980, a plane clipped the cables and crashed during a big festival. There has been some talk about rebuilding the tram, but there isn’t much tourism here to support the cost to build it.

After the hike we had lunch and picked up a rental car from our hotel. By now it was raining again and continued for the rest of the day. We drove over the mountain on a very steep road in the pouring rain. Fortunately, the road was wide and in pretty good shape (by island standards anyway). There is very little on the other side besides the National Park. We drove to the end of the pavement and turned around once the road was dirt. We think it was a private driveway. On the way back there were 2 women, close to our age, sitting on a wall by the road wearing Starkist T-shirts. I stopped to talk with them about the Tuna canning plant and it turned out the only bus over the mountain was not running today so they had no way to get to work. We offered to take them and they were extremely grateful. They were sisters. The older spoke fairly good English but we think the younger sister didn’t as she never said anything. Most people and all younger people speak Samoan and English. The schools are in both languages. The kids wear uniforms to school. Anyway… when we dropped off the sisters at the factory they both gave Elizabeth a hug and kiss on the cheek. Neither sister has ever been off this island. We love meeting locals like this.

Once we dropped them off it was a nice drive east along the coast to Tisa’s Barefoot Bar and Grill. We were the only 2 customers for the well over an hour we were there. Tisa’s husband sat with us the entire time. He is from New Zealand but has lived here for the past 27 years. They are right on the ocean and have had to rebuild 3 times because of mother nature. Another great spontaneous adventure.

In the evening we went to the restaurant here at the hotel. Since there aren’t many hotel and restaurant options so we see the same people repeatedly which is fun. Most mainlanders here are here for work at the hospital, construction on the tuna boats and government jobs like at the airport.

There are so many stories from our short time here, Elizabeth will bullet some details below.

E:
• Only native mammal on the island (besides humans, dogs and cats!) is a bat! Three species but the largest is the Samoan Fruit Bat/Flying Fox Fruit Bat with a wing span of up to 3 feet! The saving of the bats from going extinct was the primary reason for the designation of it being a National Park in 1988.
• Art is highly respected here. Trash cans, public walls and local busses have wonderfully painted murals on them.
• Catholic, Mormon/LDS religion is very high with many churches and even some of the public busses have “God is our Protector” and the like in large hand painted letters on them.
• Am. Samoa has the highest per capita of military service and NFL players of any US region
• The average income is very low here, about 11k/year but we found the grocery stores, restaurants, and hotel prices to be the same as in Phoenix where average income is about 32k/yr.
• Am. Samoa is the last in the world to experience a particular time and day. For instance, when it is 12 noon on a Monday, the next time zone only 40 miles to the west, the island of Samoa, is across the International Dateline so it is 11 AM on Tuesday there. It is popular for people to go to Samoa to celebrate New Years and then return to American Samoa to do it all over again 23 hours later!!
• Gary mentioned Tisa’s…We are pretty sure Tisa is the American Actress Theresa Farrow, Actress Mia Farrow’s sister. The husband, only known on the island as Candyman, told us he was her body guard for over 25 years and then married her three years ago.

Jan 23 Day 3 Am. Samoa

Our last day here in American Samoa was basically playing tourist. We took local’s suggestions and went to the “west” side where it is much more developed due to it being flatter terrain. It has rained all day, again. I am writing this at 4:30 in the afternoon. We paid extra for a 6pm check out. Our ride to the airport leaves at 8pm. Our flight doesn’t leave till after 11pm, so we will have some time at the airport.

In the 1960s the US government spent quite a bit of money to get tourism going here. They built the hotel we are in, the tramway and improved the roads. The trouble is that Samoa is only 50 miles west of here and they have more people and much nicer beaches. The only industry here on American Samoa is the tuna packing plant. Many of the younger generation join the military, get sports scholarships or pay their own way off the island.

This afternoon I went snorkeling on the beach in front of our hotel. It was actually really good. Tons of fish, some bright blue starfish and really cool coral. The only downside is it was cloudy so fairly dark.

We now have our laundry done and plan to relax for an hour before we have to leave the room. We still have a rental car and there is a homemade ice cream shop just down the street that we haven’t tried yet. Then off to the airport for our trip to Honolulu where we catch a flight to Maui.

E:
Added notes ; )
• The ice cream flavor we got was Koko Samoa, yum! Chocolate and coconut.
• Yesterday’s hike on the WWII Heritage Trail was really wonderful. Tough ups & downs (ropes for the downs in places to assist). Dirt trail was wet and we climbed over trees that had fallen and around overgrown brush in a couple places but over all the trail was well maintained. Lots of frogs, lizards and beautiful views!
• People in Am. Samoa are really friendly and polite. Traditions and respect are highly honored. At 6pm every night all traffic stops in the villages and younger population must attend a church service with others or report to an elder to listen to teachings of good behavior, staying out of trouble, assisting others and getting off, or never starting, drugs. The saying “It Takes A Village To Raise A Child” is strictly adhered to here. I love that everyone is accountable for their own actions and all ages help all ages.
• You might want to read about traditions and customs here before you visit. It’s respectful and interesting. Example: when sitting on the ground or under a Fale (originally a traditional Samoan house and now rebuilt and similar structures in the public parks) where sitting on floors not chairs is very customary in public places…. do not sit with your bare legs straight out or your feet facing someone else. One should sit cross legged or feet under you or cover your legs and feet if you can not sit with your feet under you.
• If you plan to hike in Am. Samoa, read the National Park’s description of the trailheads online. It is unlike any other National Park we have ever been to because, as Gary mentioned, the NP leases the land. It is owned by private land and home owners. You will encounter dogs on private properties where the trailhead is and sometimes you need to ask for permission to cross or enter their land as a respectful gesture.
• As mentioned, the people are very nice. The hotel where we stayed, Sadie’s By The Sea, had a car rental for us but the car had stalled for the previous day’s renters so Saddie’s gave us their hotel van to rent, for the same price, for two days. Very sweet. We got lots of waves and hello car beeps as they thought we were the hotel owners!