Pago Pago

In Samoa we have a statutory holiday for Mother’s Day and this year we decided to go to Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango) in American Samoa to check it out.  We boarded our tiny 15 seater plane at Fagalii Aiport and flew Polynesian Air for the 35 minute journey over the seas to Pago.  We had great sights of the coastline of Samoa on the way past with views of Lalomanu and Namua island etc from above.

There are heaps more photos at on our Flickr account, so check them out.

It was very quiet when we arrived in Tafuna where the airport is and we were soon ushered into a taxi for our ride to the hotel.  The taxi was in a pretty bad state of repair, though was decorated with Samoan fabric so was bright and colourful.  We slowly wound our way around the coast line, past the huge concrete block sea wall.

We had a room booked at Sadies by the Sea which is near the water at Utulei in the Pago harbour.  The room was comfortable with everything we needed, including leaking aircon (which thankfully stopped dripping after the humidity in the room went) and great food.  The hotel was full due to the visiting fishermen there for the big game fishing competition.  Most nights we were treated to very loud music from the local bands playing in their honour!  Sadies is a hotel similar to that of Aggie Grey’s in Samoa, however used to be run as a brothel by Sadie Thompson as entertainment for sailors off the ships.

We had heard a lot about the great shopping to be had in Pago so set off on foot our first afternoon in search of the great American Shopping malls we were expecting, only to be sorely disappointed.  There are pretty much no shops in the centre of Pago itself and even the local market was very small in comparison to Apia.  After further study of the guide books we discovered the main shopping is actually around the Tafuna area back towards the airport where you can find Cost U Less (American chain store similar to the Warehouse in NZ), Forsgrens a department store, and Orieo biscuit and ice cream sandwiches!!!

In the Pago harbour area we walked past the port itself loaded with ships and shipping containers, the Fono (Government) and Evies a red painted Mexican restaurant.  We dared to try this restaurant one night and were surrounded by pink fluorescent and disco flashing lights, plastic plants and flowers and multicoloured table cloths!  Certainly an experience.  

There were some interesting photos on the wall of the Tsunami of 29 September 2009 and where the water level came to on the buildings across the road (to the roof).  These were taken from the roof of the restaurant.  Must have been frightening for the people in Pago harbour with no where to go and a huge surge of water coming at them.  Across the harbour we could see the Tuna Canneries and hear their daily hum.  The National Park Service of American Samoa has a little office on the way around the harbour which has great maps of walking trails and things to do.  Worth popping in there to pick up some info.

Bats flew above us in the trees as we continued our walk to the top of the harbour.  Here we found a small Star Mart supermarket where we purchased a few necessary supplies, like coke for the Jack, and a drink to have while we sat on the red, white and blue fale steps across the road.  There was a derelict asian building to the left which apparently was built for the Korean’s when they were working in the Tuna factories, however it was not faring well any more.

A highlight of our trip to Pago was visiting the  Feleti Barstow Public Library.  Here I met with Mary, Betty and Tammy from the Children’s and Pacific collections.  I donated a copy of our book “Surviving a Tsunami : Dealing with Disaster” to the library and enjoyed looking around, hearing about the projects they run from the public library like reading visits to the children in the hospital and sharing stories of our libraries in both countries.

We hired a car for 2 days and went for a drive around the island.  The weather was pretty windy so the seas were rough.  Unlike Samoa, the reef in American Samoa is a lot closer to the island and so the deep blue sea was pounding in.  There were many photo stops along the way (no further comments necessary!)  I was very pleased we came across a game of American Football being played on a field surrounded by coconut trees overlooking the harbour.  It was the final game for the season for the youth teams and everyone was out in force to support their team. 

We stopped at Tisa’s Barefoot Bar for lunch which is about the only place to go outside of Pago itself.  Here we had a lovely piece of swordfish, caught fresh, with breadfruit and salad.  You can stay here in a fale on the beach if you want to.  We carried on around driving as far as Onenoa to the far East where there are some lovely secluded villages.  Just missed the boat over to Aunu’u island where there is quicksand and volcanic stuff to look at so that will have to be next time we go.  Everyone in the village where the boats go from was busy playing Bingo! (Actually, I think Angela was relieved to have missed the boat because it was getting quite rough and it looked like being a long boat ride in little boat getting tossed around by big waves!)

We drove back towards Pago and turned at Aua to drive over the Vatia Bay.  There are some great views on this drive from the top of Rainmaker Mountain (called as such for a reason!) and down over Pola Island.  We got out of the car due to the majorly bumpy rocky road and decided to walk to see Polar Island from the tip of the bay.  This was all of a few hundred metres so was not exactly taxing.  Before long we saw huge black rain clouds building up and managed to get back in the car before the downpour, which unfortunately halted our plans to also walk the Tuafanu Trail to the other side of the point. 

In the Westerly direction we managed to drive as far as the village of Leone which I was keen to see as there are several photos of the tsunami wave washing in here, in our book.  The village is in a bay and is very low lying so it was easy to see how the wave would have affected them.  A monument in memory of the 8 members of the village who lost their lives on this day has been erected and is beautifully painted with butterflies and flowers.  It was sobering to see the photos of the elders in the 80’s and the young children who did not make it.

Sunday dawned a bit grey and rainy.  Swimming is not permitted in many places on a Sunday and some villages (such as Vatia and Fagatele Bay) are not open to visitors so it pays to plan your trip.  We decided to go up the mountain to walk the Mt Alava Trail on this day.  This was to be a 5 km walk along the ridge, up hill and down dale, to the summit of Mt Alava.  Due to a bit of rain the path was muddy and rocky.  We had gone less than 1 km when the first equipment failure occurred.  Adam’s walking sandals, having been stored in a tropical environment for 4 years practically unused, began to fall apart.  Before long both soles had come off and various straps were no longer held in place!  At about 2.5kms we decided to cut our losses and go for damage control instead.  Being Kiwis of great ingenuity we spotted a fallen coconut frond and proceeded to tear strips off to use to tie Adam’s shoes on enough for him to get back to the car.  They certainly looked like some weird new creation of roman sandals!!  I just hoped we didn’t bump into anyone on the way back!! 

Thankfully we did make it back to the car before nightfall albeit covered in mud from knee to foot.  We had seen a lovely looking bay (Fagasa Bay) from the top of the hill so decided to take a drive down and check it out.  We turned at the cross roads at the bottom of the hill and before long our car was waived down by a family sitting out side on their front lawn.  Upon further inspection it was evident they had spent several hours consuming flagons of wine and were now really getting into the spirit of Mother’s Day celebrations!  They told us we were welcome to swim but to look out for the Whale in the bay, who was none other than a family member with wine glass in hand floating in his lavalava in the water!  By this time it was that last hour of the evening when he sun is setting and all goes peaceful and quiet.  We jumped out of the car and waded into the water to try and rid ourselves of a few layers of mud and before we knew it the family had come down with an icy glass of Sangria for us each, and the remaining flagon!  We spent a wonderful hour talking to “Ricky” and by the end of it had been invited to their family reunion in July, 70^th birthday and moving of their mother’s bones to lay with their father.  Things happen for a reason and this great Samoan experience would never have happened without the breaking of the shoes!!  We are grateful for their hospitality and for their welcome of two palagi tourists who looked a bit weary and dirty and who stumbled into their village.  This has got to be one of the loveliest villages in Tutuila (American Samoa).

All and all a busy few days in Pago.  Overall impressions unfortunately are that the place is pretty run down.  Arriving back in Apia we appreciated the size, cleanliness (not so much fast food rubbish everywhere) and organisation of the place, even the nice new roads!