Wilderness Wandering

If at first you don’t succeed…try, try again! As some of you may know, we were supposed to visit American Samoa back in February, but “someone” broke her arm and we had to delay a little while. We are back at it!

3/31/2025

American Samoa is one of those places you can’t get to from here! We flew to Honolulu and landed around midnight. Our flight was delayed three hours.  So the rental car office was closed when we arrived.  We took a Lyft to our hotel and passed out. 

4/1/2025

There was a huge amount of industrial noise outside our room at about 5:30 AM. Our flight to American Samoa was scheduled for 5 PM. Hawaiian Airlines is the only major carrier serving American Samoa with two flights per week, on Tuesday and Thursday! 

We didn’t get to see Pearl Harbor during our time in Hawaii in January and February. We planned to do that today. We decided not to go back to the airport and pick up the rental car. So we arranged for a Lyft to Pearl Harbor. Due to the early wake up call, we arrived at Pearl Harbor at 8:00 AM. We had to bring our luggage with us, since we didn’t have a rental car. There is an area where you can store your gear. We had reservations and tickets to enter the park, but I had been unable to secure tickets for the boat ride to the Arizona in advance. I asked an employee what our tickets did cover and she sent me to pick up an audio player and told Tim to sign us up for stand by passage for the Arizona. We did as we were instructed and a few minutes later Tim got a text for us to get in line for the Arizona boat tour! 15 minutes later we were on the boat. I think it helped we were there early in the day. The Arizona is a graveyard and memorial, and we were told to be solemn and respectful while on board.  Over 1000 people perished on the Arizona.  The tour was very moving. A volunteer gave a short talk about how the Arizona was left where it sank and the memorial was built over the ship’s remains and human remains. Also, quite a few men and women who survived the attack chose to be cremated when they died and then returned to the Arizona for “burial” with their friends.  She said the last survivor passed in 2024. 

We were surprised to learn that 21 ships were damaged in the harbor that day, and all but three were repaired and returned to service. 

We returned to shore and toured the rest of the site. There was an outdoor circle with a plaque for each submarine lost in the war. All the stories were very impactful. There were two small museums and a really good movie to see as well.  We were able to see it all. 

It was about lunch time and we hadn’t had breakfast.   Restaurant 604 was a 1/4 mile stroll away and had decent Yelp reviews.  We showed up and were able to sit at a table overlooking the harbor. We enjoyed an appetizer called Salmon Bombs and fries.

After lunch, we called an Uber to return us to the airport for our flight to American Samoa. It is a 2600 mile five hour flight. American Samoa is half way to New Zealand. 

We landed after dark. It’s a tiny airport. We deplaned on the tarmac and walked inside. There were people everywhere. We learned that Samoans are very family oriented people and the whole family and friends come to see you off when you travel and greet you when you return. 

We were able to locate a woman holding an Avis Rental Car sign. She called her coworker who picked us up in a white Toyota Rav 4. This was our rental for our stay.  We went to their office and filled out paperwork and then we were on our way to our hotel,  Sadie’s By the Sea.

American Samoa is composed of five volcanic islands and two coral atolls. The vast majority of people live on the island of Tutuila. The population of the country is 46,765. The national park is spread over three of the islands. It is very difficult to get to the other two islands. Most people catch a ride on a fishing boat to the other two islands. We only had two days, so we spent all our time in Tutuila.  We came to learn that most people live within 1/4 mile of the coast off of Route 001. There aren’t any street signs or house numbers. That makes it very challenging to find things. Luckily, to get to Sadie’s that night, we only had to make three right turns. There aren’t many lamp posts either, so it was very dark. 

American Samoa is not much of a tourist destination. Tourism at this point in time isn’t a big part of their economy. The island’s largest employer is Starkist Tuna, which represents 85 percent of their Gross Domestic Product.  The average income per person is only $15,000.

There are only a few options for lodging. Sadie’s was built in 1965 as part of an ambitious US program to bring industry and tourism to American Samoa. Not much has changed at Sadie’s since 1965. But the room was quite large, and the bed was comfortable. As always, we appreciated a warm shower! We had a beautiful view of the harbor and mountains and a balcony! It was dark and quiet and we slept much better than the night before. 

4/2/2025

Woke up to rain pattering on the roof. We took our time getting ready and walked over to the open air restaurant on the property to see what they had for breakfast. The menu had an extensive list of typical breakfast dishes. But our waitress told us they were out of eggs, so that cut the choices down a lot. We both decided to have a fresh fruit smoothie and we were happy with that decision. We thought we were bird watching while we sat at our breakfast table only to discover that we were watching fruit bats AKA flying foxes. They can be up to 4# each. They are important pollinators in the tropical ecosystem.  These bats are not nocturnal and they would fly around the property and then hang upside down in the trees around the breakfast area. At one time, they were the only mammals on the island.  

By the time we finished breakfast, the sun was out and it was 82 degrees and at least 82% humidity!

It was time to see the National Park! We figured out which direction to drive to the National Park Visitor Center. The VC is in the 2nd story of a commercial building in downtown Pago Pago. There used to be a free standing VC building, but it was washed away in a hurricane a while back and was resurrected where it is today. They had several nice displays on the native species and they had a classroom that had beautiful ocean murals by a local artist. The ceiling had netting suspended that was filled with typical plastic trash that unfortunately is found way too often in the ocean and on beaches today. 

A very sweet NPS employee named Mel answered our many questions on what to see and where things were located. She made us a map. I believe this park is unique. The US doesn’t own the national park land. They have leases with the Samoan landowners and government. Mel showed us on the map she drew where her family’s property was.    

We set out to explore the eastern half of the island. We drove along the coast in awe of the gorgeous scenery. The speed limit on the entire island is 25 miles per hour. Tim was in heaven. There aren’t any stop lights and just a few stop signs. There were some round abouts near the airport. Many people drive pickups and many of them transport people in the back! They would sit in plastic chairs in the bed of the pickup and drive around. I know they’re only going 25 miles per hour, but still!

We passed through small villages. Each village had at least one gorgeous church and sometimes several.

The people are very religious. 98% of the island is Christian.  Most people devote time to prayer each evening and many stores are closed on Sunday so people can attend church and spend time with family.  Each village also had multiple open air pavilions with columns and a roof. Most were beautifully painted. We asked what the purpose of these buildings was. They’re called fale, which means house.

Those are where village meetings, and parties take place. The climate is so nice, they spend a lot of time outdoors. We saw several scenic overlooks and seashores that were part of the park. We didn’t do a lot of hiking. My arm is still healing and with it being a rain forest, many rocks and trails were moss covered and slippery. One thing that was different from the 53 other National Parks we have visited was that we were alone anywhere we went. We saw fewer than 10 people in the park that day. 

 We stopped at a well known local “sand” bar called Tisa’s to see if we could get lunch. They weren’t open for lunch that day, but they were hosting a special dinner that night of local dishes cooked in a Samoan umu or rock lined oven in the ground. The food is sealed with banana leaves over the rock lined wood fire so the food steams. We decided we would come back for dinner. 

We made a stop at an outdoor market to see if we could buy more water, since we were told not to drink tap water.  Two women were running a cute little shop that sold some clothing, jewelry, a few cosmetics and a little food.  We talked with them about Samoan football. On the flight to American Samoa we couldn’t help but notice what large humans they tend to be.  An American Samoan is 56 times more likely to play in the NFL than a man from the US mainland. There are seven high schools on Island but only one football stadium that they all share. The games are well attended by fans and college scouts. Over 200 Samoans have received Division I college football scholarships. More than 40 Samoans have played in the NFL. 

  We returned to Sadie’s and showered and headed back towards Tisa’s about 6 PM and were treated to a truly spectacular sunset!

We also saw men rowing huge canoe like boats in the harbor. At dinner we learned that the boats are called Fautasi. Villages sponsor a boat and they all race every year on Flag Day which happens in mid April. The crews of the boats are between 36 and 50 men. It currently is limited to men. The race is 7 miles long. 

Our dinner at Tisa’s featured pina coladas with freshly made coconut cream, as well as breadfruit, sweet potatoes, papaya, turkey, fish balls and ribs. We sat at communal tables and visited with the other guests. It was served on woven palm leaf plates and without silverware.  We met a great young couple that were an Air Force pilot and a Coast Guard helicopter pilot. It was a fun night. 

4/3/2025

I was woken at 4:45 AM by men’s voices. At first I thought they were shouting then I realized it was chanting. It was a team of fautasi rowers on a training run!

Later when I woke again, it was raining again. 

We went to the restaurant for breakfast intending to repeat our smoothies from the day before.  Today they didn’t have bananas or eggs. That’s one of the trials of living on a remote island. No big grocery stores, or chain stores or Amazon Prime.  Tim had oatmeal for breakfast. 

Today’s agenda was the western side of the island. We stopped by the American Samoa Visitor Center. A lovely young lady helped us with some directions. Her name was Angel. We found out later that she is Miss American Samoa! LOL!

Most of the rental cars are white RAV 4s. So it’s pretty obvious who the tourists are. People would friendly honk their car horns at us. 

There weren’t all that many restaurants on the island and the ones there were leaned heavily toward Thai food.  

American Samoa is a U.S. territory. It is the only U.S. territory where citizenship is not granted at birth.

It is ruled by a governor. They have a representative to the House of Representatives but no voting rights. 

We spent a good part of the day driving the coast and stopping to look at beautiful vistas.

There are stray dogs everywhere! Once, I had to scurry back to the car after taking a picture to avoid an unfriendly dog. There was a dog sleeping literally in the middle of the street. 

Once we had seen all the natural park sites and historical sites we could find, we decided to go watch the fautasi boats practice. We found an open shore area with good visibility of the harbor and parked. We had learned that they practice 6 days a week from 4 to 6 PM. First a pick up with 50 oars showed up. Then they bailed out the boat from the rain that morning. A few at a time, the rowers showed up and so did their groupies. I was taking  photos and a woman called me over. She said she remembered me from the airport! We ended up spending a few hours with Meripa and Winnie Chanel watching the rowers and became fast friends! Winnie’s son and Meripa’s boyfriend were racing in different boats from different villages. We are sorry to miss to miss the Flag Day race, but we will be able to watch it on YouTube.  

One of our favorite things was after practice the team had a little meeting which they ended with singing. What a treat to hear 50 men singing their hearts out. After they finished their practice we went and got a pizza at Paradise Pizza. Mel, the NPS employee had told us it was her favorite restaurant.  It was delicious! One of the waitresses was kind of dancing. We asked her to dance for us. After a little coaxing, she did. She said I could video her. She was a beautiful, graceful dancer. 

After that, we filled the car’s gas tank and headed to the airport. The airport only has 1 gate. Our flight to Honolulu was full. We arrived in Honolulu at 5:40 AM. Our flight back to the mainland was scheduled for 2:30 PM. 

We hung out for a few hours and then we took a Lyft to Island Soul Shaved Ice when it opened for the day.  We shared a delicious strawberry and salted lemon Hawaiian Ice.

After, we returned to the airport and relaxed until our flight to San Diego. We got back to Calypso about 12:15 AM Saturday.

We weren’t able to experience this park as in depth as we would have liked due to my limitations. We weren’t able to do any snorkeling and they have some spectacular reefs.

We still saw many beautiful things on American Samoa but the most beautiful part of the trip was experiencing the kindness, happiness and generosity of the people!

We wish it wasn’t so far away! We truly loved the people and the pace of the island very much.