Wanderung 26

Walkabout, Sailabout

March - May 2012


 

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Thursday, April 26th, 2012: Pago Pago, American Samoa

Bob:

We were apparently lucky in having a day without rain in Pago Pago (pronounced "Pango Pango") as our port lecturer said that had not happened in her five years of cruising in the area. Pago Pago is a little town of 6,200 just beside the commercial dock, and that seemed small enough that we could walk through the town and see the sights on our own.

As it turned out, Pago Pago was a walkable size, but we had not counted on the high heat and humidity! First we visited the temporary marketplace that was set up by the local vendors in a string of open-sided pavilions right next to the dock. In one pavilion I found a small model outrigger canoe carved by a local fisherman, so I purchased that plus a carved wooden letter opener. To avoid carrying things around in the quckly-increasing heat, we returned to the Sea Princess briefly to drop our purchases off in our room before heading out again to mail some letters and see the town.

Monika:

We were up early to watch our ship sail into the bay of Pago Pago in American Samoa just as the sun was just starting to rise. Like in most tropical islands, the bay was surrounded by high lush mountain cliffs. They kept the town itself still in the dark. It was fun watching the sky slowly getting lighter as we came alongside the dock.

We hurried through breakfast. We had not booked any tour but were just going to enjoy walking through the little town ourselves. Right beyond the gates the Samoans had set up a little market. So we spent some time looking through the different stalls. Some vendors were quite obviously set up on a grand scale (accepting credit cards is one sign for me). Others were definitely local craftsmen showing their wares. At one such stall Bob bought a little outrigger canoe that the guy had carved himself. I looked at several placemats, but all of them seemed to be impractical, since you could not easily clean them.

Bob:

Since American Samoa is officially a U.S. protectorate, a regular U.S. 48-cent stamp was sufficient to mail my accumulated letters back to the U.S.A., a veritable bargain considering the prices to mail things home from anywhere else in the South Pacific except Hawaii, of course. We continued down the street from the Post Office past an impressive carved tree trunk just outside a museum that was unfortunately closed for renovations.

Curling around to the shoreline at the permanent local marketplace, we were rewarded with nice views of our ship and a local ferry that was setting out on an inter-island cruise. Since the next item on our list was an Internet cafe, we continued back past the wharf and around the next point to find the library where we had been informed internet facilities were available.

Monika:

We took our purchases back to the ship and then set out again. Our first stop was the Post Office, since this was American Samoa, we could mail letters to the United States for the domestic rate of 45 cents, which after Australia and New Zealand seemed to be cheap. We continued walking around a bit, watching a ferry leave for another island and admiring a pretty local church. At a local grocery store, we also found some sundries, amongst which were large white woven hats, male and female versions, for only 3 dollars. That seemed to be a bargain. So now we had nice big hats to shade us against the sun that kept beating down on us.

Bob:

Using "David"'s map (David is a really large, really friendly guy who gives tourists free photographic-type maps of the area and also sells tours, etc.), we found the library behind the local high school and athletic field. We had run into Alex and Roya along the way, and they paid the $5 all-day fee for using the library's Internet facilities. We decided we could make do with the ship's flakey facilities, so we just picked up a couple of cheap ex-library books to take back on ship and donate to the passenger-exchange section of the ship's library, as that cabinet was just about out of books.

I was getting really hot and thirsty by that time, however, as when the wind was calm the sun beat down on us like the veritable “Hammer of God”. Thus I was disappointed that unlike almost any American library, the one at Pago Pago had no public water fountain. Nor did I see one in town, for that matter, and believe you me they could use one out there! But we did find the grocery store back on the main road and they had, wonder of wonders, cold, authentically German-brewed beer!

Well normally I'm not a huge beer drinker, but I figured that was the time to make an exception, so we bought a couple of beers to drink at the park beside the shore and a couple to take back to the ship. Prior to WWI the Germans occupied some of the Samoan Islands. One odd remaining vestige of that brief colonial period was the Vailima brand beer brewed in Samoa but tasting for all the world like Heineken or St. Pauli Girl! If you follow our footsteps, be sure you purchase the "Special Export Lager" in the 750 ml size as it seemed to be better than the same brand in smaller 500 ml bottles.

Monika:

Our next stop was the local library to check for Internet connections. We passed a large tree, and people were looking up -- this usually means, there is something interesting to see. They told us that there were bats sleeping in the tree. So I took a picture, and I guess the hanging things are bats. A little farther on, we met Alex and Roya who also were looking for an Internet terminal. So we walked together to the library. Internet access cost 5 dollars for the whole day, but since we could have it for free on the ship, we decided not to use it although Alex and Roya did.

Walking on a bit, we came across another grocery store. The port lecturer had told us that the local beer brewing had been started by Germans and that the beer was quite good. Well it was hot, and when I saw, that a LARGE (750 ml or 24oz) was only $ 2.50, I picked one up and asked whether it was legal to drink it outside. After having been assured that was so, I got out my little can opener and on a hot, sunny day sure enjoyed the cold beer

Bob:

Finding a picnic bench in the shade beside some thatched-roof shelters in the park at the shore, we were exposed to a nice on-shore breeze and settled in with the cold beer to cool off before walking back to the ship. A couple of families of local folks used the park until the high school across the street let out for the day, and then the park was inundated with teenagers. Well, we didn't really want to set a bad example for the youngsters, so we finished our brews, discarded the bottles, and began ambling back to the ship.

Monika:

The beer really was excellent and even Bob liked it, because it did not have any bitter aftertaste. So we walked across to the bay where there was a little park with palm trees, little huts and picnic tables. We sat down to enjoy our beer and after we had polished it off, I went back for a second one--it was really hot, and the beer was really good. While Bob was finishing the beer, I walked along the shore to where a long boat was anchored for some serious picture taking.

Bob:

Next to the park, however, was a the public beach that we had also been told about by our port lecturer, so we stopped there to wade a bit as neither of us had thought to wear our swimsuits. The water was bathtub warm, so swimming would have been easy, and the beach had a nice white sandy bottom, but one of the ship's crew who was also swimming there said they had tried out their snorkels and there was nothing really to see while snorkeling. There are other beaches inside the harbor at Pago Pago, but with two tuna canneries in operation the port lecturer had cautioned us that the water quality in the harbor might be poor. Only when we were back onboard our ship did we see that just around the next point where some big white oil and gasoline tanks were located, another even better beach beckoned us. It looked like it was a public beach and it looked completely empty, so maybe next time we'll wear out swimsuits and take our masks, snorkels, and a LOT of water along and try hiking out to that one.

Monika:

Walking back I really liked the way the sun was twinkling through the palm trees. There was also a little beach and people were swimming. Unfortunately, we had not brought our swimsuits, so we just watched the other people enjoy the water while getting into the water a little to cool off.

Bob:

As it was, we were really hot and soaked with sweat when we got back to the ship, so showers were a must! We had time after that for one more foray onto shore, and maybe we should have gone and tried one of those small, open-sided buses for a short hop around one side of the island or another, but we were just too tired from the heat. So we stayed inside the ship and listened to a U.S. Park Ranger who was native Samoan talk about the flora, fauna, and indigenous culture of American Samoa. The park sounded interesting, so maybe next time we will see that.

One tidbit about the Samoan culture is that tattooing plays a large role in the culture. Apparently specific tattoo designs designate certain official positions in the culture, and more prestigious positions seem to have more extensive body tattoos. The ranger showed some pictures of eminent men who were maybe 50% or more covered with tattoos, which looked extraordinarily painful to me. As the Ranger drolly said, "Maybe I will be happy to never become that eminent!". For the rest of the afternoon, we collapsed until the ship was leaving port for the day, when we went back on deck to take pictures.

Monika:

But we were getting hungry, so we stocked up on some more beer and moseyed back to the ship for some lunch from the buffet. After that we went to a nature lecture. A Samoan Park Ranger had come aboard to give a talk about the National Park of Samoa. This park is different from all other American National Parks, in that the land is owned by the different clans of the area and only leased to the US government. He told us about the local fauna and flora and about the customs and traditions of the Samoans.

After that our ship dropped its mooring lines and started the trip over to Tahiti. Steaming out of the bay, we could see the little park, where we had enjoyed our beer, and all the landmarks, the port lecturer had mentioned, like the little island called the "Flower Pot", and the Governor's Mansion.


 


 

Bob:

At dinner that evening we found out that Judy and Ian, being relatively more heat-tolerant Australians, had done a village tour thing for several hours in the morning, and then walked out to the same beach we had been at and went swimming in the afternoon! So if you are used to heat, you could take a ship's tour like they did in the non-air-conditioned buses and then follow that up with wandering around Pago Pago and environs, but we were just not up to it.

That night all the folks at our table went to see a hypnotist act in the Vista Lounge aft. I was very interested in seeing how he was able to hypnotize folks quite quickly in such a public setting, and clearly several of the people he had on stage were definitely in a fairly deep trance state and highly suggestible. Parts of the act were funny, in part because the exact way each person carried out instructions depended on his or her imagination and different folks imagined things happening quite differently. One rather athletic-looking gentleman (not common on our ship) when asked to play a game was gyrating around in some surprising contortions. When the hypnotist asked him what game he was playing, he replied, "Cricket!"

The one thing we were uneasy about was that he left some people with post-hypnotic suggestions that were supposed to wear off after 10 minutes. One woman was told she had lost her belly button, and another gentleman was told he would crow like a rooster whenever he took a drink. Those post-hypnotic suggestions were in fact carried out exactly as the hypnotist had ordered, but I would have felt better if he had made absolutely sure that those suggestions were removed before letting the people go. The one other thing was that some of the subjects, in particular a tall, thin, vividly red-haired lady, was so deeply in trance that they seemed dazed on somewhat "out of it" when awakened and sent back to their seats. Judy reported that she had talked to that lady the next day, however, and she seemed to be completely back to being herself.

Monika:

In the evening we joined our table mates to watch a hypnotist perform. Our tablemates had enjoyed his first show, so we thought what the heck. Ian went actually up on stage, but he did not get deeply into a trance, he only seemed to be sleeping on stage. There were quite a few who had achieved a deep trance, and he had them do funny (?) things. I am not a great fan of people being made fools of without their conscious knowledge , so my laughter was very muted. The whole farce reminded me why I really don't care for hypnotism shows. Hypnosis has a place in the medical world when done by a conscientious doctor for one specific reason, like giving up smoking. But shows like this one leave me cold.



Copyright 2012 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt


 

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