American Samoa

After leaving Hawaii, we had another five sea days before reaching our next destination, American Samoa. Passage weather conditions were again excellent and the sea days passed effortlessly in a whirl of meals, more meals and various other activities between meals.

We arrived in the early morning at the fabulous natural harbour of Pago, Pago.

Our stay wasn’t to be a long one and we only had enough time to take a short tour on a local, flower-bedecked bus along part of the coast and then walk around the town.

It was our first encounter with a lava lava, skirts worn by men. Even officials wear a natty navy version with gold stripes.

Our main memories of American Samoa are of churches, chickens and graves. There were a lot of churches for just 70,000 people and chickens were everywhere. Family is everything in Samoa. Property is passed down through the family and when people die they are buried in a prominent position close to the house in which they lived so they stay close to their relatives. The graves are above-ground, made of concrete and have elaborate stone plaques and flowers. You can see one next to the bus in this photo.