The following morning we headed over to the next island, Pago Pago American Samoa. Here, we were greeted with one of the beautiful Samoan long boats with at least 49 rowers swiftly rowing by us at full speed! What a sight! I was so glad I was on our balcony at the right time to catch sight of them! It was so cool!
It was interesting to see the differences between the "American" and the "Western" Samoa. The American island looked so much more modern...in their buildings, in their housing, even their port. One thing noticeable was their large tuna boats and canning buildings as they have a large tuna industry here.
These are some of the buildings of their downtown area, with the Governor's home (upper left) at the top of the cliff as you arrive to the island; the large white building is their main Government building which is right at the cross section downtown. The other large buildings are all shopping markets!
As we docked at the port we were entertained by a delightful student group from a local school. What a wonderful treat! They were so cute, all sizes (one really little one) and all so very talented. They really put on a great show of quite a number of dances for us, ending with a lovely number that their teacher explained was a traditional one that honored the home and was a way of saying "welcome to my home". It brought tears to my eyes and made me feel very special. Such beautiful people here.
After enjoying the wonderful welcome, we disembarked and took a walk around town and did some shopping. In all honesty, we felt there really wasn't much to see and do here, so after our stroll through town and the shops, it was back onto the ship for us!
...catching up from our cruise, Marie
If you would like to see the rest of my photos, you can go to my Flickr account and it's under the Pacific Islands Album.
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