July 2008: South Pacific
Pago Pago, American Samoa (S 14.17 W 170.41)
Part 3
The festival is over. The lights are turned off. The crowds and tents are gone. Uh, oh now we have to entertain ourselves by seeing the island. Bob, the driver, saw to it that we saw the entire island in one day. Well, most of the island. What I really mean is that there is only one main road that does not go completely around the island. In effect, we drove one way until the pavement ended and someone’s house impeded our progress, then turned around and drove all the way to the other end of the island. After descending to sea level the pavement ended in a little, and I mean little community.
Throughout this island tour there was a disproportionate amount of churches, Laundromats, sewing shops, ‘not’ pavilions and mausoleums. ‘Not’ pavilions because they are actually structures they used to live in until they built houses with walls. We thought they were gathering areas and when it rains they do stand under them. Lots of mausoleums in front yards, too.
Hat’s off to the driver. He insisted we fully experience the island by stepping inside and having a seat in one of the roadside, uhm, pavilion thingy’s. Middle of nowhere.
The view out my port window on port of the power plant from the left and then the Star-Kist processing plant with ship’s tied up to the mile long factory. For the record, it’s all open 24 hours a day. When the wind shifted we didn’t smell the power plant but the factory…. Let’s just say that this part of the anchorage got a bad reputation based on the smells that emanate from this factory and yes the smells are bad. Luckily, they dissipate quickly due to the strong consistent winds.
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