5) Pago Pago, American Samoa Pt 3

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.

                We’re taking on some cheap fuel tomorrow at 1 and then departing for Apia, Samoa.  It used to be called Western Samoa but they recently changed it.  Internet will be fewer and farther between until we hit Fiji.

                                                     

4) Pago Pago, American Samoa Pt 2

July 2008: South Pacific

Pago Pago, American Samoa (S 14.17-W 170.41) 

Part 2

                                                                                          

                While in Rarotonga we decided to depart in time to make the last days of the Pacific Arts Festival in American Samoa.  This event is held every 4 years each time on a different island.  There is minimal publicity which in turn does not cater to the tourism element in that it is really done for them.  There are no words that can best describe this event.  Many and most of the South Pacific countries participate and send delegates, dancers and craftsman.  This is like no other street fair.  The dancers are the real thing; the crafts are the real things.  It seems this event is so far under the radar that the only tourists here were the cruisers and a few others.  Most of the crowd was the locals from Samoa and the other island participants.  It was nice to see a much localized event and we were not the only one’s buying stuff; everybody had their hands full.  The artwork and craftsmanship were outstanding.

 

                This event was scattered on the island but most of it was concentrated in one specific beach area of the newer section of Pago Pago.  By the airport was the outdoor stadium but on the beach were the indoor auditorium, the outdoor beach stage, outdoor pavilion stage, food vendors, live-band venue and craft vendors from the participating countries and authentic tattoo artists.  Not to mention the Pago Pago Yacht Club was in close proximity to all the action.  Breathing all that tropical air and hearing all that music makes one hunger for refreshment.  The other Dave sums it up well, “…the first is for the thirst and the second is for the taste”.  Is the cat out of the bag on why I am on board?  Yes, a discerning beer drinking crew.

The Samoan’s welcomed everyone with warmth but I think the bar kitty was having

trouble with all the new faces.

 

           

                Come all this way and not try the exotic local drink?  I have always thought it was called Kava but here it is called Ava.

            After Bob was sized-up on “the street” we were brought under the tent to the guy sitting with the Ava.  Scoop with the coconut cup, a pre-drink ritual of spilling a little from the cup, a chant to god and earth and bottoms up!  I don’t have any wine comments to make as, uhm, it is not wine.  It is made from a specific root of which I forget which and it tastes like room temperature bamboo tea or root tea or, yes, dirt tea.  But, this dirt tea is magical.  There is no effect like alcohol but my tongue and lips went slightly numb.  Is it any coincidence that this tent was next to the PPYC?

Bob Briggs, Dave Smith, me in the circle of craft vendors.

             The most outstanding elements of this entire festival are the dancers.  These are nothing like anything I have ever seen.  These are highly trained and skilled dancers and musicians representing and perpetuating their own unique cultural aspects with costumes and storytelling accompanied with music and dance.  We have seen them on the grass and beach stage in the daytime, the indoor and outdoor pavilions at night under the lights and every time was thoroughly impressed.  The experience having witnessed all this is priceless and impossible to convey with words.
   

      

      

      

        The next time this event will be held is 2012 in The Solomon Islands.  If the stars align…I hope to be there again.