American Samoa - 22/7/2008
Today we arrived in American Samoa - only 84 naut. miles from Apia - very short hop, and the shortest in the trip.
It's a beautiful place - the harbour is actually the crater of an extinct volcano - so it's sheltered on all but one side. Lots of lush tropical forrests, palm trees, etc. Everyone here has an American accent too (and aparantly they're all considered US citizens)
We picked up our tour bus (the last one, who knew that you had to get there 20mins before it's listed as the time for meeting the tour!!!) - and our guide 'Joseph' - his native name is about a paragraph long, aparantly he comes from an old family and because his father and grandfather were tribal chiefs, he's got a VERY long name. The tour of the island was quite nice, if a little bumpy on the wodden seats. The bus was 'naturally air conditioned' - thankfully it was a very windy day and was very nice temperature wise.
Joseph told us a few local legends and we stopped in at a few historical places. All in all it was a good tour - the traffic jam on the way back was a bit annoying - it was due to them hosting a pacific islands cultural festival - so everyone on the island seemed to be travelling to the event at the same time. To pass the time Joseph sang us a few songs - and we recripocated by singing him our National Anthem.
We got back to the boat about 45mins late due to the traffic Jam - thankfully we were the morning tour, I imagine the ships departure tonight will get a little delayed due to all that traffic for the afternoon tours!
It's a beautiful place - the harbour is actually the crater of an extinct volcano - so it's sheltered on all but one side. Lots of lush tropical forrests, palm trees, etc. Everyone here has an American accent too (and aparantly they're all considered US citizens)
We picked up our tour bus (the last one, who knew that you had to get there 20mins before it's listed as the time for meeting the tour!!!) - and our guide 'Joseph' - his native name is about a paragraph long, aparantly he comes from an old family and because his father and grandfather were tribal chiefs, he's got a VERY long name. The tour of the island was quite nice, if a little bumpy on the wodden seats. The bus was 'naturally air conditioned' - thankfully it was a very windy day and was very nice temperature wise.
Joseph told us a few local legends and we stopped in at a few historical places. All in all it was a good tour - the traffic jam on the way back was a bit annoying - it was due to them hosting a pacific islands cultural festival - so everyone on the island seemed to be travelling to the event at the same time. To pass the time Joseph sang us a few songs - and we recripocated by singing him our National Anthem.
We got back to the boat about 45mins late due to the traffic Jam - thankfully we were the morning tour, I imagine the ships departure tonight will get a little delayed due to all that traffic for the afternoon tours!
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