We used the local buses quite a lot in American Samoa. There were several reasons for this: They were cheap and convenient. We could catch the bus right near the dinghy dock and they ran almost constantly. This child with the orange headdress has spent the day in the bus while his father drives. This type of child care is normal. Notice how color-coordinated he is! Also notice the American flag on the other bus. This patriotic display is quite common.

The bus terminal is about one block from the dinghy dock. You can see that there are plenty of buses running all the time. "Lady Beautyann" has a yellow ribbon sign on her that reads: "God bless our men and women in Iraq." Samoa is very well represented in the military.

You'd see this display along the road also. What may look like a rat guard on the coconut tree to the left is really one of many yellow ribbons on similar trees along the road to honor our American troops. If for no other reason, I think that the American Samoans deserve our respect.

I've included this photo of the view from the boat. It shows the many buses that run around the shoreline road. It also shows the typical car and some of the homes in Pago Pago. And, it shows you how steep the mountains are with just a little room to build along the shore. I case of storms this whole harbor area is very safe, outside is another matter.

The main harbor of Pago Pago has a very bad reputation among cruisers. Actually, that reputation was well deserved. The cannery used to dump refuse directly into the harbor. However, the EPA has been to Pago Pago and really cleaned things up. It really isn't bad. You do get the occasional fishy smell when the wind is in the wrong direction. And, because the yachts anchor in a river mouth the holding is not very good, but usually good enough. We dragged once in a big wind, but since we anchor way out it wasn't a problem! That night many of the boats dragged.

On the right is the commercial wharf. We checked in here and were able to load up on diesel as a very good rate. Besides the fishing fleet and cannery (which I'm told supplies about 80% of all canned tuna for the world - which is North America as no one else eats canned tuna!), the commercial wharf houses a big container operation which is the biggest container operation in the South Pacific.

This is a favorite swimming area. It's just outside the harbor to the west. If you go swimming in an area where local people are present you should NOT wear a bathing suit - NO this is not Tahiti where you take it all off! On the contrary, you leave your regular clothes on and go swimming that way. We don't find that very satisfying. Basically the locals just sit in the water, they don't actually swim.

Pago Pago is a great place to get stuff done (for yachties). We were able to reprovision as much as we needed. And, we were able to get some parts and charts we needed, as well as do some computer repairs. Here's Scott as we make our rounds. This is in front of a government building where we got our immigration sorted out. As U.S. citizens it was VERY easy to come and stay a while.

I'm sorry I couldn't resist this shot! In case you're wondering who eats turkey tails, pigs ears, lamb flaps, Spam and corned beef; you need wonder no more. I think this is the reason we had trouble eating just anywhere. Usually we're pretty experimental, but when we received a meal and couldn't eat half of it we became more discerning.

The Seafarer's Center in Pago Pago was a real help to us. Historically, yachties have NOT been their focus. But with new management and seeing that the yachties can help them in their mission things have changed. Mostly they're here for the crew of the big container  and fishing ships. The stories they tell of physical abuse of Chinese and Philippino crew would make your hair curl.

They have a very nice trading library. Chris and I are putting some English Bibles (from Quest) on the shelves here. We're happy to get these onto container ships with English reading Philippino crews. There is internet access here and there could be an opportunity to deliver mail, parts or supplies to other boats or other islands. There is a real need for a Mandarin speaking missionary here as well as other Mandarin resources. They were a huge help to us in providing a reliable address to which we could have some parts sent.

The seal to the right is the official seal of American Samoa. It depicts the kava bowl in the lower center, the royal fly whisk (upper left) (That should tell you something!), and the staff of the matai (or chief). The fly whisk is associated with an orator. The kava bowl pretty much tells of how local government is conducted by talking an issue to death or talking until a decision is made by the group, this talking can occur over many days or weeks. Kava is a drink that creates a mild lethargy if enough is drunk. Most papalagi have trouble acquiring a taste for it.

Even though there is central control of "government" a great deal of power rests in the local village. The local matais (or family leaders) of a village will basically discuss a topic to death before any action occurs. They decide most everything that goes on in the village plantation work, cleanup projects, Church beautification and who visits the village (including the waters of the bay). Scott & I decided to take a bus around and across the island of Tutuila (east and north). This is the view we had as we came over the mountain (left). You can see how lush the vegetation is and also how cut off each village really is. It's a lot like the Marquesas where the family controls a big valley. In this case we could get there by bus.

When we got there we weren't sure if we were going to be able to get off the bus or even if the bus was going to take us back to Pago Pago. There were a few guys on the bus when we got to the village of Sa'ilele that looked just like this guy behind me, and we weren't sure just how friendly they were going to be!!! As it turned out, after we told them that our plans were to take the bus back to Pago Pago and that we had just come to see what the villages looked like; they invited us to walk around and take photos, etc.

We tried to be respectful of their privacy as we understood that these folks don't take kindly to outsiders poking around. Anyway, here's a shot of the fales of Sa'ilele.

And, here's the Church with a group of guys discussing the important events of the day.

The inside of the Church  was quite beautiful with wood carvings, stained glass windows, wooden pews and beautiful alter.

This view comes from the narthex of the Church. I'd say it's rather impressive.

Here's a shot of a young coconut tree, a little view out to the bay and just a sense of how neat and orderly the village was.

AND, here's our bus ready to take us back to Pago Pago.

Coming back to the harbor along the shore we saw these many beautiful scenes. As beautiful as they are these places are no place for our boat!

There are a couple of resorts along here where people can sleep in fales on the beach.

We got off the bus part of the way around (right) to stop at a little store. Many of the people in American Samoa have traveled to the U.S. and have relatives in the States. We spoke of some of the differences. There is definitely a much slower pace of life in Samoa!

Whenever we leave the boat for a long period of time we are always relieved to see that she's still resting happily where we left her!! Here, (left) we're on the bus driving around the harbor. The yachts are at one end away from the commercial traffic. We had pretty much gotten all our important boat chores done and were ready to leave for Western Samoa the next day. Mostly that meant that we'd gotten our navigation computer working, our navigation programs to work and we were stocked up on the various products that were less available or more expensive elsewhere (like paper towels and fuel, for example). We saw paper towels in Rarotonga for $7USD per roll and diesel for $11USD per gallon in the northern Cooks. This compares to $1.50 and $2.62 respectively in Pago Pago.