Pago Pago, American Samoa

On the Pier

Souvenir Shops

            Tuesday, 19 Feb 2019 – At 9:00 AM, while we were enjoying breakfast, we docked at Pago Pago, pronounced Pango Pango.  Apparently, the name was misspelled by missionaries years ago as they translated religious text into the local language.  The “misspelling” has continued through today.  The Samoan islands are divided into the independent Kingdom of Samoa and American Samoa, which is a non-incorporated territory of the US.  Pago Pago is the capital of America Samoa and home for 9,000 of American Samoa’s total 65,000 person population.  Tuna canning is the area’s main economic activity.

We had already visited Pago Pago a few years ago, so we didn’t sign up for an excursion.   We went off the ship as early as possible to avoid some of the mid-day heat.  While walking around on the pier, we visited several vendor booths.  Sally still needed a hat for the hot tub to avoid further sun burning.  Oceania sold baseball caps in their boutique for $44.00 each, which was $24.00 more than the price we refused to pay in Papeete, Tahiti, or Bora Bora!  At last, we found a nice hat for only $10.00.  Then we took a few photos and returned to the ship.  We had the pool to ourselves as we swam for 30 minutes.  Another woman was entering the pool as we were leaving and remarked, “It looks like I have a private pool!”  Sally napped after lunch, and then she worked on her genealogy book.

At dinner, some of the other passengers complained to us about their hot, uncomfortable bus ride and other uncomfortable aspects of their excursions.  We recalled similar experiences when we visited Pago Pago back in 2012.  We heard another passenger complaining that he would be missing his February 20th birthday on the ship.  Since we would be crossing the International Date Line, the ship will be skipping that day!  We had intended to dance in the Horizons at 9:00 PM, but as had happened previously, the band was not there, so we returned to our cabin.  Before retiring, we set our clocks back one hour.