Saturday 5 September American Samoa island tour

Cock's Comb

Under Cock's Comb

Stuart, Evi, Jack, David

Today we had a hire car with Evi (Wonderland), Jack (Anthem) and Stuart (Imagine) to tour the island. We'd been told there was more to AS than the malodorous tuna cannery and Pago Pago harbour. Indeed there is much more to this island 20 miles long and 6 miles across. There is a national park which is the only rainforest park in America. A palaeolithic, or old world, forest with species similar to Africa and Asia watered by an average 300 inches of rain each year. The only native mammals are fruit bats which we've seen flying around at dusk. It was a steep and twisty road up then down to get to the north side of the island. We dropped into the bay for spectacular views of a rock called the Cock's Comb, talk a walk on the rock beach. It's a different world from Pago Pago on the other side of the mountain. It smells clean, there are flowers and sparkling water. Coming back to the main coast road on the south we turned left and followed the road as far as it went to the north est end of the island. We would have liked to visit an island ½ mile off the coast which has a quick sand lake but couldn't find a boat to take us over.

The echo dome

We saw a basilica type church up on the hillside and decided to investigate. From a distance it looked imposing and impressive. Close up it was modern concrete with paint work a chimpanzee would have been ashamed of. The red floor looked like an amateur Jackson Pollock. Just as tacky inside where they had saved on expensive stained glass window by painting bible scenes on the outside of the windows. To distract one from the bad artwork the architect had built a perfect domed roof which magnified and echoed every sound. A mouse running across the floor would have sounded like a corps de ballet. Every foot step, every note bounced and reverberated around you. Not sure if this is good for music but we had great fun with it.
All the excitement had made us hungry so we dropped into Tisa's where we'd been for the Samoan feast 2 days ago for swordfish steaks and a cold beer. Our afternoon agenda was to drive to the far west of the island. Here the land is flatter, less steep too than in the east, and it seems to have been harder hit by the tsunami last September. On 29 September 2009 there was an undersea eruption 60 miles off the coast which pushed a wall of water onto the shores of the island. I don't know if any lives were lost but the coastal villages were hit hard. People are still living in tents the army donated and rebuilding their houses. It's also the most naturally beautiful part of American Samoa and one can imagine how it was before the Americans decided it would be a good place to refuel steamers plying between Hawaii and NZ. American Samoa is almost midway on a direct line between the two places. AS also had the advantage of a large protected anchorage in Pago Pago for the American Navy and a strategic position in the Pacific.
At the end of our day exploring there was still time for a cheeky shopping trip to the discount warehouse, Cost U Less. We bought new diesel jerry jugs. On special offer it was only $1 more to buy complete new jugs than to buy the replacement caps for ours that have split. What a sad reflection on our consumer society.