Tuesday April 15, 2014 Pago Pago, American Samoa

We arrived at the dock in Pago Pago at 7:00 AM.  Our tour wasn’t scheduled until 12:05, so we had coffee and breakfast in our room.  When I went to get the daily Sudoku puzzles I went on the upper deck and checked the GPS for nearby caches.  There were four listed on the island.  Two near the harbor at lookout points on tops of nearby mountains.  The other two were 3.6 and 7 miles away respectively.

We went out on the street planning to find a taxi to take to a cache named “On My Honor” that was 3.6 miles away at the local Boy Scout office.  There was a lady that was kind of dispatching the taxis, but all the taxis wanted to sell 4 hour tours of the island.  At about 11am the lady was out of taxis but agreed to take us herself.  One problem was she wasn’t sure where the Scout office was.  We headed off in the right general direction.  The road curved around the coast and it was quite a while before we seemed, according to the GPS, to get any closer to the cache.  Our driver stopped at the building where the Scout office use to be and asked directions to the new office.  We impressed on her several times that we needed to be back at the dock by noon for a tour.  She repeatedly assured us that we would make it.  This particular cache was located inside the Boy Scout office.  The office hours were listed as 8-3 and they listed an alternative to signing the log to show that you found the cache. 

On My Honor

Flower Pot Rock

Graves in front of a Samoan home

That method was like many of the old virtual caches, take a picture beside the sign and send it to the cache owner.  Since we were short of time we took the picture choice and headed back to the dock.  We made it with time to spare.  As it turned out nearly an hour to spare.  Although the GPS showed the cache about 3.5 miles from the ship, that distance was straight line.  To get there we actually drove a little over 8 miles each way along the road.

When we got to the dock it was about 11:50, we were shown where to line up for our tour.  It was very disorganized with at least two tours lining up without direction.  There was no shade and it was very hot.  Our meeting time for the tour was listed as 12:05.  It was after one before we boarded the bus.  It was hot and miserable.  The bus was old with no air conditioning and very lightly padded plank seats.  Fortunately our bus didn’t fill up so we had room.  Once underway it wasn’t as hot with the breeze coming through the open windows.  The noise level was high when the bus was moving and the guide had to yell to make herself heard.  Our first stop was at the end of the line.  There we saw a show put on by some local dancers.  The master of ceremonies called himself Chief Smooth and was both funny and informative.  We were entertained by an Ava ceremony and dancing.  It was also very hot during the show, but at least we had shade.  They did serve cold coconuts and the coconut water was very refreshing.  Back on the bus we worked our way back to the ship with two more stops for picture taking,  We got back to the ship a little before four, sailing time was scheduled for 4:30.

A refreshing break

Back in our room we changed into bathing suits and went to the pool area at the aft of the ship on deck 12.  We chatted with a couple from England and another couple from Dayton, NV during the sail away.

We got cleaned up, the shower felt REALLY good.  We went to the Princess Theater to see a new comedian act.  The comedy was proceeded by the cruise director singing several songs.  He was very good.  We read later that he started his career as a Cabaret singer.  We also enjoyed the comedian.  We also sat by a couple who were from Henderson, Nevada. 

After the show it was dinner at our appointed time and then back to the room for some reading and then bedtime.