American Samoa

American Samoa has been a possession of the United States since 1900, and as such, it is the only U.S. soil south of the equator.  The U.S. operated a coaling station and naval base in Pago Pago until World War II, and the islands were a U.S. Marine staging area during the war.  However, there is little U.S. government presence today.  In 1960, American Samoa ratified its territorial constitution, and it has since developed a modern, self-governing political system. 

No. This is not the Harbormaster

Carved from a single tree

   American Samoa consists of five volcanic islands and two coral atolls.  It includes the eastern islands of Tutuila, Aunu'u, and Rose; three islands (Ta'u, Olosega, and Ofu) of the Manu'a group; and Swains Island.  The total land area of these islands/atolls is only 76 square miles.  Over 96% of the land in American Samoa is owned communally, and its use is regulated by traditional Samoan custom.

       The main island of American Samoa is Tutuila.  It is about 17 miles long in an ENE-WSW direction and 5 miles wide.  The main port/town in American Samoa, Pago Pago, is located in the center of Tutuila.  Pago Pago Harbor, where we first anchored, is a collapsed volcano caldera.

    The people of American Samoa - approximately 60,000 - are U.S. nationals, not U.S. citizens.  However, many become naturalized U.S. citizens.  America Samoa does 80-90% of its foreign trade with the U.S. with canned tuna being its primary export.


    The Samoan social structure continues to be based on the extended family, and the Samoans cling tightly to their traditions.  However, the influence of missionaries is also noticeably present in the islands.  Activities other than church are highly discouraged on Sunday - a day when all businesses are closed.  The influence of the missionaries is also present in the clothing worn by Samoans.  Their dress is highly modest - especially for such a warm climate.  Men wear long pants or lava-lavas, and women wear long skirts and cover their shoulders.  It is common to see men in business suit jackets wearing a lava-lava rather than pants.  Even the police uniforms are lava-lavas.




At first we did not care too much for American Samoa.  There are no marine stores and few large American stores which is what we expected.  The notable exceptions are a Cost-U-Less box store and a large Ace Hardware.  Getting fresh produce became an all-day adventure going to the many small grocery stores located in each village.

But we had many more pleasant surprises than disappointments, and our most pleasant surprise was the people.  Our interactions with the local population have all been positive.  We met some American folks that now live here and they spent a day driving us around and we took a small boat to an island where we did some hiking.  Since they had 12 year old Meagan, Emily got a nice friend to enjoy.   

Our Guide George on Aunuu Island

Emily and Meagan

They have a wonderful library here and the girls were befriended by Mary the librarian.  Mary is full of tattoos and a sea-life mural tattoo completely covers her back.  She loaned Emily her library card saving us the $50 fee and Emily checked out and read several books.  Even the government officials were consistently pleasant and helpful.

Mary The best Librarian in Samoa

Emily with the young dancer

    Another surprise was the beauty of the island.  In the past, many boaters have reported the harbor to be intolerably filthy and polluted by the outflow from the canneries.  That is largely cleaned up.  The cannery outflow is pumped out a few miles offshore, and there is no noticeable inflow from the canneries.  Yes, it is still quite fragrant when the wind blows just wrong, but the prevailing winds usually keep the odors away from the small boat anchorage.  After two days at anchor we got permission to bring our boat alongside a concrete dock.  This made town trips and walks to the local church for mass much easier.  Emily got to ride her bike around too.  We ended up staying two full weeks waiting for mail to catch up to us and the longer we stayed, the more comfortable we became.

Docked at low tide in Pago Pago

The harbor may be dirty but is full of life

    And when you travel outside the town of Pago Pago, it is a beautiful island.  We drove all over the island with George and Meagan.  The coastline is consistently beautiful with bays all around the island, and small villages dot many of the bays.  There is also rather dramatic terrain along much of the shoreline.

    As we drove through individual villages, we were impressed by the large number of churches, fales (meeting houses), and graves.  Each village had at least one church and fale, and most villages had many.  In one village, it seemed that each house had a fale in front of it.  And there are family burial sites in front of most houses.  Some are more elaborate than others, but it appears that most families bury their dead in front of their houses.  The local Rotarians (yes Uncle Joe, I still go to meetings) said that these family plots reinforce the permanence of land ownership to Samoans.

    It is simple and inexpensive to get around without a car.  There is a bus system that is efficient, colorful, and very user-friendly.  Each bus is privately owned, and each is a reflection of its owner.  The buses are built atop car bodies and the upper bus his made entirely of wood.  Each bus has a unique paint job on its outside, but the real personality emerges on the dash and area surrounding the driver.  Think of how some people personalize their work space with pictures, trinkets, and memorabilia.  Add feather boas, artificial flowers, and loud music, and you can imagine one of the more sedate buses.  They were wonderful!  And we never paid a fare over $1.

We met a Samoan family and they were very friendly.  Penitani (Benny) brought us free Papaya and gave Kim 6 natural white pearls he had found diving here.  Kim made his wife Lisa some earrings and Emily gave the children stuffed animals.  We agreed to deliver some food items to his parents in Tonga since they are much cheaper here.  He said they will give us a private tour in Tonga and we can’t wait to meet them.  He also has relatives in the islands of Niuatoputapu and Vava’u that we also will visit in the coming months.

Penitani, Lisa and kids

Jo rides for the first time

We went to a dinner one night at Tisa's Barefoot Bar that was nice.  We enjoyed a table right over the beach and were entertained by flying foxes...bats with a two foot wingspan.  Everything was cooked in a umu, the traditional Samoan oven.  They put all the food, (pig, turkey, New Zealand lamb, chickens, octopus, bread fruit, shrimp and vegetables directly on the rocks and cover it with big palm leaves.  The whole pile bakes/steams for three hours and we all ate family style with no utensils.  The pig and lamb fell off the bone and was mouthwatering.  Emily and I fought over the octopus and ate others portions of that too.  With full bellies we were entertained by some traditional Samoan dancing.  Unlike the Polynesian dance this was slower and more graceful and closer to the Hawaiian hula dance.

Liquids on top in coconut shells

Flying Fox

Tom