Polynesia, Here We Come

We arrived in Pago Pago, (pronounced Pahngo Pahngo in the Samoan language) on Saturday, April 22.  About 11,500 people live in Pago Pago (2000), which is on the Island of Tutuila, the largest island of American Samoa.  It’s located about 4,200 miles southwest of San Francisco and has been a territory of the U.S. since 1900 when the harbor was used as the site of an American naval base.

The port from the ship was incredibly beautiful, palm trees swaying gently in the breeze, turquoise-blue water.   We were eager to get off the Emerald Princess and explore.  But, due to construction on the wharf, the usual tie ups were gone.  Non-existent.  The stern of the ship was secured, but there was no place for the bow to be tied off.  It seemed strange that no one apparently thought to inform our Captain.  Eventually, after some shuffling of other boats, and some climbing over construction and another small boat, the bow was secured at a tie up quite a distance away.  I didn’t realize our ship had so much rope.  I’d bet our Captain was fuming. 

We finally got off the ship about an hour late.  There were dancers who greeted us and it was lovely to hear the music and watch them.

This tree was carved, and so pretty.  We've seen a couple of these on this trip.

Our mission today was to walk around and find the StarKist Tuna Factory.  We walked to it as we could see it from afar around from where the harbor was located.  It turned out to be further than I’d thought, about three miles, and hotter than hot.  We stopped at a little market and got bottles of water, but by then it was too late and I was already heat struck.  (I’m sure that isn’t a real word.)

Found it.

Anyhow, I was horribly overheated, and so we decided to take a local bus back to the docks.  It was a fun experience as it was filled with local folks who were friendly.  The bus was small, and cost us a dollar.  The driver had on great music and all we really needed was to have a chicken on board.  But no luck there.

The Pago Pago people were exceptionally friendly and the town could be so much more.  But it was filthy.  There was trash everywhere -- in the waterways, the drains, along the roads, in the cemetery, anywhere you looked.  There were abandoned buildings, a dead cat along the sidewalk and just a general feeling of rundownness and shabbiness.  What’s ironic is that today is the 47^th Annual Earth Day, and caring for the planet includes conserving water, saving energy and minimizing waste.  I don’t believe word has reached the island.

So sad.

I'm not sure what this was, but it was interesting.

The little bandstands or meeting spots were pretty although don't seem to be used much.

This is an above-ground grave.  I'm fascinated with these and graveyards. Why is that?  The peace and quiet, perhaps? This was well-kept and beautiful with a heart memorial at the top. 

A little further on down the road, this one was not as well-kept.

I don’t know that I’d come back again because of the trash.  Yet, the people were so welcoming and it’s so beautiful that I hope they can figure out how to clean it up because everyone we spoke with felt the same about how trashy it was, yet how friendly.

The church we saw was beautiful and clean, and so colorful.

There are the remains of so many buildings that you wonder what was they once were.  And why they're now vacant.

This was an interesting car ornament.

We saw these guys repairing nets.  Big nets.

The Pago Pago harbor can handle ships of up to a 32-foot draft and has a ship repair facility. 

Once we got back near the dock I felt a bit better and we walked some the other way and stopped for a cold drink.  I’ve had heat stroke before and it’s not good, so we went back to the ship, I drank a lot of water and took a dip in the pool.  My eyes felt funny, though, as though my lens implants were fogged up from the heat.  I’ve not had that happen before.  Strange.

We were also sent off with dancers.  How beautiful they were.

 

Beautiful.



Security.  Quite stylish.

Another Princess ship arrived, the Sea Princess who is smaller, and she was parked right behind us.  It didn’t appear there was much room between the two.

Not much room there.

Later we went up to watch the sail-a-way and it was like our thousand-foot-long ship was on a lazy Susan.  She thrust out from the dock and spun around, and away we went, heading out of the harbor, tooting our horn to let everyone know we were the biggest, baddest thing in the around.

Flower Pot Rock, at the entrance, or exit as this was, when we sailed away from Pago Pago.

We had another at-sea day April 23, so I had scheduled a massage.  But I woke up with something in my eye.  It was watering and hurt like crazy.  I couldn’t keep it open.  I couldn’t close it.  I washed it out with eye drops.  That didn’t help.  I took a shower and cleansed it some more.  That didn’t help.  I decided if it didn’t start feeling better in a few hours, by the time the medical center opened, I’d go down and have them take a look at it. 

I got down and got in line.  There were quite a few people there, and nearly all but me seemed to be there due to coughing and sore throats and all.  The people on this ship have been a bit sickly, colds, flu, that type of thing.

My turn came pretty quickly as I’d been there early and I saw Doctor Kate, from South Africa.  She’s a tall, lovely young lady, and she took a look in my eye.  She couldn’t see anything.  She then dilated it, but still could see nothing.  She called in her associate, and he said my eye looked okay although it appeared there might be something toward the back.  But as they deal mostly in trauma, they couldn’t tell if there was anything really going on, and whatever it might be, wasn’t life-threatening.  And it didn’t appear there was any retinal detachment, which is a good thing.

My eye continued hurting and watering so it appeared I was crying.  Doctor Kate gave me eye drops for the pain and the inflammation and asked if I’d like her to look for an ophthalmologist.  I said yes as I wanted to be sure all was well. 

The drops helped and within a couple hours I felt way better.  However, I had been told to not exercise, to cancel my excursions as they could be problematic, and to check back the next day.  The no exercising order meant I could take the lift, and not walk the stairs.  Woo hoo.  So I had a massage instead.  Very nice, and so relaxing.