Arriving at Pago Pago felt a bit like an early homecoming, as it is the capital city of American Samoa, a territory of the US since 1900. English is spoken along with native Samoan, and the local currency is the good ole’ US dollar. The territory is made up of five volcanic islands totaling 76 square miles, slightly larger than Washington D.C., and is located in the South Pacific geographical region of Oceania.
American Samoa reputedly has rich and exotic national parks, beautiful beaches, and excellent marine life for snorkeling and scuba diving, but I never ventured beyond Pago Pago, with a population of about 9,000, strung out for a mile or so along the harbor front beneath the mountains. On a walk through town, I passed the white colonial church and court house, the celebrated Sadie Thompson Inn, where William Somerset Maugham penned his short story “Rain” in 1916, which became the inspiration for several movies, and the true symbol of America, the locally popular and prominent McDonald’s McCafe.
The numerous public buses are uniquely fashioned of built-on large pickup trucks, each one distinctively lavished with colorful, personalized graphics and decor.
The small food and craft market featured a spirited group of blind singers with musical accompaniment, local tropical fruits, and an array of typical Samoan sarongs.
The waters around the islands support a myriad of rich marine life, with a rising awareness and effort to support and protect it, as well as an apparent active education program to discourage littering, which can be seen on many signs and billboards around town. Native flowering ginger and hibiscus grow wild along the sidewalks, and groups of Pteropus, the largest bat in the world commonly called flying foxes, hang from the trees above. And, in this tropical area susceptible to cyclones and typhoons, known outside the South Pacific as “hurricanes”, and earthquakes and tsunamis, warning signs are posted with evacuation information.
It is pure Polynesia, with “two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun!”
