American Samoa (Pago Pago)

When we first opened the balcony door in American Samoa on our morning of our arrival we knew we were in a very different Samoa from the one we had just left they day before.  We were greeted to the sound of traffic, honking horns, sirens, and other sounds of a city.  Long gone were to tranquil sounds of Samoa that we experienced yesterday.  While the two countries are only about 50 mile apart and the people have a common heritage they have two completely different cultures.  American Samoa, which is a US territory, is totally “Americanized” and could be mistaken for any other US city.

Kind of weird to see old glory waving out in the middle of the Pacific!

We arrived in American Samoa on their Flag Day so were greeted with lots of flags, banners, and celebrations.

Yes all the typical American brands are available here…Almost all the cars are Fords whereas in Samoa most cars were from Japan (of course Samoa drives on the left whereas American Samoa drive on the right).  Actually Samoa changed to driving on the left only a few years ago because Japan offered to give them a large number of used left hand drive cars!

As part of their Flag Day Celebration they were racing these loooong canoes.

Like Samoa, American Samoa is very religious with lots of churches

Trees along the city main street are loaded with Flying Foxes (aka bats).  They live in the trees instead of caves and fly around in the late afternoon feeding on insects.  They are huge as their wing span is over 3 feet.

Looks like someone found an cute Samoan baby.  This baby is only 3 months old!  Yes the Samoan people are all very large!

The island is covered by jungle and it doesn’t take long for the jungle to reclaim anything left unattended.

The locals are continuously battling to keep the jungle from overtaking their property.

A few of the locals we had the privilege to meet