Tahiti French Polynesia

Tahiti is a small island within in the nation of French Polynesia which itself is a territory of France.  As expected, there is a huge French influence in the island.  The language is predominately French and they even use the French Franc (which France no longer uses).  We found the island to be very crowded with narrow streets, lots of noise and not very appealing.  It felt very much like a big city even though the main city of Papeete only had a population of about 26,000.  The outlying areas were less crowded but lacked the beauty that we were expecting.  It was obvious that the island is relatively poor and has an unemployment rate of about 25%.  We did not find the people to be particularly friendly and welcoming like they were in Samoa but of course the language difference is a barrier.

Before we even reached the dock the friendly guy came alongside to welcome us to Tahiti

Tahiti gets lots of rainfall so there are spectacular water falls.  Some areas of Tahiti have received 8” of rain in a hour and the daily totals have been measured in feet!

Much like Samoa there were lots of churches in Tahiti

With so much rainfall it doesn’t take long for the jungle to eat away at an abandoned car.

A local group of Tahitian dancers came aboard to demonstrate some of their traditional dances

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

Samoa (Apia)

Five days after sailing from Hawaii we finally arrived at our most distant destination which was the small island nation of Samoa which is south of the equator and west of the international date line.  

Since most passengers on the ship had never sailed across the equator we were all known as “pollywogs”.  Therefore, the traditional equator crossing ceremony was performed to honor King Neptune (king of the sea and protector of all seafarers) which converted us in to “shell backs” and ensured our continued safe journey!

The crossing of the international date line was a very interesting event in that we lost a Wednesday.  The calendar advanced from Tuesday to Thursday skipping Wednesday as we headed west.  It even got more confusing later in the week when we headed back east and had two Saturdays'.

All in all we really enjoyed our time in Apia Samoa and found the island to be very pretty and the people very friendly.  While there is some western influence in the island they have been able to retain much of their traditional culture and way of life.  Of all the islands we visited we found Samoa to be the most authentic.

As the ship docked in the town of Apia we were greeted to the sounds of local music.  The musicians were amazing considering they spend over an hour playing for us in stifling heat (90 degrees and 100% humidity) without shoes on hot concrete.

One of the first things we noticed in Apia was everywhere you looked you would find a church.  The country is almost 100% Christian and the people are very religious.  The typical Samoan attends church every afternoon and all businesses close Saturday afternoon as the people spend the afternoon/evening cooking as they do no work of any kind on Sunday.

To get a better feel for the Samoan culture we visited a local village and were welcomed with a traditional kava ceremony.  The ceremony centers around honoring and welcoming the visitors with dancing and the sharing of the kava drink.  We found the Samoan people to be extremely friendly and welcoming. It was not unusual to be greeted with “Welcome to Samoa” as you passed people on the street.

One of the village elders offering the visitors the kava drink

The kava drink is made from the root of the kava plant and is prepared in this wooden bowl.  Yes sanitation was a little lacking relative to our standards.

Village children performing a traditional dance

The island is covered by coconut trees.  We were warned several times to never stand or set under a coconut tree.  We were advised that unlike in Hawaii they do not trim their coconut trees!