Edited and uploaded some drone footage we took while we were anchored off Mele Beach in Vanuatu.
We are finally out of the boatyard and back in the water. Spent a few days on a mooring ball in Port Vila, restocking the boat and putting her back together.
We are gonna hang out here in Mele for a couple days, then start working our way north through Vanuatu’s islands on our way up to the Solomon Islands.
Other than this sentence, I will not address just how long it has been since our last website update. Which was in October of 2016. I mostly blame Tawn.
Enough of that, on to the update.
It’s a quick one.
I got a new drone on my last trip back to the States. Fly it is fairly easy, getting good/cool looking footage is gonna take some practice as you will see in the video below.
We are currently in the Port Vila Boatyard in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Google it. Hopefully will be back in the water in the next day or two.
Here is the drone footage. Also, I need to get better at editing video.
Aside from our little episode with the marina and Port Authority…Samoa is a very beautiful place with lots to offer tourists. They are really making an effort to put themselves on the map and get more tourists to their islands.
There are two islands in the Samoa group. The most inhabited island is Upolu where the capital, Apia, is located. The larger island, Savai’i is more rural and rarely visited by cruising boats due to the difficulty in getting there and returning to the Capital island where you have to check out.
The Samoa Tourism Center is very involved in the islands culture and has a huge interest in keeping it alive and sharing it with tourists….for free. The center hosts a show Monday-Thursday sharing examples of the Fa’a, or Samoan way of life. Fa’a is based around family, religion and communal living. Samoans, as well as most pacific island cultures, depend on the entire family to contribute to the village life to make it work. This can be seen in the way the Samoans live with many smaller homes surrounding a large raised lanai where everyone eats and sits around for socializing.
The show starts with some palm weaving where we all made plates for the feast at the end. The colorful host is decked out in Samoan traditional dress and displays his hard earned marks of the full body tattoo that many young men undergo. He explained the cooking ritual as a man’s task as it involves hard work and heavy lifting. The food is prepared and cooked in an Umu or underground oven. Traditional dancing followed and CB was brought up to the stage to strut his stuff….I think that other guy may be grabbing his booty! There is a wood working shop where villagers come to carry on the art of carving kava bowls too.
Traditionally, women raised the kids, kept them in line and taught the Fa’a. The village centers were where the women gathered during the day to make Tapa (click here for more info.) and traditional Samoan printed cloth for clothing. The making of Tapa cloth was demonstrated for us. Wheeew, that is no small feat. There are many steps involved, but the beating of the bark to turn it into cloth, as shown here, is a sweat inducing practice. These tapas range from wall sized to small sheet size and all involve the same process. In the end, we all got to sit around and eat a sample of a Samoan meal from our personally woven plates…CB is a bit dubious about the breadfruit.
We only spent a week in Samoa, but manager to see quite a lot. We rented a car with the Brits and took off on what can only be described as a hysterical adventure. But they travel like we do…and we saw a ton of shit!!!
Samoa is your typical tropical paradise. Dark and light green forest backdrops give way to amazing waterfalls and stunning flowers. A hike down to the falls always ended in a cool swim in a fresh water pool. The villages and grounds around the island were strikingly clean and well kept. Word has it there is a competition with a monetary prize awarded at the end of each year that pits village against village for who has the cleanest and most beautiful grounds. The competition must be stiff, because all of the villages were alight with carefully manicured lawns and gardens.
This is the To Sua Ocean Trench. Set inland some 1/4 mile from the ocean, a large sink hole opens up into a clean saltwater pool that is filled from a hole in the back of the cave where ocean swell fills in to form this swimming hole. Apparently at high tide people jump off the ladder into the pool. I find this daunting as we were there at lowish tide and you could not even jump off the platform as you would hit bottom…with only a 3-4 foot tidal range…I am not sure I would attempt the jump!
Like I said…absolutely a breath taking place!
With jungle rivers, rainbow clad shores and fresh and salt water swimming holes, there is not much more you could ask for in an island paradise.
With only one week to spend here, we feel we still got a good dose of the Fa’a! There is  lot to love about Samoa, and a place I would have liked to explore more. Oh well, you can’t see and do everything…although we sure do try our best.
We left out of Apia, Samoa en route to Fiji and had what may have been one of our best passages yet….definitely our fastest!!!
Stay tuned for updates on Fiji.
After hearing numerous other cruisers opinions about filthy, disgusting American Samoa…we followed our usual tactic of ignoring what other cruisers said, and decided to go there. Thank goodness we did! We arrived with vision of an oil slicked bay with oil drums floating around and were greeted with a clean bay with visible coral reefs on the outer perimeters. Sure there is the Charlie the tuna factory at the head of the bay that, if the wind was just right, would belch out a stinky tuna stank every so often…but seriously, it was not that bad. The holding was shit…but eventually 2 anchors settled that problem. Hmmm, I am not making this out to be so great am I….
Okay, the best bits:
Since we had just spent 9 months in Tonga, where the food selection was lets just say “minimal” at best, the highlight of American Samoa was the shopping. Good cuts of meat that I recognized, sour cream and dairy products for days….not to mention wine and alcohol. This was our first meal. Not that we base our cruising around grocery stores…but this was a real treat and one we indulged in several times :-)
Transportation here is a cinch. There is really only a perimeter island road and a few inner island roads to get lost on. So pick a bus…most of them go the same direction…and head to where ever you want to go. The drivers are super nice, just let them know where you are going and they will stop…or a local Samoan who overheard your conversation will make sure that driver stops. The buses are built on F-250 frames with the back half constructed of plywood. They are lavishly decorated in Polynesian style, and like this one, the pelt of Sully. Music is pumped out of huge thumping speakers and is all a Polynesian version of any American song you can imagine. I loved the buses…and no matter where you went…one dollah!
There is a lot of history in American Samoa…you just have to search for it. There is a World Heritage Trail that leads up to several of the still standing gun turrets put in place during the battle of the Pacific. There was only one incident of enemy fire in American Samoa; a  Japanese sub fired one missile that hit and destroyed one of the only Japanese homes and businesses on the island. Shortly after that, the US reinforced it troops and numerous gun turrets like this one were installed on the high peaks of the island. Many are still there to this day. Click here for more history on American Samoa’s role in the Battle of the Pacific.
As I said, American Samoa has some high mountains surrounding it. The trail systems are well maintained, yet steep. This one had a rope to guide you down the steepest bits. The trail meandered up and down and around the inner bay of Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango).
But the views were fantastic and well worth the hike. This is the inner harbor of Pago Pago. Tuna ships from all over the world use this port to unload their bounty to not only the famous Charlie Tuna, but two other factories that between them, employee 3/4 of the islanders. The other high employment here are the US Government jobs.
Unfortunately my light metering was off in this shot. But these are cable cars. In the 60’s the longest stretch of unsupported cable in the world was stretched across the bay from the 2nd highest peak down to the port of Pago Pago. During its heyday the cable cars would make several trips per day to the fabulous look out on the opposite peak. When cruise ships came in, locals would stop the car mid-span and throw baskets of flower petals down on the cruise ships as they arrived. Unfortunately in the 80’s a plane performing in the name day airshow crashed into the cable killing several people and it has never ran again…although there are rumors of rebuilding it. You can read up about the cable cars here.
The flowers around the island were beautiful and filled the air with amazing smells.
We took another hike out to a bay where there is supposedly a big crater to snorkel around in. The views were amazing.
Unfortunately for us, that day the winds were high and the seas were blowing directly into the bay. We tried to swim out past the break only to be washed onto the shore once again…it doesn’t look like it here…but some of those sets were huge…damn cameras always making us look like wusses.
This little tiny puppy followed us all the way from the owner of this properties home out to the snorkeling beach. She promptly fell asleep in a pile of leaves and we had to carry her out.
American Samoa has an awesome National Park Office with great people ready to show you how and where to hike on their many trails. The maps are great and the staff tells you which bus to catch to get to the trail head. While CB was working on an engine issue :-o I decided to hike the cross island ropes and ladders trail which started on the north side of the island. There is only one bus every several hours, so I hitched a ride in the back of a truck. The trail starts at the back of a really cool village; you have to ask permission to go on through.
The upper right picture has the lady who gave me a ride in it :-) Thank you random Palangi lady!
The views from the trail were amazing. 
The  northern shore is far more exposed with sea stacks and jagged rocks.
The trail went straight up from the village. Thank the gods the parks department installed ropes and ladders…Not so long ago, before the road, villagers on this side of the island had to take this footpath in order to get over to Pago Pago for trade…uffdah!
This is an embarrassing video of my out of shape ass huffing and puffing up the last ladder to the 1680 foot peak above Pago Pago. No, I am not having a heart attack…it is steep….and hotter than hell….leave me alone!
The views were worth every minute I lost off my life dragging my fat out of shape body to the top :-)
Palarran far below anchored n Pago Pago harbor…I tried calling CB on the radio….but he was at the McDonald’s rewarding himself after realigning the entire engine…yikes…glad I was up here!
More views of the very populated bay area.
The next night we went to Tisa’s Barefoot Bar &Resort, a very nice tourist trap, with  our new British friends Paul & Liz…they are actually from Whales…apparently this is a distinguishing factor :-) We had beers overlooking the bay and were invited to the overpriced Umu feast that was being prepared for the US Coast Guard. An umu is the traditional form of cooking food underground and used throughout the Pacific islands. The price was well worth it though, as the food was spectacular…and the entertainment came in the form of over served Coasties.
Overall, American Samoa is phenomenally under rated. There is plenty to do and an amazing amount of history here…plus, you will never find a more friendly people. When we first got there we thought there was something wrong with us because people were stopping on the street to welcome us and telling us where to go to see sights and where the best shopping was…turns out, they are that friendly to everyone. Loved this place!
TravelBlogger Theme developed by http://FreeTravelWebsiteTemplates.com | Powered by WordPress
