Driving Miss Karen

A blog about our travel

American Samoa: Back in the U.S.A….sort of

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Our next stop is American Samoa, which is a U.S. territory. We are back to using US$, 110 volt plugs, and driving on the right but it is still quite different with many people speaking Samoan and a max speed limit of 25 MPH (20 MPH is typical). We are very happy to be here and to have completed our 53rd U.S. National Park visit. AS is very similar to Samoa but seems to have less poverty and better infrastructure. The people are even friendlier than Fiji or Samoa (at least to tourists like us) and we have enjoyed our last stop before heading back to an actual United State.

Our main goal in A.S. was to see the National Park of American Samoa. We visited the main area of the park and did a couple of short hikes. This is Vai’ava straight from one of the lookout points
Our flight from Samoa to American Samoa on Talofa Airways was an adventure. I was worried about Karen but she did great in the co-pilot’s seat. Due to the location of the International Date Line, we actually arrived in American Samoa 23 and 1/2 hours before we left Samoa. The world is weirdly wonderful sometimes!
I was not amongst the biggest passengers on this plane so all things considered an excellent landing. Video looks worse than it was
Woohoo! #53 of 63 U.S. National Parks
Cool marine life exhibits at the visitor center. We were the only ones there
The National Park had some cool beach trails and nice exhibits of whale bones and other marine wildlife
Heading along the very rocky beach towards Vai’ava strait on Pola Island Trail
Sea Poison Tree blossoms on the trail. The poison is used to stun fish in freshwater streams
We did two short trails near the beach in the main national park area. There are small areas throughout the main island of Tutuila and on a small island called Ofu
Most of the main island of Tutuila is green rainforest hills surrounded by bays and inlets. The main industries are tourism and tuna fisheries/processing
Besides the national park visit, I went for a short swim one day. For a tropical island, it was surprisingly hard to find a sand beach that wasn’t full of coral. The water was crystal clear and a perfect temperature. American Samoa was a nice way to transition back to American Culture. We hope to return some day to explore more of it.

Jose

AKA Alfred

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