#15 - The Samoas and More

There are two interesting events in this blog, hidden away amongst some history and facts.  One has to do with losing a day, and the other with me almost losing my life in Samoa!!  So read on...

After we left the Cook Islands, we had two days at sea before arriving at the Samoan archipelago.   Some of the islands belong to American Samoa and others to Samoa which used to be called Western Samoa.  

Today American Samoa is an unincorporated Territory of the United States.  It consists of 6 islands, 5 of which are inhabited.  Tuna canning and tourism are the major contributors to their economy.  (The next time you buy tuna in a can see if it comes from Samoa).  The people are U.S. Nationals, but not U.S. citizens.  

Just 44 miles away from American Samoa is Samoa, a self-governing country that gained its independence from New Zealand in 1962 after more than a century of foreign influence and domination.  It was known as Western Samoa until 1997.  Of the 9 Samoan islands only 4 are inhabited.  

To put all this in perspective, the total land mass of the Samoan islands is less than the state of Rhode Island.  But they have a history that is 20 times as long!

I just noticed when I touch my keyboard it starts to type the word Samoa all by itself.  So I think that’s a cue that I’ve written enough about the islands themselves.  

Just one more thing I thought was interesting.  Cannibalism was practiced in these islands for many years.  Hint:  Don’t accept an invitation to dinner from a Samoan.

Our on board lecturer told us that cannibalism was seen as a great moment when you could eat your enemy.  Certain body parts were more delicious than others.  That may be true, but I will never test out that theory, thank you very much.  I have a hard enough time eating sushi.

Back to the Pick’s adventures.   Well, there were none in Pago Pago.  We’d been there on a previous cruise so just decided to walk around a bit on our own.   Jeff says, they liked the word so much they named it twice.  He said that about Bora Bora and SavuSavu also.

We went to bed on Friday, November 9th after our day in Pago Pago and when we woke up the next morning it was Sunday, November 11th.  That’s right.   Saturday the 10th went missing. 

That’s because during the night we crossed the International Date Line and so moved an entire day forward.  It took a little getting used to.  But the three people on board who had birthdays on Nov.10 didn’t know quite when to celebrate.  The oldest one said she was happy to not  have a birthday at all since she didn’t want to get older.  The other two partied hardy on both the 9th and the 11th.  

So on Sunday I woke up and got ready for my excursion to O le Pupu-Pue National Park on Samoa.  There were only about a dozen of us who signed up for this, probably because  it involved some hiking.  We ventured out in our mini-bus to the Park, about an hour drive.  

Along the way we received some information from our guide.  He pointed out that although they had some cemeteries, the custom is to bury your loved ones in your front yard.  The important people were in vaults above ground, but most were underground.  

Each village has one big chief and those that serve him.  There are several “orator chiefs” .  These are also known as “talking” chiefs because they are articulate and can pass along information, both current and historic.  Our guide is an orator chief in his village.  Everyone in the village meets on the first Monday of the month.  There are separate meetings for the men and women and one woman is designated to take their questions over to the men’s group.  Women only got the right to vote 5 years ago. 

So back to our ride out to the National Park.  When we got to the entrance the gate was locked.  Apparently nobody works on Sunday in Samoa.  And our local guide, the one responsible for getting the key ahead of time, had not thought about doing that.  After several phone calls to Park personnel, it was apparent that nobody answers their phone on Sunday either in Samoa.

So our Seabourn guide told us we’d have to walk down this dirt road from the gate to where the trail starts.  She said it would be about a 15 minute walk, and the local guide we had with us concurred.  Well, it was already in the mid 80’s and pretty hot as we took off at a hiker’s rate of speed.  The eleven other people were clearly serious and experienced hikers, but I kept up with them (hitting the gym regularly paid off).  After 15 minutes there was no trail in sight.  I asked how much farther it would be, knowing that whatever distance we were hiking in, we’d also have to hike out.  And that was in addition to the 2.5 mile trail we were aiming to find.  

Our guide kept saying, it’s not much further, but 45 minutes later we were still walking and by now it was about 90 degrees and no shade on this road.  Finally we reached the start of the trail.  Now mind you, I had asked before signing up for this excursion if there were any steep steps on the trail since my knees are not happy campers when they have to bend a lot to go down steps. “Oh no, this is a graduated trail and pretty level” was the response.

So we start down the trail and there are steep steps made of uneven lava rocks, and they were covered with moss.  So now we not only have steep, but we have slippery.  Well, after just a few minutes, a couple of other people on the excursion opted out of the trail hike, as did I.   So the three of us, plus the local guide, sat in the sun and waited for the rest of the people to hike the trail.  Now why did the local guide stay with us?  Not to ensure our well being, but because he was wearing flip flops and couldn’t navigate the terrain of the trail!!!  He also didn’t know how far it was from the gate to the trailhead, so we concluded that he (the local Park guide EXPERT) had never done this hike himself.

By the time the rest of the group returned to where we were waiting, it was about noon.  And it was also close to 100 degrees.  And we now had to walk that entire way back to our mini bus.  We found out later it was a total of 4.5 miles round trip on that dirt road which was not supposed to be part of the excursion. 

So off we go, in the heat, down the road with no shade and with the last little bit of bottled water we had brought.  The “youngsters” in the group forged ahead at a pretty fast clip.  The heat didn’t seem to bother them.  The middle aged ones marched on at a slightly slower rate than the youngsters.  And I and an 84 year old man brought up the rear.  What the heck an 84 year old was doing on this kind of hike I still don’t know.  But I gotta say, he was in pretty good shape.

What took 45 minutes to walk earlier in the day, now took almost an hour and a half as we panted and dragged ourselves along the road in 100 degree heat with no shade.  And some of that was uphill.  The Seabourn guide who had been ahead of us came back to see if we were okay.   She took one look at me and used the last of her water to pour over my head.  She opened her umbrella and held it over me for some shade.  She took my backpack (yes in addition to all this we were carrying backpacks) so I didn’t have to schlep the extra weight.  

I think she was very concerned that the old guy and I were both about to suffer heat stroke.  This would not have been good for Seabourn business.  We were in the middle of nowhere with no way to drag two bodies back to the mini-bus.  And even if we could have gotten to the bus we were still an hour away from “town” and any medical help (if such a thing even existed in Samoa).

I realized that if I allowed myself to experience fear that my heart rate would soar even higher.  So I tried to go into a quasi meditative state, and repeated positive affirmations to myself with every step, holding on to a deep knowing that everything was okay.  

And it was.  By the time we got back to the mini-bus all the water had been consumed, but there was air conditioning and I soon began to cool off.  The 84 year old was almost catatonic.  The guides kept asking him if he was okay.  I thought to myself, what are you going to do if he is not??  That was a really scary thought.   

When I got back to the ship Jeff took one look at me and asked “What happened??!?!?”  He said I looked totally frazzled.  I felt totally frazzled but so grateful I survived.