The first thing you notice about Pago Pago (formally known as Pango Pango, which my Gran used to randomly mention when I was little and which I was sure didn’t actually exist) is that it looks like you think a tropical island should look – at least one with a city on it. Such as it is, it’s not a city in the sense that we would normally think of – more of a large town. There’s only one street, one direction leads to the main square (the largest highlight of which is a garishly colored McDonald’s where all the teenagers apparently hang out) the other leads around the coast to the various beaches.
The main “free” beach may be only 15 minutes away by walk, but I challenge you to walk further than 10 minutes in the ever present heat! It’s not as humid as china, which means it’s at least bearable however the water definitely feels lovely at the end of it! Anyway, right when we were about to decide we couldn’t walk anymore, we came to a little private beach resort, $5 got you an all day wrist band for beach access, and they had snorkel gear. Also, since it was a private beach, they guaranteed sand, a nice perk, since a lot of the beaches in the area are very rocky.
Most of you either already knew, or by now have figured out, that I’m a complete water childe. The only thing I could be said to dislike about my actual hometown is that the water there is always way too cold to swim in (though over the years I’ve become acclimatized to the point where I can at least go wading in it). I’ve always felt that it sounds horrifically superficial, considering all the amazing historical and cultural sights I’ve been lucky enough to visit since I started my career on ships – but some of my favourite ports are in the tropics. Not because I’m a sun-worshipper (er…with my pale skin? Sun worshipping isn’t really an option), but because of the chance to swim in the ocean.
Despite the number of times I’ve dived headlong into salt water – I’d never actually gone snorkeling until today. Being in possession of an underwater camera is a definite perk when one is going snorkeling, especially when one is without one’s glasses. Sometimes the only way you can tell what you’ve seen in that case is when you look back at the pictures! But at any rate, it was an amazing experience. Most of the fish darted away of course, easily startled, but they flashed all different colours, including some that were electric blue that I wish I could have caught a picture of.
The only downside of the day, which is a risk in any tropical port, was the sunburn. I’m extremely pale-skinned (it’s the Irish blood), all it takes is one instance of forgetting to get someone to put sunscreen on my back and I basically do an imitation of a lobster…I’m normally quite paranoid about it, which is why I haven’t been sunburned (beyond the occasional sunburned nose) in about a year..today though, I forgot…
Good thing we have aloe vera on board…