A special dream is now replaced with a wonderful memory.
When I was a very young surgeon, all those many years ago, I thought that I would work at the Lyndon B Johnson Tropical Medical Center. I also imagined that I would sip on a gin and tonic at the Pago Pago Yacht Club while watching the sunset. What a dream! Fast forward to the present and I never worked at the medical center, there is no yacht club and Pago Pago faces east! So much for these fantasies.
But dreams can be replaced with a pleasant reality. After daydreaming about American Samoa for over half of my life, I finally was going to visit. I had signed up for a hiking trip (Off the Beaten Path - highly recommended) to visit the National Parks. On the morning of the trip, I woke early - probably really never slept, let the dogs out for a very early morning "emptying out" excursion, got them tucked into the atrium with treats and headed for the airport. I was really excited to be going, and I was really early at the airport. It was an 11-hour direct flight from Boston to Honolulu, then a brief layover and a late 4-hour plane ride to AS. Not many flights to AS, so you don't want to miss this one!
It is a beautiful group of islands and did not disappoint! It is my perfect landscape - where the mountains end at the sea. Beautiful sand beaches and beaches with lava and coral. A true paradise setting. And they do appear to value and appreciate their American link.
When we arrived, we were met by traditional dancers and music. What a warm welcome to these gorgeous islands.
But these young women danced while we waited for our luggage. You won't see that at Logan airport!
When you think about it, in order for islands to be lush, you need rain. And we had rain. Lots of it. One hike canceled because of rain and one major hike up a mountain (just 4 of us hearty souls) in the rain. But I would do it again in a heartbeat.
A misty view while hiking up and up and up. This was an adventure. The guide who was supposed to take us to the mountain peak said the trail was bad and didn't want to go. So our tour guide Pika stopped the car and asked another young man to guide us. He said yes, and off we went. However ----- I don't think he initially understood we were to hike to the peak. So as he was heading down a road, one of the guys using GPS told him we were not going in the right direction. What to do? What to do? Well, you scale up the 20-foot embankment and make a trail! That is what you do. These short legs of mine found it a bit of a challenge so the guide cut down a sapling and helped pull me up halfway to the top of the embankment. No worse for the wear and only a little dirty or shall we say muddy. The rain rinsed off some of the mud, no problem.
We hiked through the jungle without a trail for quite a while. The guide secured his flipflops to his waist belt and cleared a path with his machete. And we followed the steep climb until we finally found the trail. It was not in great shape but passable. At one point the guide asked for the time and told us 5 more minutes. It was now 11:55. We were so excited. We would reach the summit in 5 minutes! High noon! It was really hard to tell as we were in a thick jungle and there was only one real vista point along the trail so far which was quite misty. So we pushed forward very determined about reaching the top. And then in 5 minutes we all realized we did not reach the summit. The guide turned and said we would hike only until noon adn it was now noon (we were 4 hours into the hike at this point) and then he turned around and headed back to the road. And he told us "no talking"!!!! What we did not realize was that he was the chef for our meals at the Vaoto Lodge (Ofu) and he had to get back to cook!
Did manage a little bird watching. This is an Imperial pigeon - a new bird on my life list.
Will post another blog with more adventures soon. Stay tuned! More stories to tell.
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