Pago Pago, American Samoa

Quote of the day: “I’ve put on 10kg during this cruise so far, and now this is the only shirt that still fits.” Guy in the laundry today.

This was the last port for me, so unfortunately the last gasp for my voyage. Despite the weather forecast, it turned out to be a lovely sunny day, with not a lot to do. I had expected there would be a little more to Pago Pago than there was, but it was such a friendly place that I had a great day anyway.

Again I opted for a tour, and that was definitely the way to go. It got us out of town, and gave us the chance to see something of the beautiful scenery, see the locals call the sharks and turtles up from the sea, and ride in a rickety, hard-seated, non-air conditioned bus complete with bald tyres. With the steel showing through, I’m sure it was a death trap. Thankfully it didn’t go very fast…

Seeing the wrecked houses from the tsunami along the waterfront was a sobering reminder of what the forces of nature can do in this part of the world. Recovery is obviously taking a long time...

Mr Gadget Man had a field day, with a whopping 550 photos taken! I’m sure he was trying to see if he could break the shutter on his camera… We followed up the tour with a late lunch at a Sushi place near the pier, which was excellent. We ordered off the menu – checked out what the locals were having and asked for the same. That was followed by a wander around town, just to assure ourselves that there really was nothing there, and a quick peek at the souvenir stalls, before heading to the pizzeria on board – and this time it was open! First and last time, but I would rate their pizzas…

In preparation for my return to the real world, I’m progressively modifying my diet: the deserts pretty well went west last week (just mixed berries now), the wine was dropped several nights ago when I finished a bottle, no more bread rolls with dinner as of yesterday, and the wonderful scones with jam and cream for afternoon tea were off the menu today. So how boring is that??? Well maybe just one more round of scones before Tuesday…