September 19, 2025
Keelung is the closest port town to Taipei and we get 4 days here to explore this area!
After walking around the Port of Keelung for just a couple of hours we felt like we were melting! This month is the Mid Summer Ghost Festival and it is a big deal - basically when they pay homage to all those who came before them. We just missed the big festival in Keelung on 9/6/25. But we did get to take in a lot of the decorations.
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Making coconut cream is such a big part of the Samoan culture I feel compelled to share the 4 step process we were so nicely shown. Every Samoan young and old takes part in this tradition, it is an intrigue part of their everyday lives.
The tour today was focused on the National Park but we also got a lot of insight into American Samoa's history and current day life. Our guide was Nini and she is a college student studying accounting and finance and works as a part-time guide.
Today we took the National Park of American Samoa Tour. It's a unique park - the only one south of the equator and where the U.S. Government doesn't own the land. Efforts to establish the Park go back to mid 1980 over concern about the decline of fruit bats and wanting to protect the tropical rainforests. On October 31, 1988 Congress established the NP of American Samoa. In 1993, a complex arrangement for a 50 year land lease years with seven villages and the Samoa government was signed. We got lucky with our tour - we were expecting an open air bus, but because we were a small group, we got a plush air conditioned van!