December 16, 2025
This is an usual day, it's our second December 15th! We crossed the international date line last night around midnight and therefore we get to live December 15th, twice in 2 different locations. Freaky Monday! We also lose our 18 hour time difference of being ahead of the east coast of the USA, and will now be behind them in time. Time zones drive me crazy on this trip - trying to coordinate with the folks at home and keeping a relevant calendar!
The above is a photo of a friend of a friend as we came into the harbor of Pago Pago, American Samoa this morning. We were greeted by dancers and Miss American Samoa. Additional fire dancers and the local chief came by for another performance at dinner time! Such friendly greetings and nice people. These are also some of the largest people I have ever seen. Many of them came on board and breakfast looked like a linebacker convention. I have never seen so many egg orders stacked up!
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Today we went to see giant clams and turtles at a protected reef area on the southwest side of Upolu , very near where Return to Paradise is located. We would have done yesterday, but it is protected by a village and like almost everything in Samoa , closed on Sundays. Sunday is just for Church and Family in Samoa ! Our guide was Chief Tuti and he had his son driving one of the vans with 5 of us and his daughter in law driving the other with our 4. He was so animated and ran a first class operation. The SUV was comfy and roomy, he provided snorkel gear and towels, that they handed to you as you came out of the water. His information and insights were fascinating as were the local tales he shared with us. Would highly recommend him!
After Mass on Sunday, I traveled across the island with friends to enjoy the Return to Paradise Resort. The ride took about an hour and unfortunately, it was pouring rain the whole time. So our day pass vision of relaxing pool and beach side got replaced with day drinking yummy cocktails and playing phase 10 cards in a beach side palapa. They filmed a movie here in 1953 and this remains one of the nicest resorts on the islands of Samoa.
Apia is the relaxed low rise capital of Samoa , spread along a sheltered harbor on the north coast of Upolu . This island is the 2nd largest, behind Savai'i , of the 8 islands which make up the Independent State of Samoa (note: 4 of the remaining 6 islands are uninhabited.) Upolu has an international airport and port, unlike Savai'i, and it's population is roughly 39,000 of the total 220,000 in all of Samoa. The Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is the most striking architecture in the harbor. I was excited we were finally in a port on a Sunday, to be able to part take in a Mass and it was so special. It's a gorgeous church inside and it was open air with a nice breeze. The mass was in English and the choir was really talented, with guitar instrumentals and the words projected onto a screen, so we could sing along! They did a lot of my favorite hymns and the people were super friendly. We really felt welcome and it did wonders for my soul!