Just arriving in Pago Pago, Titulia, American Samoa -- 7 hours behind EDT.  We have a tour of the island this morning so photos to come later!  Look at our welcoming committee at the Pier -- dancing and music to get us started on our day!!  TALOFA! meaning welcome'

American Samoa's total land area is 76 square miles, made up of 5 volcanic islands and 2 atolls.  Including the marine waters, the total area is 117,500 square miles, about the size of Oregon or New Zealand, with 90% of the islands covered in untouched tropical rainforest!!

Our tour, "A Taste of Samoan Village Life", was very educational and really showed us how people live.  Even though it's a territory of the USA their life is very different -- one road around the island and only one place to pass on that road, one shopping center, one movie theather, one McDonald's, one hospital, one college -- you get the picture!!!

Out tour guides -- Grace and Belinda

Our tour bus

Our first stop was Flower Pot Rock 

We continued on, dodging intermittant light rain showers, through the villages of Yellow Town (where a lot of the buildings and houses are painted yellow), Nu'uuli (where the electric/telephone poles and gates are painted red and white), arriving at Leone.  

Leone is where missionaries first arrived on the island of Titulia in the 1880's, and the Samoans are very religious, as churches of all denominations are everywhere on the island.

It is also the location of the devastating tsunami that struck the island in 2009.

Our last stop was to experience life in a Samoan village and what an experience.  We were treated to native dances and village traditions, as well as typical Samoan foods and how they are prepared.  Men do the cooking using an "umu" which is a wood fire that heats river rocks and then the hot rocks are used to cook bananas, chicken/fish, "spinach" (grated coconut,coconut milk and taro leaves, wrapped in a ball using banana leaves).  The food is placed on the hot river rocks and then covered with banana leaves to cook. 

We sampled the foods along with cacao beans that were roasted and then boiled in water to make a delicious drink that reminded us of a chocolate-flavored watery coffee.

Below are just some of the photos that we took at the Samoan Village

A Samoan Village Family

Men Preparing to the "umu"

Dancers

Dancers

Men Preparing the "spinach" balls

The Village Princess


AND NOW  ON TO APIA, WESTERN SAMOA!!

Traveler's Palm Tree