Agile Trekker: Dole Plantation (O'ahu) and American Samoa

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/24/2026	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	112.2

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Directions:

We had the morning free before heading off on a plane again. Our first stop was a coffee plantation - no tour, just so Phyllis and Dian could get a good cup of coffee lol.

Our next stop was the Dole Plantation. It's extremely touristy. They sell pineapple EVERYTHING inside their shop. They also sell various tours/experiences. We went on a tram tour going through the plantation and then went on a self-guided garden tour. The garden was marvelous. Sooo many colorful flowers. And beautiful lizards with turquoise blue eyelids and toes - I wanted to sneak one home in my luggage. After our tour, we had a Dole Whip, apparently a must-do experience when you are here.

Back to the airport, and we flew 5 1/2 hours to American Samoa. Why American Samoa? There's a national park there. It's often the last national park that people visit. Other than it being very far from the east coast, I wouldn't say it's hard to get to. Since we were going to Hawaii, we wanted to visit American Samoa on the same trip due to the distance.

You can only fly into/out of American Samoa 3 times a week, not daily. After arriving at night, we found our local rental car company. We were told we were their last customer, so the rental car company owner drove in front of us to lead us to our hotel. This is what kind of place it is. People are very kind. The owner figured we were here for the national park - he asked if this was our last one, as it is for most people. All the non-locals we talked to were either here to visit the national park or were here on business. I think there are only 2 hotels on the main island. We stayed at Tradewinds Hotel.

Even though we were exhausted, we went to the hotel bar, because we were so excited to be here and wanted to celebrate!!!! The bar was small and crowded - it could maybe only handle 20 people. Most people in the bar were actually locals. I felt out of place at first, but 3 local men insisted we sit at their table. One was in his 60's and two were in their 80's. Then we were also joined by Tom, another man just off the plane to visit the park. The music was loud, but we had a smashing time talking to the locals. They bought us drinks and shared their snacks with us. One of them, Arthur, a retired veteran, gave me his business card and said we could call him anytime if we had any questions. He called himself "Handsome Arthur" lol.

They told us a bit about their culture. We learned that American Samoa has the highest rate of people in the military than anywhere else in the US. Starkist Tuna and the government (including military) are the two biggest employers on the island. American Samoa is made up of villages. Each village has its own chief. Every evening, a prayer bell is rung in the villages, and everyone in the village stops what they are doing for 15 minutes or so to pray. It's a very religious society. Arthur complained that 89% of women there are obese. Or if they aren't obese, they become obese after you married one. There is one McDonald's on the island, and people are in love with it. We also noticed that there were several transgender women in the bar. This was surprising to me, knowing that it's a very religious culture. However, later we learned about faʻafafine (meaning: in the manner of a woman). Faʻafafine are generally well accepted in American Samoan culture. We also learned that there is another island called Samoa, which is close by, but is a separate country. The culture of Samoa and American Samoa are very similar though. Samoa used to be called Western Samoa. One of our friends in the bar was half Samoan, half American Samoan. They were all very proud to be American Samoans. They had all worked part of their life on the mainland US (military, scientist, college professor), but they had returned to the island to retire. Arthur said when he went to the mainland US, it was culture shock for him, but people welcomed him and helped him out. He wanted to return that favor, by helping out people who came to their island - as yes, the culture is very different than mainland US. We can't drink the tap water here - we have to only drink bottled water. I did forget several times and brushed my teeth using tap water.

There's a movie out called Next Goal Wins - you can rent it on Amazon. It's about a soccer team in American Samoa. Although the movie didn't get great ratings, I loved it, because it does show the culture there.

No photos from the bar.