Agile Trekker: National Park Service Visitor trip, National Park of American Samoa

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/27/2026	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	114.7

Parking:

Map:

Directions:

We have a short trip here, so we are leaving tonight for an overnight flight. That still leaves us with a full day to explore. We have no interest in hiking (it's still 91 degrees out), but Dian wanted to try to snorkel. Phyllis ended up paying for us to have late access to our hotel room, so we could shower later if we needed to.

Our first stop was the National Park Service Visitor Center. We met 3 people who were finishing their national park list here. They had visited all 63 national parks in the US. How cool is that! We watched a video at the park - which was on the tradition of making cloth out of mulberry tree bark. It's presented at major life events such as weddings. The cloth they make is beautiful and very labor intensive. We spoke to the park ranger quite a bit, and we also ran into two friends we had made at the hotel - Tom and Brent.

We stopped at a museum in town - a lot of the displays seem to be related to a tattoo festival that is held at Tisa's Barefoot Bar every year. Tattoo culture in American Samoa is deeply important and tied to identity, family, service, endurance, and the traditional Samoan way of life known as fa‘a Samoa. The pe‘a is the large traditional male tattoo that covers the body from the waist to the knees with dense geometric patterns.

It represents:

courage,
discipline,
cultural commitment,
and service to family and community.

Receiving a pe‘a is historically a major rite of passage. The process is extremely painful and traditionally done over multiple sessions using hand-tapped tools. The museum showed a number of the tools that are used. In American Samoa, tattoos are not traditionally just decoration. They communicate:

genealogy,
responsibility,
endurance,
social role,
and respect for Samoan culture.

For many Samoans, tatau connects the body to ancestry and community obligations.

Dian wanted to find a place to snorkel still. We went to a beach near the visitor center. It looked pretty awful, with trash in the water and maybe the water was too rough. She was staring out at the water for quite a while, deciding what to do. Phyllis and I stopped and talked to a local couple who were sitting in the shade. The man was telling us how his village beach is so much nicer than the beach here. After talking with us for a while, he invited us to follow him to his village beach. It felt a little strange to be following strangers, but a voice in my head said to say yes. We studied the etiquette rules on the way there - in case he invited us inside his house. There are a bunch of rules we aren't familiar with, so we did try to memorize them.

We followed him to the east side of the island, an area we had already visited. We lost him for a while, but eventually we caught up to him. He pointed out his home, which he was really proud of, on the way there. There aren't that many roads on the island. Eventually he pulled over at a pretty beach. We pulled onto the grass behind him. It wasn't really a parking area, but he had invited us here, so it was okay. We talked to him and his wife for a while, and then they drove away. The water here was too rough for snorkeling, but it was pretty. I sketched while Dian and Phyllis walked around. One person drove by and asked if we needed help. I guess they weren't expecting us there? But we had the name of our new friend, so if anyone asked, we could tell them our friend Tui gave us permission to be there.

Around 30 minutes later, our new friend came back without his wife. We asked him several questions about his culture. He was a retired police officer and had worked in Hawaii if I remember correctly. He had brought a bag of coconuts that he had just picked from a tree in his yard (using a long-handled tool) and a case of Star Kist tuna. He poked holes in the coconut for us to drink. Then he showed us how to easily crack open the coconuts. He cut out the coconut meat for us to eat. Phyllis admired his bag, so he took it apart and showed us how to make one out of a coconut leaf? in just a few minutes. Then he prodded us to take the tuna back with us. I told him I was a vegetarian. He told me to give it to my dog lol. I did end up taking 2 cans but left them in my hotel room for the staff.

We spent the evening back in our hotel lobby. The lobby was full of people who would be flying out that night. There aren't that many planes that go in and out of American Samoa, so it's obvious what everyone is doing. We were able to leave our rental car at our hotel and get a hotel shuttle bus with everyone else to the airport.

The line at the airport was crazy - it didn't matter whether you were checking your bag or not. You actually need a passport to travel to American Samoa, so they were checking everyone's passport. We waited in multiple lines, and spent our time talking to Brent, the guy we've run into several times. I think it was he who told us not to worry about how long it will take to get through the line. This is the only plane going out tonight, and they will hold the plane until everyone gets through security. We arrived at the airport around 2 1/2 hours before our flight. It took us 2 hours to get through security. We were hot and sweaty again (even the locals were fanning themselves), but at least we knew everyone on the flight would be. Everything was very manual, such as having your name checked off on a piece of paper. I'm not sure if its due to the recent airline app merger (Hawaiian and Alaskan) or if it's always this way. On the plane, they called out a few missing passenger names - they want to make sure everyone got on. It might be a problem if you don't get on. I don't know where you would stay. There are only 2 hotels on the island, and I do think they fill up! This is our only overnight flight of the trip. I really hate flying overnight, because I'm not able to sleep. I closed my eyes and did my best.

We watched a video about how this cloth is made from mulberry trees.

LMAO

Phyllis and I watched this movie after arriving home.
It was a great reminder of our trip.
The buses in American Samoa are very colorful, like this one.