Pago Pago, American Samoa

In Samoan, the letter ‘g’ is pronounced ‘ng’ so this town is pronounced Pango Pango.

More like Pain - Go(ing) there for me… foreshadowing

A very small port that doesn’t often see cruise ships, I found a hike with reviews showing it was an easy to moderate hike up the ridge of the mountain, with some breathtaking view points, only taking 1.5 hours to complete, and the added bonus of the trailhead being close to the ship.

PERFECT! Sign us up!

We started along the main road, saw lots of chickens and lizards which was very reminiscent of Hawaii. Not to mention the humidity.

When we started the ascent up a residential road we saw lots of flowers, started getting a good sweat going, and I was feeling good about finally being able to get off the cruise ship after 6 days at sea (I was driving myself crazy).

At the roads end, we’re greeted with some WWII memorial plaques. It was nice to read some history and have a good aerial view of the other side of the mountainous island and the inviting blue waters.

Ironically, this is where we start the true ascent of the trail, which is when things go downhill.

The trail was obviously not maintained, and looked more like a goat trail than a hiking trail because it was so narrow and difficult to navigate.

A few minutes into the hike, we’re whacking the brush higher than me

When all of a sudden

OW

OW

OW

IM GETTING STUNG!!!

It was painful the not one, not two, but SEVEN times I got stung.

Instinct was to run! We hightailed it until we felt safe to stop and assess the situation. The stings… well… stung. For a brief period I felt very overwhelmed because it happened so fast, and I had no way of escaping. The only option was to continue going forward- and we still had approximately 2 miles to go. The stung areas were starting to welt, but overall I still felt okay.

Not too long passes when we notice there are ants everywhere. A million, zillion, quadrillion ants completely infesting every single area around us. Keep in mind while reading this, that this infestation lasted the entire hike.

***disclaimer: at one point the vegetation slightly clears out, and the path widens, so while there are still ants everywhere, it wasn’t as big of a deal the last one to one and a half miles***

As we continue on our way up the ridge it gets not only steeper, but slippery. We were essentially climbing as opposed to hiking at one point and we had to rely on the sturdiness of our steps and avoid using our hands so ants wouldn’t swarm our arms.

At one point there’s even some ropes for the steep climb, but, as you might guess, ants are not picky to rope vs. plant.

To my surprise, about 1/3 of the way through the hike we actually ran into some of the young entertainers from the ship. They laughed when they saw us and said that they’d had a conversation, “The only people who would be crazy enough to also do this hike would be you guys, and we KNEW we’d see you on the trail.”

From here on, the trail did get easier. It cleared up, dried up, and I was able to focus on some of the nature.

I saw lots of lizards, a variety of birds, even two bats! I snapped a few pictures of some really neat fungi.

Since it was a war memorial, we passed by some bunkers and old canons. There was protective cement around it that created a bowl at the base of the canons. All of the rainfall made for perfect grounds for TOADS!

Infiltration of TOADS!

Overall, I’m happy with the route we took, because it started rough and slippery, but at least it’s when we were going uphill. I imagine it being a nightmare trying to have gone down that section. The section we took down from the ridge was well maintained from its war history.

After taking the hike I looked back at reviews on Google. It’s very clear that at one point this trail was well maintained and offered beautiful views. But, it hasn’t been cared for in a long time. Because of this, the trees and bush had grown so high that we NEVER EVEN SAW views of the ocean until THE END OF THE HIKE when we were back at the BASE of the other side of the trail.

The cherry on top was the final 1/4 mile of the hike when we took a wrong turn and ran into a local hiding in the woods trying to catch a wild chicken with a makeshift trap and some rice. He was very friendly, pointed us the right direction, we wished him luck with his chicken catching, and were on our way.

That's the joy of going outside and exploring the world! You never know what you're going to get, and that makes it all the more adventurous. Next time, I think I'd prefer my adventure without the seven doses of wasp stings.

Cheers,

Tay