Friday, March 13, 2009

American Samoa


American Samoa at 14-degees South latitude is the USAs only possession south of the equator. It consists of five volcanic islands and two coral atolls in the South Pacific Ocean about 2,300 miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. Its close neighbor, Western Samoa, is an independent country. Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango) on the island of Tutuila, is America Samoa's capital and largest town.
The other less populated islands are: Aunu'u, Tau, Ofu, Olosega, Swain and the small isolated atoll: Rose Island. A Polynesian island of volcanic origin, Tutuila (American Samoas largest island) is dominated by Rainmaker Mountain and the large port off of Pago Pago.

The weather is warm and humid all year long with average temperatures ranging from 65°F to 90°F. There is a wet season (summer) between November and April and dry season (winter) from May to October. The vegetation is lush and there are plenty of deserted sandy beaches to enjoy. Tutuila can easily be circumnavigated by car in less than a day.

American Samoa remains an unincorporated territory of the USA. Its people are US nationals, but not citizens.

The economy of the islands is based on fishing and processing of fish, particularly tuna and canned fish are a major export article. It is important to agriculture, although crops occupy only 15% of the area of the islands, of which 1 / 3 accounted for plantations, and the remainder is mostly owned by tribal communities. Crops include:yams, taro, chlebowiec, vegetables, coconut palm, pineapples and papayas.
There are several different tribes on the islands....which brings several different types of "native dress".
For arts, it is mostly practical. Plus there are all the ceremonial dances and such. The other really interesting thing are the body tattoos. And really, I did try to find a good picture of them. Most of the pictures were nude. The others were of men that were rather...er...large? So, in the end I ran across this one.
Booking my ticket now.

Then, my favorite...the children!



3 comments:

  1. Make my ticket one-way please! That place looks like heaven!!!

    Molly

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  2. I'm just tying to figure out why I'm not there right now.

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  3. Um ya - can I go too? Thanks for stopping by my blog, you have a great blog here and I love to connect with other adoptive families!

    ReplyDelete