RIP Luigi's Pizza Pub

When Sara and I arrived in American Samoa, there were limited lunch options around our office. The Executive Office Building, not so fondly called the "EOB," is near the center of the island on the south edge of Pago Harbor. However, there's limited food options around here. There are a few sit down restaurants of varying levels of OK, but pricey. There's always McDonalds. A few food trucks are scattered around, but they severely lack vegetarian options. The various "Fast Food" places offer hotel pans of cold stir fry or fried food that had been sitting around for hours have never been an option that I considered. So Sara and I have been bringing left overs and eating lunch in our office or at the fales located on the beach in front of the office.

In August, Luigi's Pizza Pub opened behind the office opened. We'd been taunted with the "Pizza and Sports Pub" sign out front that offered the delightful combo of beer, pizza and TV for months as the business slowly crept towards opening up. Us eager contract workers were waiting for a place that combined all these factors here on island. When Luigi's finally opened, we were ready to embrace all that the sign offered. The pizza was good, New York-style thin crust, however the TV and beer were missing out of the gate. We kept returning for months hoping the minor issues would be resolved once the business could afford the TV and get licensed for beer. Those issues never resolved and the owner soon was complaining about the need for more business to offset his huge energy overhead costs (the electric pizza ovens are expensive to run on an island that gets all its power from generators that run on diesel fuel that is shipped in from thousands of miles away). Without money for advertising, the general public beyond those employed at the EOB, never really found the pizza place.

The place wasn't able to keep up with its bills and yesterday when I made plans to meet one of friends from the US Department of Agriculture there for lunch we learned the bad news: Luigi's had gone under. We had to scramble for lunch and go to one of the sit down places, not ideal, but we're back to the status quo for lunches here at the EOB. Luigi's We'll miss you.

Luigi's Pizza and Sports Pub, August 2011-January 2012. Rest in Peace.

Only in Samoa...

Sara and I took a quick coffee run to the McDonald's Drive-Thru (ironically one of the only places you can get a decent cup of joe on the island) this morning. In the line for ordering saw one of the odder moments that has happened tin front of us here. Someone was ordering their meal from the back of an ATV. This had us both laughing out loud.

Transportation on the island is pretty laissez-faire. It's frequent to see 5 or 6 people riding in the back of a pickup truck and aiga buses are colorful and loud substitutes for public transportation that often fill up to the point that new riders need to sit on the laps of people with seats. That said the sight of a four-wheeled dirt-bike grabbing a bite at McDonald's was new on us. Just another reminder that even though we've been here for 7 months this island will still find ways to surprise you.

Blunt's Point and a Sunset

There are still a few remnants of American Samoa's navy legacy. The territory was originally brought into the United States as a navy fueling station and then it turned into a full navy base after the start of World War II. Some of the navy infrastructure is still in use today. For example, the High Court is the former Navy Administration Building and the initial road around the island was Navy-built.

Some portions of the Navy infrastructure, such as the pillboxes that line many of the beaches, are sitting lonely and forgotten. The guns that used to guard Pago Harbor are also not seeing any use these days. On a lazy Sunday, we made it a point to hike up the trail that leads past a number of these gun placements lining the West Side of Pago Harbor, on what's known as Blunt's Point.

The walk up the ridge afforded some great views of the harbor

and Fatu Ma Futi. Driving and paddling by these sights on a regular basis has caused me to start to take them for granted. It was nice to get a different perspective from up high and appreciate them from another point of view.

These guns were supposedly pulled off a period battleship and mounted to guard the approach into Pago Harbor. They sit on the ridge rising from Blunt's Point. It's just a short hike up a trail starting next to the "I.B.M" laundromat. (Side note: most of the shops here are known by people's names or initials, which leads to some interesting and random titles.) Following a double-track trail that leads through some breadfruit groves, the hike wrap around the hillside, past a water tank, and around to the first gun placement. The massive gun has gone through a number of rust and repaint cycles, but is still gazing out over the opening of the harbor. The ammunition depot below it is also still there, but the lower level has started to fill with water, so we didn't do much exploring, although the bat biologist in the group went looking for some possible nests.

The trail continued up the hillside and the concrete path that used to lead to the second gun has deteriorated and eroded. The rusted-out stumps of the handrail and a few off-camber portions of the concrete walkway remain to lead the way to the next gun placement. This one was in worse shape: the foundation and

ammunition cellar had plugged up and filled with water. These issues have been going on long enough to develop a fish population in the water. With the way any metals rust under the relentless moisture, salt-spray and temperature here, I can't imagine this gun will last too much longer in its present state.

Further up the hill there was evidence of more development, but the rain forest had reclaimed whatever had been there. In fact, among the odd depressions and remaining cement, Sara and I happened upon one of the largest hermit crabs we had ever seen, who looked extra fierce with his heavily armored brown pincers.

After exploring the Blunt's Point trail, there wasn't enough day left for snorkeling. Instead, after a brief cocktail break at the Goat Island restauraunt, we opted to head out to Vaitogi and watch the sunset from a bluff near Sliding Rock.

We got there with time to spare and grabbed some grass next to a few graves situated alongside the road. We then spent the last part of the day watching some surfers rides the waves, a few of the early-arriving southern humpback whales spout and the sun drift below the horizon. Not a bad way to spend your down day on the island.

Saddle Sunset

Jay and I had discussed going up to the saddle between Rainmaker Mountain and Alava Ridge for quite some time. Last week after work, we finally made it a reality. We left the office, drove around Pago Harbor and stopped at a local convenience store to grab a couple of Steinlagers and some snacks (in this case, bread fruit chips and ahi poke).

We then drove up the super-steep switchbacks heading up to the saddle and pulled off to the side of the road. This view greeted us at the top along with a nice cool breeze and a much-needed dose of tranquility. A single Samoan man was sitting along the guardrail with us, but after a toothy smile and brief "malo," he left and began to walk down the mountain road.

As we sat there drinking in the view, we were greeted by flocks of tiny swiftlets, who were using their echolocation to wheel past us in crazy patterns, presumably to catch the insects swirling in the late afternoon light.

To our immediate left was an aspect of Rainmaker Mountain, which really shows you how steep some of the terrain is here. As we admired the cliffs, we also noticed some larger white birds flying in pairs with long white tails, which were unlike any we had ever seen. One of our many intrepid biologist friends later informed us that they were the aptly named tropicbird, though he seemed to be a bit distressed that he couldn't remember the Samoan name for it.

Finally, as dusk began to set in, we saw several large fruit bats, whose languid wing strokes distinguish them from anything else in the sky.

We enjoyed our Steinlagers on the guardrail and then took the switchbacks back down to Pago. It was an excellent way to wind down after a day in the office and an experience I'm sure we'll repeat in the coming months, at least until the rains hit....