July 26th

I was told that you wanted more pictures so I'll try to keep things going like this while I have the time.

Jess and I started the day by heading to the local library and getting our library cards. Normally I wouldn't consider such a thing an adventure. When you get to ride on the public transport here though it becames an awesome trip. The vocational school we're staying at is probably a 30 to 4o minute drive. The local bus or "family" bus is driven by a man who likes to play his music REALLY loud. It is so cool to ride in a small vehicle playing some real Samoan music (sometimes mixed with U.S. Hip Hop, R&B, and almost anything with bass) and drive around paradise.

It was cool to see the Wyland painting he had just finished this past year. For those who don't know about Wyland, he's the fellow who likes to paint whales everywhere. American Samoa just happens to be one of the world's largest spawning grounds for the mighty humpback, so it was very fitting that he came here to paint.

We wandered around Pago Pago harbor for a little while before hopping on another bus back towards Tafuna. We got off and purchased our new cell phone service!!!!! If you need to contact us now it is absolutely free for us to receive your calls but it does cost us to call you. Our parents have our number and I don't feel comfortable posting it here on this public site.

We then had a sweet time walking for about 45 minutes through a very garbage ridden route to some secluded beaches! It was fantastic when we got there though. The other married couple (John and Cynthia Delaporte) are so cool and they got pretty far down the trail before they had enough of the trek. After they got turned around by a local who told them that there was another 40 minutes of the not too easy trip they split, but Jess and I pressed on. In only 5 minutes we came on a quiet beach that we got to snorkel on and we saw TONS of tiny little fish. (Hunter said she'd send us some disposable waterproof cameras and we'll get more pictures of that sort for you then). But we kept moving even farther away from our "home" and found a group of our buds that had found the BEST snorkel spot. 15 feet of crystal clear water, lots of fish, starfish, beautiful coral (and the guys we met there said they had seen a couple of large rays there too)!!!! To make it all surreal the beach is called "airport beach". It is pretty straight forward. Even the locals claim that the best snorkeling on Tutuila island is at "airport beach" approximately 50 feet from one of the runways. I kid you not, we looked down on an amazing aquatic ecosystem, then looked up and saw garbage and a fence that went around the circumference of the airport. Needless to say it was a long trip back and I'm really sore right now. It was totally worth it and I'd do it again tomorrow.

Samoan tradition does forbid swimming on Sundays (I don't know how I'm going to deal with that one...)

Much love,

~Charlie & Jess

(This is where we left John and Cynthia)

(This is the first secluded beach we came across)

(We only got about 15 minutes at the really nice diving spot)