Potatoes to Papayas: Airport Beach II

Here's a funny little factoid about American Samoa that many people won't know about--small businesses that have more than one branch number the branches, and use that number in the name of the branch. For example, if I have a business called the Samoan Ski Shop in Tafuna, and I get another Samoan Ski Shop in Fagatogo, I call the first one Samoan Ski Shop I, and the second Samoan Ski Shop II. And on and on ad absurdum. What does this mean for small business in American Samoa? Well, if business continues to go well, eventually we are going to have Drug Store XXXVIII. Like the order in which the businesses were opened really makes a difference?!

Anyway, in traditional Samoan form, I label this blog entry, Airport Beach II.

A few weeks ago, we visited what I called "Airport Beach" (see past blog entry). But on Friday, we walked around the opposite end of the airport. We walked along the edge of the bay near our house. You could call the walk, shall I say, "The Walk of Neverending Garbage!!!" It looks like this:

Don't trip, Jessi and Jaydn!

And this lasts nearly the entire walk to the beach! Why, you ask, is this walk along the outer fence of the airport, about 10 feet away from the water, so disgustingly gross? I mean, we're talking about rotted out TVs, dirty diapers, toys, mostly sandals and coconuts, tons of paper and plastic products from processed foods, etc. Did it get here from people walking out to Airport Beach II? No, it washed up from the water! The water acts as the alternative dump for many residents of this island. So sad.

It is sights like these that have really made me evaluate my thoughts on protecting the environment. Airport Beach II is FAR away from any of this mess. I mean, who would want to swim in water that is filled with trash like this?

I mean, does it really look that messy?

We got out to the very tip of the airport, where we expected to stop and snorkel. But the water was just too rough. Fortunately, it did make a good spot to take a good picture of Jaydn.

You can tell from Jaydn's face what his favorite thing to do is on the island.

We walked further around the corner of the airport until we found a place that was protected by coral. And it got deep really quickly, which is always good for snorkeling. You can tell where the deep parts are by how it gets darker blue. It was another great snorkeling area.

Heck, I even saw a sea turtle here! It was so scared of me that I only saw it for about 5 seconds (or else I would have clicked a picture with the underwater camera).

Jessi and Jaydn came back in to shore after a while, and I continued exploring. I stopped for a moment and called for Jessi to take my picture. Kind of a dumb idea; we don't have a really good zoom on our camera! But if you're looking, I'm the small black speck out in the water.

I came back to shore, only to find it was extremely difficult to get out because there was not really a beach--it was just a whole bunch of coral and shells!

So, I guess I'm going back out in the water!