Adventures with Kelsey

My friend Kelsey is visiting from California for two weeks. We went to undergrad at UCLA together and now she lives in Pismo Beach. Next fall she is going back to school to get her masters in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism so she thought it would be great to get some real world experience before she started school. In addition to helping me with the Fagatele Bay tours, she is also going to be doing marine surveys with a friend who works for the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources.

Yesterday Kelsey, Jeremy and I went on an adventure to Palagi Beach. The beach is located at the western most point of American Samoa. Barbara pointed out that it is also the western most point of the United States. Although there are other territories that are located further west, they are located on the other side of the the international date line so technically they don't count.


To get to Palagi Beach you either have to hike along some precarious cliffs or wade through the ocean. Since it is only possible to go the water route at low tide and the water was still pretty high when we got there, we took the cliff route on the way to the beach and the water route on the way back. Kelsey and Jeremy took the following pictures at the beach. 

Fagatele Bay Tours

During the Pacific Arts Festival, the National Marine Sanctuaries Office offered guided tours of Fagatele Bay. We take groups of about twenty people on a 4km hike along the ridge above Fagatele Bay and we visit one of the beaches along the bay. If the group decides, we can also arrange for snorkeling after the tour. Last week I led a group of tourists from Maui, Australia, New Zealand, and Austria. This week Kelsey and I led a delegation from Hawaii who were performing in a play for the festival. Tomorrow we are taking out the dancers from the Hawaii delegation. Here are some pictures from the hikes: