Bumps on the road to Samoa—or waves in the ocean?

[Invited post: the following “cameo” post has been written by my brother Oliver Komar, who like me has been a birder since more than 50 years ago. In fact we became birders on the same day, just before our 8th birthday. Yes, we shared that day, as we are twins (identical). Visiting American Samoa for my Biggest Year in USA and it’s Territories is an essential part of the strategy to establish a new record for such a birding Big Year. But traveling to what would be for me a new territory, and with no local guide set up, seemed risky this late in the project. I needed a driver, good company, and also a set of keen eyes for spotting birds. Oliver’s participation would fit the bill nicely and so I invited him to join me a few weeks ago. Our first day in American Samoa, I am somewhat exhausted from the final stretch of my Biggest  Year, and from a sleepless night on an airplane. So Oliver offered to write the blog. 

— Nick Komar]

With all of Nick’s focus on birding in the last few days, weeks, and months, organizing the logistics for the jaunt to Samoa kind of took a back seat, and well, never really got organized. Several weeks ago he had invited me to join him, and after I confirmed I could take the vacation time I didn’t hear much more. At some point I inquired about the travel plans and soon heard back that tickets had been purchased. But several days later (and only about a week ago), when I asked again about tickets and itineraries, Nick responded that he couldn’t find it in his email. He soon found one email from United Airlines with a confirmation number for my trip from Honduras to Colorado, where I would meet up with him for the travel to American Samoa via Hawaii. 

I checked the info and alarm bells went off. The departure was from San Pedro Sula, near the north coast of Honduras, a 5 to 6 hour drive from my home at Zamorano University; it is not the nearest international airport. The other red flag was that the email did not mention a ticket number, just a confirmed reservation (could it be that the tickets had not yet been purchased?). It turns out Nick didn’t realize that San Pedro Sula was a different airport than the one I requested at Comayagua, known as Palmerola International Airport (the closest to my home but still a 3 hour drive).

The solution turned out to be pretty simple. Get a one way ticket on a commuter plane from Tegucigalpa to San Pedro Sula. Seats were available. The drive to Tegucigalpa would be just one hour. And the flight was 45 minutes. We were able to confirm the United flight had indeed been purchased. I trusted Nick, an experienced traveler, had the details for the Colorado to American Samoa travel under control.

On Tuesday, 5 December 2023, I traveled all day from Honduras to Denver (Colorado), where I rented a car for one day and drove north to Fort Collins, arriving around 11 pm. I knocked on Nick’s door, then let myself in. No sign of him or anyone else. I found him, exhausted from his travels, fully clothed and sprawled on his bed, asleep. Earlier in the day he had returned from his Puerto Rico trip, having detoured en route to Cleveland, Ohio, for the Little Gull, and then to Estes Park (Colorado) for rosy-finches.

Nick jumped up and went into action mode. First order of business, defrost a delicious dinner prepared some days earlier by his wife Maribel who was still visiting her mother in El Salvador. Then, confirm travel plans for tomorrow.

Nick still had not found the email confirmation for travel to Hawaii and on to American Samoa. It didn’t take long to confirm my flight to Hawaii and back to Denver on United. After a bit of a struggle with his email system and it’s archiving protocols, Nick finally confirmed he had indeed bought his own ticket, and our tickets to American Samoa on Hawaiian Airlines.

Next order of business: lodging and vehicles, and of course birding plan for the next morning, which would be Wednesday, December 6, 2023. The flight to Hawaii was near midday. Our plan was to leave Fort Collins in my rental, drive through Loveland in search of anything interesting (perhaps a Gyrfalcon? One had wintered there for three years in a row a few years back). We would leave home by 7 am and have an hour for birding en route to Denver International Airport.

For lodging and vehicle, Nick had not yet made any arrangements! So, near midnight, we jumped onto the internet to see what could be arranged. First, set up a one day car rental at the airport in Maui. We could use it to drive to a lodge and then to the Haleakalā Volcano for birding on Thursday morning. Nick had asked me to do the driving throughout the trip. We would have until noon to get back to the airport for the 10-hour travel to Pago Pago in American Samoa (flying with a transfer in Honolulu).

Next order of business, a night in a hostal near the airport in Maui. Done. Then a search on hotels-dot-com for something comfortable and not too expensive in Samoa. It was last minute and Nick wasn’t picky (me even less so). Very few options. The first, a “Beach fale” was cheap, but the marketing photos just showed some hammocks under a thatched roof on a beach! Another photo showed a large mattress under thatch, with mosquito netting for walls. Hmmm, not much privacy I warned him.

The next option, a beach resort, featured pretty rooms and a swimming pool. Pricier but not out of this world. We took it! Reserving on line was a little confusing as the payment form gave a price in the thousands, not the hundreds, but the currency was WST. What is the currency in American Samoa? We had no idea. Surely not a problem.

Finally, we were able to reserve a vehicle at the Pago Pago airport for six days, through Avis Rent-a-Car. We finally collapsed in the wee hours, exhausted but well fed, on Nick’s comfortable bed, still fully clothed from the day’s long journeys.

Maybe it’s time to cut to the chase and make this long story a short one. After birding in Maui (and 10 new bird species for my life list), we grabbed the short, first leg of the flights. Then we waited to board the Samoa flight in Honolulu (on the island of Oahu, state of Hawaii). While waiting we remembered to contact the lodge to alert them that we would be checking in very late, probably close to midnight which was due to the normal flight itinerary (it’s a 6.5 hour flight from Honolulu to Pago Pago). And that’s when we noticed that the lovely beach resort we reserved wasn’t on the same island as the airport! It wasn’t even in American Samoa. It was in Western Samoa, a different country! No wonder the currency was WST and not American dollars.

Nick worked on canceling the lodging in Western Samoa, and I worked on finding lodging near Pago Pago airport in American Samoa. We got that worked out just in time to board the big bird from Hawaiian airlines.

E

In his chapter about Maui, Nick mentioned a bumpy ride to Samoa. Actually the flight on the Airbus 320 was pretty smooth. But the passengers were all sweating. Air conditioning wasn’t working. The pilot announced it would cool off once we were in the air (I wondered if the plan was to open a window at high altitude). After 2 hours into the flight, I felt fine. Perhaps they did open a window (just kidding—not actually an option). The pilot came onto the intercom with an important announcement. Turns out that parts of the plane had cooled off, but other parts were warmer and some people were getting ill from the heat. She had already turned the plane around and in another 90 minutes we would be landing back in Honolulu! 

Several hours later, close to midnight we boarded a second Airbus, with a new crew. We finally arrived in Pago Pago at dawn on Friday, 8 December. Nick didn’t sleep a wink on the plane. I did, but also felt exhausted. It was time to settle into Samoa (American Samoa, to be clear), get some rest and find a few dozen species of birds somewhere in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean.

In fairness to Nick, his seemingly lackadaisical approach to organizing logistics has some upside benefits too. In fact, as he has correctly pointed out to me, keeping the logistics flexible helps him adjust his Biggest Year strategy up until the last minute. It turns out that one can indeed travel without always having destinations and services reserved in advance.