About five miles up from Pago Pago is Mount Alava. The hike up is three miles and takes about an hour to complete.
At the top is a radio tower and the remnants of an old tramway system that no longer functions. In 1980 a Navy plane hit one of the tramway cables, crashed into a Pago Pago hotel, and the tram was never rebuilt. Now just ridiculous Palagis (white people) are the only people who climb to the top. But it's worth it because the view is killer.
Normally, people just hike down the way they came but we decided to go up and over the other side of the mountain. Going down the "Vatia" side of the mountain requires climbing down the five mile steep slope on makeshift ladders and ropes.
Here's me, taming Mount Alava. After many such ladder climbs we eventually reached the other side of the island...
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