Displaced Beachbums

Kosrae is a lush, beautiful, and very remote island where the people are friendly. We felt welcomed and very safe. It’s a volcanic island with high peaks. The interior of the island is largely unpopulated and the locals are very religious ~ mostly Congregationalist. We spent a Sunday on the island which meant no drinking liqour and no activities. Lucky for us, we found a local tour guide who’s mormon and was willing to take us on a morning tour of the island, on an outrigger ride and a short snorkel.

If the Village hotel in Pohnpei was the most unique hotel we’d ever stayed at, then this tour was by far the strangest ever! Don’t get me wrong, the guide was very freindly and knew his stuff but…I wasn’t so sure about the sea worthiness of the outrigger:

Or our touring vehicle which had NO BRAKES. He used the handbrake when he needed to stop 😉 And seat belts? Forget about it! It did have a front windshield but a coconut had fallen on it and shattered the whole left side. Thankfully, it’s a right hand drive car so our driver could still see out. Pedestrians and dogs in Kosrae own the road ~ they barely put up with the cars. Dogs sleep in the middle of the road and make the cars go around them which, strangely, all cars do.

The GREEN tangerines in Kosrae are DELICIOUS! I’ve never seen them anywhere else and would love to import them to the states. They sell the tangerines in the Kosrae airport and we noticed all the pilots buying a bag on the stopover. They have to eat them all before they get to Hawaii, due to the quarantine, but I’m sure that’s not a problem. The other item we really enjoyed were the fresh Kosrae limes. They give key limes a real run for their money. No chance of scurvy for us on this trip! FG is holding a green tangerine in this photo:

After going out in the hand-carved outrigger, which turned out to be just fine, our guide cut down some coconuts for us…soooo yummy and refreshing. I put mine down for a minute and this little lizard decided to share it with me.

The local gas station on the island where the gas is $5.00 a gallon:

A little geography on the island: Kosrae is the easternmost island of the Federated States of Micronesia and it’s the only one without any outer islands. It’s about 42 square miles and is a third the size of Pohnpei. The highest point of the island is Mt. Finkol at 2064 feet.

A sure sign of the remoteness was the lack of goods in the stores. Not well stocked at all. On the Saturday that we were there a container ship came in and people were giddy with anticipation about their goods. All ships come through Guam so if there’s a storm or anything else affecting Guam’s port such as a typhoon or earthquake, then Kosrae suffers for it.

Once again, it made me think about how much I take for granted all the things at my fingertips!