There are some "must-dos" when you come to Pohnpei. Some of them include seeing Nan Madol, Kepirohi Falls, and snorkeling. Lucky for us The Village offers a package trip that includes all of this and more. I would highly recommend the trip to anyone. It is a great deal, The Village is reliable, and they provide really great guides. We booked the trip and prayed hard that we would have a good weather day. (we've been having torrential downpours and wind storms recently) God is good and we awoke that morning to blue skies. We were able to book the trip with the Hayes, which is a couple that has been a huge blessing to me during my time here. They take me in like family and are so sweet, so I was really glad my parents got to spend time with them. It was like we've been family friends for years.
Oh, but I can't resist sharing the excitement on the way to our excursion. The big storms mean that quite a few trees fall on the road. Banana trees seem to be the worst about that. So on our way my mom and dad were able to get their first road kill! Priceless!
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| Now that's scary! |
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| The prized bunches of bananas |
Bananas in tow, we continued on our way to The Village where we would meet our guides and load up on the boat.
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| Ready for a great trip |
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| Turns out that lawn chairs make great boat chairs too :) |
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| The Hayes - our excursion buddies |
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Stamp, our excellent guide. Yes, this is how he drove the
boat the whole time |
Our first stop was Nan Madol. The name Nan Madol means "spaces between" and is a reference to the canals that crisscross the ruins. It is still a mystery as to how exactly they were able to create this stone city, but there are of course many legends. We started off in the main temple where Stamp gave us a brief history of the ruins and shared some interesting facts.
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I think Stamp is pretty much the best on the island. He's
helped in the filming of documentaries about Nan Madol
and taken several famous people out to see the ruins. |
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| A little perspective on how tall these walls are |
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| Amazing construction. How did they do it? |
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| So happy to be adventuring with my mom and dad :) |
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The cornerstone, estimated 60 tons, and apparently where
pregnant women would rub their bellies for a smooth birth |
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| Seriously, this took a lot of work! |
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| The visitors' entrance |
After looking all around the temple we got to kayak through the rest of Nan Madol. It's made up of 100 little islands, so kayaking allowed us to see so much more of the city. Plus it was just a blast to go kayaking. I think we're all hooked!
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| Bernard was our fantastic kayaking guide |
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| A kayak that doesn't sink! Yay! |
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| Trying to get into a rhythm |
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| We are loving this trip already |
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| Here they come through the mangroves |
The kayaking came to an end all too quickly. We wanted to just keep going and exploring, but it was time for lunch. We had pre-ordered to have our lunch provided by The Village and the trip included having it served on our own little beach.
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The Bento - grilled fish, sausage, boiled egg, spicy
cucumbers, and rice all in a banana leaf. So fun! |
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So happy with our decision to go with the bento. It feels
so much more islandy to eat with chopsticks out of a leaf |
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The whole gang enjoying our tasty lunches on the softest
sand I think I've ever felt |
Both of our guides insisted that the sand was so soft and fine because it is the droppings of the parrot fish. We never could decide if they were just pulling our legs or not.
After lunch we were quickly back on the boat to cruise back over to the mainland for the waterfall. Kepirohi Waterfall is the waterfall seen on almost all brochures and postcards of Pohnpei, but none of the pictures do it any justice. It is so much more awesome and mighty in person when you can hear the roar of the water and feel the mist from a hundred yards away.
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| A beautiful path leads right up to the falls |
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| You can already feel the mist from here |
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| Absolutely breath-taking |
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| Just enjoying the roar and cool mist |
Next on the schedule was snorkeling. We hopped back in the boat and headed out to a tiny man-made island right on a channel in the reef, which makes a great place to admire huge coral and beautiful fish.
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| Snorkel gear is so attractive ;) |
My first chance to try out my new underwater camera!
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| I think some of that might be the fire coral. Watch out! |
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| Amazing coral and colorful little fish |
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| Big fish! |
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| So many different colors, designs and creatures |
Apparently while I was out snorkeling and enjoying all the sights below, Bernard was teaching everyone else on shore about the sea cucumbers. He warned them to be really careful not to step on one because they would should out a substance similar to really sticky silly string.
I did not hear this warning nor did I see the giant sea cucumber camouflaged in the sand.
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| Ewwww, Dad help! Get it off! |
By that time the storms were starting to roll in so it was time to head back on a bumpy, wet ride bound for The Village.
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| You can see the bungalow we stayed in just a week before |
We had such a great time! And we couldn't believe that we got to do all of that in just one day in one trip. Excellent choice!
