Blogs from Kosrae, Micronesia, Oceania

Saturday 26.2 – Kosrae Japanese tunnels from WWII and island views and jungle hike. Today I was picked up by Hamilton, the owner of Ohma peak. His windshield was broken – he was cursing the government for not making landowner trim their coconut trees – one had fallen lately direct on his car. We went to Malem, a village on the east coast and started out from his house. The trek was regular jungle rain forest with green in green. It didn’t rain but I was sweating buckets. Hamilton first with his machete cutting new growth on the path. After one hour we reached a clearing where I saw the first Japanese tunnel. There were a couple of artifacts like a broken sake bottle with ‘nippon’ written on it. Not much animal life – surprised that ... read more

Tuesday 22.2 – Majuro – Kosrae, Micronesia Leaving Majuro, Marshall Islands. 45 minutes flight to Kwajalain atoll – also in the Marshall Islands. It is an American military base, and most people got off here. Nobody else were allowed off the plane. After 45 minutes the Island hopper continued and an hour later we were in the easternmost island in Micronesia – Kosrae. A lush and green island with high ‘mountains’ in the middle of the island. Similar to places like Bora Bora. We were the only tourists getting off the plane today together with 12 local. Mark from our hotel, Pacific Treelodge was waiting for us. He was hot happy with the tourist business – you were the only tourists on the plane? And Continental just cut back from 6 flights a week to 4 ... read more

Kosrae Got our first glimpse of a tropical island paradise approaching the airport on the nw coast of Kosrae (ko-shry’), the easternmost of the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). A car from our lodging, the Kosrae Village Resort, picked us up at the tiny air terminal. The immediate impression of the island is of exuberant plant life - every inch is bursting with greenery, from mosses and ferns to giant trees. Very little traffic on the peripheral road, which nearly circles the island - the only road of any length. The 5,000 or so residents mostly live along this road - there are five settlements or villages where the houses are closer and there are a few little stores, as well as schools or government buildings, but there's no one central town. ... read more