Micronesia
2003 Travel Journal
Yap
Maurie and I had been trying to get back
to the South Pacific ever since we were married in Fiji in 1997. The islands
are dramatic and beautiful, the diving amazing and the people warm and
friendly. So, for Maurie's 40th birthday, we collected together all of
our frequent flier miles (almost 500,000) and set off to Yap, Palau, and
Guam. Getting there is non-trivial; we were in the air for nearly 24 hours
before we got to Yap. It helps that we flew first-class, but even up front,
it was a long flight. Getting there you cross the international date line,
so at one point, I just quit trying to keep up with the date and time until
we reached the ground. Our flight took us from Austin to Houston to Honolulu
(where we had just enough time to have a Mai Tai) to Guam to Yap.
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Located
45 minutes by jet from Guam, Yap appealed to us because of its reputation
for being a relatively undisturbed and
preserved Micronesian culture. In addition, the chance to see manta
rays excited us as well.
Yap is relatively small. There are 4 islands
in the Yap proper, Yap, Tomil-Gagil, Map and Rumung. I'm not sure
of the total populations but it can't be that large.
Upon our arrival in Yap, we were greeted by
two young girls in traditional dress (colorful grass skirt, neck
garland, and no top) and each given flowery head garlands called
nunuws. |
We stayed at Manta Ray Bay Hotel. Our travel
agent Trip and Tour recommended them over several other hotels both for
the accomodations as well as their dive shop, Yap
Divers. We really enjoyed our stay in Bill Acker's (UT Grad) hotel. The
room was nice, spacious and clean with a view of the bay from our patio.
Adding to the atmosphere, Bill brought a 170 foot phinishi ship (traditional
Indonesian schooner) to dock next to the hotel. The story of the Mnuw is
really interesting, I'd recommend checking out the links. For a ship that
is over 100 years old, she is really amazing. After she was docked by the
hotel, she was refitted with two bars and an air conditioned restaraunt.
Manta Ray Bay Hotel from dock |
The Mnuw |
Dive boat for Yap Divers |
The food at the restaraunt is very good and probably the best on the island.
We especially liked the blackened sashimi. The recipe is on the Manta Ray Bay
Hotel's web site. After diving we spent the majority of the time drinking
Manta Brew,
brewed by Fredy Gull (manager of the dive
shop) at the bar in Mnuw’s wheel house. Our other dining experiences
included dinner at the restaurant at Castaways
Hotel, and lunch at O’Keefes Bar and Grill. The local cuisine is, as
expected, largely fish, coconut, tarot, etc.
Our diving started out on the morning of the 20th with a trip to the NW
side of the island to avoid a strong cyclone driven southerly wind. I knew
we had
chosen well as we boated out the dive sites simply by looking at the incredible
water we passed through to get to the reef. Ranging from light turquoise to
rich emerald to deep indigo, it is some of the most beautiful water you will
ever see. Getting to the sites required us to wind our way over and through
the shallow barrier reef that surrounds Yap.
Our first dives were to the cleaning station at the Valley
of the Mantas and Trade
Wind Mini-Wall. I didn’t take my camera on the
first dive, to give myself an opportunity to get comfortable diving again,
and of course, we saw the only mantas of the trip. The normal routine at the
cleaning station is to use a reef hook to hold steady while you wait for the
mantas. The current wasn’t exceptionally strong and the hook is more
of a convenience than a necessity. Visibility was 60-80 feet, somewhat diminished
because of a lot of rain from the weeks before, but still outstanding. The
boat was run as either a drift dive or would let us out and then move to a
second mooring. The divemaster and captain clearly were experienced and very
knowledgeable about there area and couldn’t have made diving any easier.
They were conscientious of the variety of skills in the group. The boat was
as culturally diverse as they came with divers from Germany, France, and Japan
as well as us Texans.
Go to Yap for the mantas, but after you see them, the sharks and turtles,
spend some time on the small stuff. The fish and invertebrate life in Yap is
stunning.
Our second day of diving returned us to the cleaning station at the Valley
of the Mantas again, followed by Goofnuw
Mini-Wall.
On our third day, to make sure we dove conservatively, we dove a spot outside
O’Keefes passage called Macro by the divemaster. It was a shallow dive
with visibility usually less than 40 feet, but wow, what a great spot. We
got 4 species of clownfish, several types of lionfish, and a variety of nudibranchs.
I highly recommend this dive for photographers and vidiographers for shooting
the small stuff.
Our land exploration included a trip to the Yap Gallery where we bought
several small water colors done by local artists.
In addition we took the
cultural
tour to the village of Kaday. We were met by our guide and lead down a
stone path built some 300-400 years ago.
The path took us by a variety of native
plants and trees such as mahogany, yaro, etc., the significance described
by our guide. When we arrived at the village we were greeted by a village
elder
who told us about the village and made us feel very welcome. We were given
coconut husks with watered down coconut milk in them, a treat I couldn’t
drink, but Maurie could. Local fruit was also brought including a couple
local citrus variants and pineapple.
Next, a group of young Yapese performed
a traditional
dance for us. The dance performed to a communal chant, consisted of footwork
and bamboo rods struck together. The dancers some of which looked to
be 9 or 10, masterfully moved to strike their bamboo rods in a rhythmic
beat. Finally, we were given a display of basket weaving and betel nut
gathering.
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Speaking of betel nuts... I had only heard about these things in the song
"Bloody Mary" for South Pacific (she's chewing betel nuts). They are definitely
a commonly used form of stimulant in Micronesia. Betel nuts are the seeds
produced by the Areca palm. They are prepared by splitting them in half with
your
teeth, covering the inside of the nut with powered stag horn coral, and wrapped
in an aromatic pepper leaf. This bundle is then placed in your mouth and
slowly chewed. The combination of saliva, nut, leaf and coral produces a
deep red fluid that is spit out. You will find red stains from this everywhere
in Yap. We didn't try it, but a young Japanese guy did and the grimace
on his face convinced us that you don't chew betel nut for the taste.
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As always, a big part of the enjoyment we get
when we travel is the people we meet. In Yap we met the Kirby brothers
celebrating their 65th birthday. Living in Saipan and Hawaii, they
were a wealth of knowledge about the region and culture and a lot of
fun to be around. |
Overall, Yap was a great stop on our trip. The diving is world class, the
people absolutely charming, and we would recommend it to any divers traveling
to this area.
