Kosrae

We went from the low flat, sandy beaches of the Marshall's to the beautiful mountainous island and rainforests of Kosrae, Micronesia. Size-wise the island is the smallest in Micronesia, with a population of  7,000 of the nicest people you'll come across. Our motel was situated in the middle of the mangroves with the reef and the beach in front of us. The light island breeze was a nice break from the intense heat of Majuro. The water was very clear and around 83 degrees.  We had a week here to explore the island and we took full advantage of it.  We started off by meeting up with some fellow Americans living on the island who run a surf boat. It was a short boat ride out to the reef where Kelly got some great waves and even better sunsets :)

The next day we did some amazing snorkeling in the Blue Hole. We also got in some great dives while we were there. The water was so warm and the visibility was over 100 feet easily.  The coral is thriving and there were tons of colorful fish.  We saw some eagle rays, sharks, eels and tons of colorful corals.

Being in the middle of the Pacific we are surrounded by WWII sites at every island. We went hiking one day and saw some tank ruins.

 

Then headed  to the Lelu ruins which were built in the area sometime around 1400 AD.

We kayaked up the mangroves one morning and enjoyed the rainforest.

We were happily celebrating a happy hour on Friday night when the warning for the tsunami came in.  We hung around the motel a little bit before the watch turned to a warning and the locals started to head for higher ground. We were a little nervous ourselves, but once at higher ground it was a relaxing atmosphere under the stars with all the locals.  We hung out for a couple of hours while the warning passed and then headed back to our place.  It turned out that a 7 feet wave (not surge) hit the other side of the island, but not much damage was done. The deep water surrounding the island protects it from most tsunamis. It sounds like we fared better than the west coast of the states and Hawaii.

On Sunday it is a law that you can't do anything in Kosrae, but we enjoyed the much needed rest.   We wrapped up the week with some more surfing and relaxing. Angie drew a crowd of local kids/fans while reading on the beach one day. We had a fabulous time there and were sad to go.So after surviving a tsunami it's on to Yap now and hopefully some diving with manta rays!