Yap - Day #1

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  Yap, Yap, Micronesia
Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Our last flight from Guam to Yap was delayed about twenty minutes, to allow passengers from a late flight (the nonstop between Honolulu and Guam) to connect.  By this time, the excitement from the Island Hopper was winding down, and the jet lag was starting to hit us something fierce.  We could barely keep our eyes open on this flight, which lasted a little over an hour.  And in business class, another "snack" -- this time, a cheeseburger.

We arrived in Yap, and the airport looked similar to some of the others we saw that day -- just one building, with three lanes for Micronesia immigration check.  As soon as we entered the terminal, a young man and woman in traditional Yapese attire greeted everyone with beautiful handwoven garlands.  "Traditional attire" for Yapese women, by the way, is bare-breasted.  In Yapese society, bare breasts are as commonplace as men shirtless -- however, Yapese women always keep their thighs covered.  Bare thighs are considered indecent.  (Female tourists are reminded of this -- don't bare your thighs unless you're at a beach or pool.  Halter tops and bikini tops are also considered somewhat offensive, probably because they purposely *cover* the breasts.)

We picked up our luggage, which we were happy to see made it all the way to Yap with us!  (I last saw my bag in Newark, which now seems ages ago.)  Then we found two representatives from Traders' Ridge Resort, our home for the next three days.  A group of four young American friends were also in our hotel van -- they had met while working in Switzerland several years ago, but now live in different places.  This trip was a reunion for them.

Traders' Ridge is a Victorian-style boutique hotel, with 22 rooms appointed with Micronesian-made furniture and artwork.  It is a beautiful place, and our room is on the second floor with a balcony that overlooks Chamorro Bay and the Pacific ocean beyond.  We were greeted at the door by staff distributing cold washcloths and glasses of chilled tropical fruit juice.  We checked in, then went to our room and immediately went to sleep.

Lucas decided to change his scuba diving to the second and third days, so we slept in a bit and then went to the hotel's open-air restaurant for breakfast.  There were about eight choices, all excellent looking (American and Asian options), and all priced at $15 including tax.  I had an American style breakfast; Lucas had French toast.  We were both pleased with our meals.

We then went to the on-site dive shop, where Lucas was fitted with rental gear for his dives and we inquired about bicycle rentals.  Turns out the bikes are available to guests for free, which was a nice perk!  Before we left, however, I wanted to get online to find out the news about my new niece -- she was scheduled to be born the day before.  The hotel's Internet was down, but I was able to purchase a pre-paid card from Micronesia's telecommunications company, and connect via their system.  And found great news: Cecilia Maria had arrived, at 7 lbs. 10 oz. and 18.5 inches!

We set out for an ambitious bike ride to a beach about six miles away.  Recently, I've been having issues with my knee ligaments (my doctor is sending me to physical therapy when I get back), and I warned Lucas that I might not be able to do much of the ride.  As it turned out, my knees felt fine -- but I found the occasional steep hills to be too much of a challenge.  By the fourth hill (about halfway to our destination) I decided to turn back.  Lucas went on without me.  Despite this setback, I did get to see some gorgeous views of this lush tropical island.  I relaxed with a book the rest of the afternoon at the hotel.

Lucas returned before sunset, completely exhausted from the rest of the ride.  (He got lost a couple times.)  He did find the beach though -- although it wasn't a good spot for swimming, it was a gorgeous stretch of sand.  We went out to the pier in front of the dive shop to watch the sunset, then went back to the hotel's restaurant for dinner.  Lucas had tuna cevicche and curry chicken and shrimp; they had run out of the day's special (mahi mahi) so I had the catch of the day: wahoo fish, preceded by amazingly delicious seafood cakes.  The portions were very big (neither one of us came close to finishing our plates) and the prices were very reasonable.  Most of the entrees on the menu were between $15 and $20.

We had also stopped in the local supermarket earlier in the day, which is always an interesting way to experience a foreign land.  Most products were either American or Asian brands, and the food supply for a remote island such as Yap means a lot of canned and frozen foods.  There were no fresh cuts of meat to be found -- only frozen.  The produce section had many items that I did not recognize.  In the back of the store was a section for household goods and clothes -- all in all, a small, tropical version of Wal-Mart.  Prices were not as high as I thought they would be for a place so dependant on faraway imports.  Bottled water was actually very cheap -- I think a 1.4 liter of water was only 85 cents.  (By the way, tap water here is clean by many standards, but not necessarily potable by U.S. standards.  The hotel filters all the water they serve, and they keep a jug in the room's mini-fridge replenished with the filtered water.)

There's a lot more to say about this amazing island and its people, but I'll save that for a future post...  Off to bed now.  It's 10:20 p.m. here (7:20 a.m. back home) -- most of you are just getting up to start your Wednesday, and we're already finished it.  :-)

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