Yap...Finally

Stone Money. This one is tiny compared to some of the massive ones.

View from the hotel room overlooking the lagoon.

Baggage claim (read below)

Jungle of Yap

I have been so busy with work lately that I haven't simultaneously had the time and energy to write about going to Yap. So here it is finally. I have been working around 60 hours a week for about two months now and its finally starting to slow down. Its been a long summer with a lot of hours spent sweating in the jungle but its all going to pay off. I've started collecting data for my thesis project. I'm going to look at the pollination mechanism in the endangered Cycas micronesica. Nobody knows if they are pollinated by insects or wind or some other vector so hopefully I can figure that out in the next year. Anyway that's a little update on what I've been doing lately.

For work we went to Yap for a few days. Yap's a state in the Federated States of Micronesa (FSM for short). It's made up of several small islands which makes traveling pretty tough. It is considered to be the most traditional as far as modern day luxuries out of all the Micronesian islands. Much of the population of Yap live on outer islands which can take up to 15 hours to get to by ship. In those outer islands life is very traditional. Unfortunately we did not get to go to any islands other than the main island. After talking to people and reading about it online the undeveloped islands in Yap sound like they are a few hundred years in the past.

We got to Yap at around midnight. Their airport was very modest and purely for function. After clearing customs we were greeted by a man dressed in traditional clothing. Pretty much looked like he wrapped a hand towel around his waist and called that dressed. He had an awesome smile the whole time. It was pure and sincere and I kept glancing at him. I know I'm going crazy over another guys smile but it was a great smile! He put a lei made from coconut leaf and red flowers around my neck and welcomed me to Yap. I was told that other times women will great visitors wearing only a grass skirt. Their hair and flower necklaces cover the naughty parts. I was kinda releived a topless guy was there to greet me. Topless women greeting you is an awkward situation to have to deal with that late at night.

Their baggage claim was different than any other I have seen. It was two guys with a forklift and a huge pallet. They unloaded all the bags onto a giant pallet and drove to a counter where they unloaded the bags for travelers to pick up. I got my bag quickly and enjoyed watching the chaos of everyone else climbing over bags in search of theirs.

Many of the cars on Yap have the steering wheel on the right side even though they drive on the same side of the road as us. I later found out that Yap gets a lot of financial support from Japan. The cars I was seeing were all from Japan and probably sold to the Yapese for a great deal. Tourism is their only major industry. The diving there is supposed to be world class so a lot of Japanese tourists go there to dive.

The village we stayed in, Colonia, is the capital of Yap. It is the busiest city in the whole state but to someone who is from a big city, it looks like a ghost town. The tallest building I saw was the hotel we stayed in which had three floors. They have one internet cafe and its $4 for 1 hour of what seemed like dialup speed. They have about 5 restaurants which all had ok food but anything was good after a day in the jungle. A gallon of gas was $5.25 so its a good thing everything is close. Yap is called the Stone Money State because hundreds of years ago they had a currency system which they used huge stone wheels as money. The stones were brought by ship from Palau, another island in Micronesia. Because they are so big (some are like 10 feet across) they werent moved often. Ownership changed but the location didn't. Many of them still sit in the same place as they were hundreds of years ago. Needless to say, several jokes about wallet size, ATMs, vending machines, etc. were made.

Everyone there chews beetle nut. Its a palm fruit about the size of a grape that when chewed has a slight stimulating effect. It turns ones teeth a disgusting red color so everyone looks like they need to see an oral surgeon. Its not an attractive sight. They all carry these purses made from woven leaves to hold their beetle nut paraphernalia nut for the day. When they chew the beetle nut they first add powdered lime (the mineral, not the fruit) and some chew it with a leaf I assume for flavor. Others chew beetle nut with a piece of a cigarette. Yes an actual cigarette. They break a piece off and munch it up with the red mess, paper and all. Anyway, the point of this is that the purses were so decorative and beautiful. I wish I could have brought a bunch back. They look like beautiful pieces of art that could sell for hundreds of dollars.

We stayed in a hotel that was right on a lagoon. It was a very beautiful sight to watch the sun come up over the lagoon. If you don't scuba dive or you dont have business in the jungle of Yap, there is little else to do there. Luckily we were there for the jungle. Their island has the same species of Cycad I am studying and they have not been affected by an invasive insect that is destroying the population on Guam. My boss wanted me to see what a healthy population looks like so he found some money to take me with him on this trip. To make sure we didn't introduce the insect to Yap, we had to wash all of our clothes, shoes and anything else that may harbor the little bugs.

It was a great trip and it introduced me to a part of the world I never knew existed. I hope I have the opportunity to go back to Yap and to visit other FSM islands. Life is very different from what I am used to but I gained a huge appreciation for a culture and people I otherwise would never know about.