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Kosrae, off the beaten track Pacific Island treasure: Part 1
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Awaken to island breezes playing their morning symphony through the palm, ka, breadfruit, and pandana trees surrounding your open walled thatched cottage. Enjoy the sound of the sea splashing over the island’s surrounding coral reefs and lapping at the shore about fifteen feet from your bed. Sniff the sweet smelling rainforest air and get ready for another day of adventure and relaxation on Kosrae, one of the most beautiful and least visited islands of the Central Pacific.
Located five degrees above the equator and seven hours by plane southwest from Honolulu, Kosrae offered John, my photographer husband, and me many delights during our recent two week visit there. Definitely off the beaten track, one of the four Federation of Micronesia islands, Kosrae was recently named one of the Top 10 Destinations of 2008 by Frommer’s, which wrote: “It’s the way islands used to be.”
For soft adventure travelers who enjoy hiking through pristine forests to the ancient temples of Sinlaku, the Breadfruit Goddess; diving among the world’s most diversified and healthiest coral reefs; kayaking through its mangrove ecosystems; and enjoying the hospitality of the Kosraean’s still intact traditional culture, Kosrae’s your kind of place.
Driving along the island’s one road, surrounded by flourishing rainforest, you feel as though you had been dropped into the middle of a primordial world. Kosraeans live in harmony with their natural environment. For example, when I asked why a majority of the islands’ vehicles had cracked windshields, they explained with an accepting shrug, “Falling breadfruit.” Various cultures have drifted through here over the centuries. Kosraeans have absorbed their influences while maintaining their own distinct identity. In the early 19th century, the first whalers landed here, followed by pirates including the notorious American pirate Billy Hayes, whose shipwrecked boat, the Leonora lies deep in Utwe harbor.
If local kids call out to you, “Hi, awshit!” they are not being impolite. The expression dates from the whalers’ era when they would walk around, letting off an “Aw shit,” from time to time. So locals decided that’s what foreigners would be called. These scalawags were followed by the Boston missionaries, and then the French, German, Japanese, and Americans.
IF YOU GO:
Continental Airlines fly from mainland USA via Honolulu and Guam to Kosrae on their Island Hopper.
Activities: diving, snorkeling, hiking, ancient ruins, kayaking, local cultural events, including annual Kosraean Festival in early September and special marching and singing throughout the month of December.
This is one article in a continuing series about Micronesia. Stay tuned!
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