Kaselelie! Our Adventure to Pohnpei

For my birthday we had an adventure.  It was to be a whirlwind tour of Pohnpei, Garden Isle of the Federated States of Micronesia!  Glorious in both the island's beauty and the efficiency with which Eric planned this less-than-48-hour-trip.  Yes.

So, the goal was to visit Nan Madol, which was amazing and its own separate blog post.  We left Majuro on Friday night on the Nauru Airline island hopper.  I admit, I was worried at first.  There were about 10 people aboard the 737, and we were three of them.  What did others know that we didn't?  Why was no one taking advantage of this seemingly amazing deal to fly a family of three to Pohnpei for the price of one ticket on United's island hopper?  The world may never know the answers to those questions, but here's some pros and cons to Nauru Airlines:

Pros                              Cons

Nice plane                    Empty plane

Free wine                     Emphatic prohibition on drinking booze you brought from home

Good price                   Way early departure from Pohnpei

Nice flight attendants   Definitely saw the pilot and co-pilot out of the cockpit at the same time

Zero Furby tolerance policy (see pic)

Don't even think about bringing your Furby aboard Nauru Airline.  And leave what appears to be your Tamagotchi at home too!

So it appears the pros outweigh the cons.  So we arrived in Pohnpei after dark and quickly settled into our hotel for a good night's rest before our (MY!) big day.  At about 4 am we heard a loud thud and then panic cries from little K.  She fell out of bed!!  :(:(  And there was blood!!!!  Fearing the worst, Eric and got her calmed down and cleaned up.  Luckily, it was just a fat lip, no stitches, no broken teeth.  Phew!

On the morning of my birthday we met friends for breakfast, had our plans all changed, then went off to adventure through Pohnpei. Our guide, Wilson, and his trusty taxi took us all over the place in an action packed day.  After Nan Madol, we went to see a really pretty waterfall.

Yes!  Let's!!

A walk through the jungle reveals beautiful foliage.

Jungle orchids line my birthday path (yayayay!!)

Eric and Kylie enjoying the jungle path.

The falls are so beautiful. It is a nice view to get to look up.

La Intrepid Familia Oakley!

Eric and his mad photo skills making the beautiful waterfall even prettier.

View from up the mountain.

Next stop, petroglyphs!

Wilson says this is script from an undeciphered language.

 Enjoying the petroglyph rocks.

Knives/swords were sort of a big theme here.

Wilson was in a hurry at this place, though.  He thought something was going to fall on the car, so we had to hurry back.  I was naturally curious...if there is something that will fall hard enough to hurt the car here...why are we walking around without helmets or something??

 Anyway, next we did a quick spin through the town of Kolonia.  Here is Spanish wall.  Apparently the Spanish stopped by here hundreds of years ago and tried to take over.  The Pohnpeians were not cool with that.  The Spanish walled themselves into a small city to stay safe.  They eventually left.

And here is German Bell Tower.  Kylie was asleep at this point, and got really upset later when she learned that she missed out.  Taking after her parents already!!

After our whirlwind tour, we went on a sunset cruise in Pohnpei's lagoon.  Cheese, we're on a boat! 

Eric saw some coral.

And we could not stop admiring the geography.

We finished the evening with a sushi dinner by the water.  It was a great trip, and happy birthday to me!  The weather was perfect, and I finally got to see Pohnpei, a really special place.  Thank you to Eric for planning such a wonderful trip for us!

I caught this last glimpse of FSM as we were taking off from Kosrae on this beautiful morning.

Adventure to Douglas Falls

This morning I got up feeling pretty good (considering I had surgery 11 days ago), and absolutely desperate to go out and see and do something.  This something need not involve a trip to the grocery store or the doctor...seemingly my only outings these days.  I was feeling like maybe the baby was going to hamper our style of getting out and seeing the world.  Luckily, I have Eric who scoffs at such things.  We decided to pack up the baby and head off to Douglas Falls, a park just outside of Colville.  As I recall it had some easy hiking trails and pretty things to see...though I hadn't been there in about 13 years, so who knows.

Welcome to Douglas Falls!

 The falls on Mill Creek.  They were named after a guy (Mr. Douglas) who tried to harness the power of the falls and sell its potential to the US Army at Ft. Colville way back when.  This plan was not successful.  According to the educational sign, he then dedicated his life to cooking up "distilled spirits."  Given the time period in question, I think they may have meant "Moonshine"...

Eric and Kylie posing for a photo.  She loves that pouch Eric has on.  She could sleep in there for days!

The deciduous foliage is starting to turn.  Fall is nearly upon us! 

 Kylie enjoying the hike.

 We're working on perfecting the self-portrait now that we're 3.  We took many shots, but I think we're getting it down.  Everyone say queijo!

A look straight into the forest.  I can smell the vanilla scent of the evergreens just looking at this...

Mill Creek winding through the woods.

The bridge to nowhere.  Who planned this?  Who paid?  It is literally a bridge to nowhere...

 One last look at Mill Creek before we head out.  Just beautiful!

On our way through Colville we were lured by this delicious looking drawing of frozen yogurt to enjoy some ourselves.

Oh yes, what a delightful day!

Agua Azul

After our visit to Misol-Ha, we hopped back into the car and took off for Agua Azul.  I seemed to take forever, even though it was only about an hour.  We dodged a 3-foot iguana in the road, passed into official Zapatista territory (according to a hand painted sign) and saw what we choose to believe was a guy asleep on the side of the road.  After becoming convinced we were lost, and having the Mexican road signs tell us we were 28 km from Agua Azul over and over, we made it!

Our first look at the falls.  That water looks so clean, I want to swim!  For those who do not speak Spanish, Agua Azul means Blue Water, and I can see why they would name this place that.

The thick jungle around this huge falls system made it even more beautiful.

Time for swimming!

Here we are looking tired, but still determined to finish touristing at our last stop.

The liitle falls-knob on the right appears to defy gravity...

We climbed (you guessed it) about 500 more stairs to get up to this point, the top of the falls.

We got this pic looking down from the top.  Looks like something out of a travel mag!

I look into the jungle before we depart.

On our way back to Villahermosa, I took this pic of a Chiapas taxi.  This was the preferred mode of travel throughout the state of Chiapas.  Looks hot and dangerous.

We see this all over Mexico.  Here, the side of the highway is on fire, and there is no one around.  This was about halfway between Palenque and Villahermosa.

And finally, back to the modern world.  We had a whirlwind trip, but it was really fun with so much to see.  I hope to go back to Chiapas sometime before we leave Mexico to see more Mayan Ruins and more jungle!

Las Cascadas de Misol-Ha

We finished up at Palenque around noon and headed back to our hotel for cold showers and lunch before checkout.  It was crazy hot by noon, so the showers (number 2 of the day for each of us) were badly needed.  So, we said our goodbyes to the hotel employees that had been following us around since our arrival (a bit odd), and set off for more adventure in the jungle.  We were on our way to Agua Azul, pretty much the Niagara Falls of Mexico...or at least Chiapas, when we stumbled upon this pretty little waterfall and decided to have a look.

The falls were narrow this day, though internet pictures show a much more spectacular sight.  It was still very impressive though, as it was very very high up, so it was extra dramatic.

There was swimming allowed in the lagoon below the falls, and this warning sign lets would-be swimmers know that it is dangerous to swim in clothing and shoes, as the water is very deep.  So...what are you supposed to swim in?  Is a bathing suit not an article of clothing?  Perplexing...

A view of the falls from the side, very picturesque.

Here we are smiling through the sweat!  We found a little (paved) path leading into the side of the mountain, so we decided to follow it and see where it lead...

As we wound out way behind the waterfall, we saw our destination: ominous cave...

The story of how I ended up running around in the jungle in my pajamas is a woeful tale, but I rocked it anyway!  Look out!  The jungle appears to be creeping up behind me, even under a rock!

Yet another view of the falls...

These crazy jungle vines were growing through solid rock.  It feels like Tarzan could come swinging out at any minute!

Upon arrival to destination ominous cave, we encountered this rotten looking plank, and decided to turn back.  I am getting braver everyday (I think jumping in a gas-perfumed Mexican rental car and driving blind with no GPS into Zapatista territory is pretty brave!), but I am not stupid.  If that rotten plank is how one enters ominous cave, one can only imagine the horrors that might await inside.

Mini-waterfall spouting out of what appeared to be solid rock.  Water, water everywhere...

After the cave trail and paying 50 pesos to use a bathroom whose door was in fact nothing more than a tarp, we headed back to the car.  It was about 110 degrees by this time, and we were in need of some air conditioning for our trip deeper into Chiapas to see the wonders at Agua Azul...