Surprising Chuuk

CHUUK, MICRONESIA--Tuesday, March 23, 2010

BEFORE Impressions
At 11 a.m. on Tuesday, we will dock in Chuuk, a destination that it seems no one on the ship has explored. When Sara was researching all our ports before we started this trip in January, the only thing she found about Chuuk was an article on the Chuuk Lagoon's Ghost Fleet, about the WWII Operation Hailstorm attack by the American Task Force that resulted in wrecks of 60 Japanese ships making this port the standard by which all other wreck dives are measured.

Noemi (correct spelling), of Sergio and Noemi from Cruise Critic, read to us from the Lonely Planet Tourbook (one of our favorites) that there are very few tours in Chuuk but who would want to take a tour anyway because there is nothing to see. For Martyn, our port talk speaker, Chuuk is the only destination on this segment of the cruise that he has never been but he promised to do research for us. Basically, the most important things he learned are that the English is the major language, the citizens use the American dollar, most of the funding for the island comes from the USA, the main business is the Chuuk Coconut Processing Plant, to see the Sapuk Lighthouse you need to contact the owner, Chuuk lovesticks that are used for courtship are good souvenirs, and if you take a jeep to Jeep Island, do not pay until you return. The Pacific Princess had no scheduled tours for this port. If there was something to see on this island, we were sure that the ship would have organized a tour. So today will be a surprise for all. With more than 600 passengers and hundreds of crew members roaming the island, this may be a surprise for the residents of Chuuk also.

AFTER Impressions
We were able to depart the ship at about 11:15 a.m. with the reminder that all passengers and crew must be back on board by 4:15 p.m., giving us five hours to explore this hot, steamy, dirty island. We were greeted by locals who had set up a market and representatives from the visitors' bureau with suggestions for tours and tickets for the Pacific Princess bus to the Blue Lagoon Resort. We were approached by Milton who offered us a tour of the island for $40.00 each, promising that we would be back before the ship left, so we teamed up with Sylvia and Jerry from Napa, California.

The first concern was when our taxi turned out to be a motor boat with no life jackets but a cut- off bleach bottle that we could use to bail out water. Our second concern was when we stopped at another island to gas up and watched the native children pour the gasoline through a funnel into the container. Our third concern was when the boat's seat for three (Jerry sat on a crate in the back) jumped up when we went over a wave because it was not nailed down completely. This may be more of an experience than what we bargained to have!

We traveled from the Chuuk Lagoon on Weno Island to Eten Island, which the ship's literature stated was carved by backbreaking hand labor into the shape of a huge aircraft carrier, and features impressive war ruins. We walked along a crude dirt path and through grass to the wreck of a Japanese plane. School children who had just completed their school day followed us during our entire tour of the island. Then we crawled over a bunker where a woman who lived in the nearby house offered us coconut milk. We then toured the bombed out communication center made of steel reinforced concrete that must have taken a direct hit to look like that. Our guide then told us that we each owed the woman who had the plane on her land a dollar and the man whose land included the communication center two dollars each. The old man came up the path with a walking stick to collect his money.

Milton then said we could take a five-minute walk to see a big gun so we started off over a jungle trail with plenty of exposed tree roots. After we had walked for more than five minutes, the path (that's a joke) went straight up a steep hill. Sylvia and Sara decided to go back to the boat but became disoriented in the jungle. Fortunately, a young man with a machete showed them the way back. Most of the way, this handsome local hunk was accompanied by two beautiful native girls so he did not seem to mind being an impromptu tour guide. Jerry and Ken climbed to the top of the hill to see the gun.

While waiting at the rustic dock, Sylvia and Sara developed a plan for turning this island into a tourist destination. Sylvia had been a travel agent for one year while Sara has taught speech, writing and customer service courses at colleges. They decided to teach the natives and their older children how to be tour guides while Jerry and Ken supervised the locals on clearing off the paths for the tours. When the men finally returned one-half hour later, their legs, shorts, shirts and arms were covered with mud but their faces sported big smiles. Ken said that the trail on the trip back was so slippery and steep that they slid part-way down the hill on their rear ends. Their shorts proved that statement.

Our next stop was another island where we were greeted by a young girl who put leis around our necks and young men carrying roosters. We were entertained by a troop of young boys wearing grass skirts who performed a warrior routine with sticks. Sara asked them the name of their dance but all they did was smile and giggle. When she inquired if they spoke English, they did the same thing. She now wants to teach English in Micronesia as part of the tourism program. The natives set up an impromptu market for us where we bought love sticks and items made with reeds and shells at very good prices.

Our fourth concern was when we boarded the boat for our return trip and the engine stalled several times. We had no idea how we would get to Guam if we missed the ship! Fortunately, we made it back safely.

When we arrived at the ship's dock, Jerry and Ken boarded the ship to have a beer to toast their excellent adventure. Sylvia and Sara decided to walk to the post office and then into what they thought would be a downtown with stores. At the post office, they learned that the other passengers had already claimed all the large flat rate boxes. The dirt road to town had been flooded out in parts and was filled with gigantic pot holes. Also, there really were no stores that sold souvenirs so they carefully walked back to the ship, avoiding the puddles and mud, and shopped at the market set up by the natives, buying a wooden turtle and lovesticks.

Noemi and Sergio, who went on a scuba diving tour with a licensed guide to the wreckage where they saw a cargo ship, airplane and ship, affirmed that the hype concerning the quality of the wreckage dive was not at all exaggerated--it was beyond anything else they have ever seen while scuba diving. On their way down in the water, they saw Craig and Lauren, who had encountered their first shark on a dive trip, coming up.

The last paragraph in the literature provided by the Pacific Princess states, "At present, the economic opportunity for the native population is limited, but with education and tourist dollars many hope for a brighter future." We trust that we did our part to improve their economic conditions.

LEGEND of the LOVESTICKS: In the past, an island man would carve his personal notches on the lovestick and let his would-be sweethearts feel it. At night, he would kneel beside the thatched wall opposite where his lady love was sleeping and poke the lovestick through the wall to entangle her hair. With luck, she would wake up without arousing her family. Then she would put her fingers around the stick's notches and identify her admirer.