February 27, 2018 - Lelu Harbor, Kosrae

February 27, 2018

Up bright and early but foggy from such a long, exhausted sleep, we get ready to head to shore packing raingear and important documents in dry bags. With the heavy rains, we soon realize no one will be coming and there will be no horn to call us to shore, so we wait unit after lunch. Almeda calls the officials again for us and tells us they will be here at 2:40. We have well over an hour, so decide to take a walk around towards the ocean, as we didn’t drive with Hamilson that way the day before. Two great finds right across from each other and a short distance from Ace; the laundromat and a fresh veggie stand. The cucumbers look wonderful so I grab five small ones, some of the eggplant are a bit wilty, but they are small and only a few, so we buy them all. There’s a hot pepper spice mix the ladies are working on in the back and ask of if we’d like to buy some. We decide not today, but I want to go back and get some to send home. I’m interested in a long green veggie that looks a bit like okra, but with more pointed sides and much longer. We’re told this is zucchini, so we decide to try a few of those as well and continue out walk after paying just $3 for the lot. What a bargain!

We walk past the school and find a road to the ancient ruins as we can see some of them overgrown by the jungle after so many years and continue our way meeting a man walking in the opposite direction who asks us if we are on the yacht in harbor – we are the only yacht, so it must be news to the locals. After a nice chat we continue and realize it’s getting close to the time to meet officials at Ace. As we’re walking, a car pulls up with and official sticker on the side. By this time, we’re kind of immune to the stickers as in our waiting time, we saw realized that about 20% of the cars seem to be government vehicles. This one stops and asks us if we are on the yacht. We say yes, and discover he is the customs officer. He graciously gives us a ride back to Ace and on our way, I ask him how he knew it was us which elicited laughter on all sides. Back at Ace, Pete begins filling out forms and producing them. Soon, the quarantine official arrives, and I get out of the nice A/C to talk with him and begin answering questions, so he can start forms before Pete finishes with immigration. 

As we wait for immigration to stamp our passports, we make tentative plans for the evening, hoping we can walk the distance to find the resort in the mangroves that we’d read about. It’s getting late and we wonder if the other officials will show up today. Finally, immigration shows up and we get paperwork done and our passports stamped. We decide to wait until morning to go to the post office for a package Pete had sent here and to get my phone set up for calling and internet.

We go back to the boat to drop off the paperwork and Pete still wants to try to find Pacific Tree Lodge in the mangroves to buy me dinner. Back on shore, we begin walking and find a pier and a huge cement slab that has steps going into the water on the ocean side. We can’t quite figure out the purpose as the pier seems so far out of the water. Later, we look at maps and realize there are two blue holes there for swimming and snorkeling. We keep walking and walking enjoying the sights and ask along the way where the resort might be located. Keep going we are told and so we do. Dodging fast cars whipping around the sharps turns, we realize that we must me off course and close to Tofol, not the resort. A woman drives up from a side road with her teenage son and we ask here about the resort. She tells us we are way off course and as we talk for a bit, she offers us a ride to show us the post office and the FSM telecommunications building before she takes us to the Nautilus which is a hotel, restaurant before Tree Lodge, but on the same road. We are so grateful for her kindness and also the conversation as she has just moved here and her husband is in the USA training to be a minster.

We enter the Nautilus and hungry after nothing since breakfast, Pete orders a fish burger and I get a cheeseburger with bacon, egg and ask for the pineapple and carrots on the side. We order wine and beer enjoying our meal and the surroundings of friendly staff and lovely paintings with an ocean view out the windows. Fish burgers in the Pacific are very different than what one would think of in the US. They are a fish steak sliced and grilled, but usually still pretty rare in the middle and then put on a bun with the regular fixings. I’d never had one before, so in Majuro, Pamela and me, after hearing the airport had the best fish burgers, took the bus out there and enjoyed a lovely evening trying out the fish burgers, which were excellent and even had pickles that were the closest I’ve even seen to Cleveland Kosher dills, with the cucumber full of flavor, but still crisp and looking like a fresh cucumber.

We ask if a taxi can be called for our way home as we’re both still tired from the trip and are told it will be 20 minutes. As we wait in the lobby, a car appears and honks within ten minutes and we jump inside the taxi for a short ride back to Ace. After a few minutes relaxing back on the boat, it’s time for sleep again as Almeda has arranged for an 8 am taxi to drive us to the post office, telecommunications and our last authority to check in with – the port authority.

Many of the houses in Lelu have such beautiful gardens

Walking down the road by the church

The jungle reclaims a home

Like the Marshallese, many homes have family cemeteries in their yards.

This one was unusual because it sits alone at the junction of two roads