PohnPei, Micronesia....

Its a stopping point on the way east from Kwajalein, on the United Airlines flight they call the "Island hopper".  United flights 154 or 155 depending on the day and direction of the flight, are on a 737, a plane with an aisle in the middle and 3 seats on each side.  On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays it leaves Honolulu and makes stops on Majuro, Kwajalein, Kosrei, PohnPei, Chuuk, and finally staying on Guam.  Going in either direction you can usually "deplane" and go to each islands airport for 30 to 40 minutes or so and have a beer, or some fish jerky on all the islands except Kwajalein.  Sometimes they make half the plane leave for a security sweep.

The first time flying east from Kwaj, and going into Pohnpei, the island gave the impression of maybe ten miles in diameter with a barrier reef.  This time, as the plane flew by some island with a little tiny runway, I used the runway to estimate the size of the island.  Of course this couldn't be Pohnpei, and THAT couldn't be a runway big enough for a plane this size to land on.  It looked to me like some private island that someone built a runway on the reef.  The plane slowly turned and headed back to that little strip. So it was Pohnpei. Somewhere along the way it was said that Kosrae has the shortest runway possible for a 737, and that the plane often has to "take off" again after touching down too far down the runway to make a safe stop possible.  The runway on Pohnpei is not much longer.

Using the runway as a gauge, the island has to be around a hundred miles long. It will be interesting to see how close that guess is, as the island looked about a hundred times the runway in length.  Compared to Kwajalein, its a HUGE island, both tall (2800 feet) and in terms of square miles.

Its a newly found world class surfing destination with no real backbone of logistics to support it.  This time of year, also, isn't good for big waves either.  That all worked on my behalf as I am in no way capable of any "world class" waves, although my level of stupidity would not have stopped me from (read: drowning or getting crushed on a reef) trying.

Its not an easy place to figure out.  My lack of world travelling probably hasn't helped.  Most speak varying degrees of English.  Most people don't walk or ride bikes, cars seem to be the way to go.  Its hard to walk around in Kolonia, you get asked for a ride from a "taxi", or maybe just foreigners do.  Kolonia, not the capital, but the town, is the only "town" on the island.  Most would assume its the "capital" of Pohnpei, but as a cab driver showed me, the "capital" is a set of newly built modern buildings with housing nearby, about 5 miles from the "town" (/Kolonia).  The "Capital" reminded me of the whole chick with the bow and arrow movie....asparagus....oh...MockingJay.  Anyhow, it was very close to the "College of Micronesia".  Maybe a mile away.  Strange set up.

A little closer now, it still doesn't look like a quarter of the state of Ohio....but I think it is.

The yellow line is a road around the island.  The barrier reef is the outermost deal there and you can see the interior lagoons.  

Now you can barely see the runway at the top of this picture.  The runway has to be a mile long, so maybe the island is only 50 miles in diameter.