Nan Madol

Hello again, last Saturday Megan and I rented a car and drove to Nan Madol the "Machu Pichu of the Pacific". You can read about here or here. We had an absolutely wonderful time. Nan Madol is located on the southeast side of the island. We live on the northwest side of the island and work on the west side of the island. So just going the other direction around the island was new to us.

Here is a picture of the what the major road around the island looks like...


We didn't actually have any driving directions only a terrible map. We knew the ruins were around near a school called P.A.T.S (Pohnepei Agricultural and Trade School). A little guessing was going to be needed to find our destination. When we guessed that we were fairly close we decided to follow a truck with 12-15 people in the back, thinking that might be headed in the same direction. We guessed right! When we arrived at Nan Madol we went through a very large party, at first we though "woah the ruins are going to be crowded." "Well it is Saturday" we reasoned. We followed the crowd for a while only to find that they were stopping and we still didn't see anything spectacular. Come to find out we parked our car at the correct spot however we walked in wrong direction. We were in the middle of a party for the village chief. We asked a little girl were Nan Madol was and she pointed us in the correct direction. After about a thirty minute walk we found this...



That's Megan standing by the wall. We had the entire place to ourselves.

We walked around for 2 hours taking it all in. To get from one islet to another you have to wade through water that is about a foot deep. This sounds refreshing but actually it was low tide and the water was very warm and above all not refreshing. The weather on this side of island is a little more pleasant. There was a nice breeze the whole time we were which kept us comfortable.
We also spotted an island about a mile off shore that had sandy beaches...


Here is another pic of the ruins...


As I said we came during low tide so when we left the water was a little higher maybe 30 inches. Next time we come we will try to rent a boat or kayak and come during high tide to see all the different islets.

Parting Shots: On our way home we found some pigs pigging out...


This shot is for my Father-in-Law. The name of the boat says it all...