{"id":481,"date":"2020-03-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zoa.com\/2019b\/?p=481"},"modified":"2020-03-21T04:26:40","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T04:26:40","slug":"kosrae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zoa.com\/2019b\/travel\/kosrae\/","title":{"rendered":"Kosrae — Marooned in Paradise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m writing to you from the island of Kosrae, 2180 km from Guam and 4560 km from Honolulu. Kosrae is the easternmost island in Micronesia. I landed here on March 6, planning to stay for three days. The night before my scheduled departure, the Marshallese government closed Majuro — my next intended destination — to all international travelers for a period of two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, no big deal, I thought. Kosrae is a nice place. Kosraeans speak English and they’re friendly. I’ll hang out here for a couple of weeks before continuing my travels. There’s still plenty of time for me to visit the other island nations of the Pacific during April, May and June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I made myself comfortable and enjoyed a little break from travel. Every morning, I walked through a mangrove forest to a water-side cafe for fresh fish, eggs and coconut. If you ever come to Kosrae, the Pacific Treelodge Resort<\/a> is THE place to stay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kosrae is known as the Island of the Sleeping Lady because of the silhouette of its mountains. If you’ve seen the Disney movie Moana<\/a>, this might sound familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kosrae is the least visited of Micronesia’s main islands. There’s one paved road that runs from the airport halfway around the east side of the island. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The rest of the island is beautifully untouched and unspoiled. The beaches are lined with palm trees. The estuaries through the mangrove forests are perfect for kayaking. The mountains are covered with impenetrable jungles. The water is clean both in the sea and in the forest streams. Yesterday, I saw four adult Green turtles while snorkeling on the reef. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are no seasons here. The daytime temperature is 30\u00b0C (86\u00b0F). At night it drops down to 27\u00b0C (80\u00b0F). It rains every day for a couple of hours. The photo of me holding a taro leaf illustrates why I never travel with an umbrella. You can always find an umbrella when you need one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There’s one more remarkable thing about Kosrae: There is no COVID-19 here.<\/strong> Micronesia started enforcing severe travel restrictions in February. I was one of the few tourists allowed entry because I’d spent the previous month in east Africa, where there had not been any confirmed cases of the coronavirus at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Micronesia’s strict travel bans are understandable. Pacific Islanders have low resistance to outside diseases, such as measles or smallpox. The influenza of 1918 killed ~20% of the population. As of today, 185 countries and territories<\/a> have confirmed cases of COVID-19. Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Kiribati are thankfully not on that list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I went to church last Sunday. The only social distancing was that the men sit on the right side of the church, separated from the women on the left. As the service ended, I looked across the aisle and snapped a photo. See any face masks? Nope. On International Women’s Day, there was a celebration at the community center. No masks here either. It’s nice to know that life goes on as normal in some parts of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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