Hey everyone,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! It's been about a month long celebration here in Pohnpei for Christmas. It has been insane the past week. There has been tons of traffic in town and there are all kinds of crazy parties going on all over the place. The past few weeks have been filled with Christmas parties for school and parties with some of my students families. It has been really awesome. Christmas is over now and everyone is getting geared up for New Years.
I've been doing a lot of thinking recently and I've decided that I am probably one of the luckiest people I know. It seems that everything that could go right always goes right for me. I've met some of the most amazing people here in Pohnpei, I've done some of the coolest things most people will never be able to do, and I feel incredibly lucky to be here.
I have a lot of people to thank for helping me get to where I am today. First of all...Mom, Dad, Ben, and Emily... thank you so much for being so supportive of me while I have been here. It has made it much easier during the more difficult times. Your packages are awesome and talking to you here and there is awesome!
Grandma and Grandpa Flyntz and Grandma and Grandpa Rabe... You have given me so much inspiration to keep doing the things that I am doing. I think about you all the time and I thank you for all of your support and advice over the past 23 years.
The Vandenbergs and the Sanfilippos...You guys are amazing. You have been my second and third families since......well I can't really remember when. Thank you all so much and I can't wait to spend some time with you in July when I return!
All my buddies from UD... I miss all of you guys and I can't wait to see all of you.
Tomorrow morning I will be getting ready to leave on a ship (Caroline Voyager) to go and visit two of the outer atolls Mokil and Pingelap. I will be sleeping on the deck of this ship for 5-7 days? No one is really sure when we are getting back. So...sometime after New Years?! I am going with a few Peace Corps volunteers and a few World Teach volunteers. It should be an amazing time.
Mokil has a population of less that 100 people. It should be pretty rugged.
Pingelap is a little bigger but I think around 500 maybe?
Basically Ill be staying on two of the most remote islands on our planet. I should be incredible. I will make sure to take lots of pictures and post them on here when or if I return...hahaha.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Years.
Tyler
Friday, December 25, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Birthday Weekend on Black Coral
Hey everyone,
I've been getting some requests for some more pictures and some stories from everyone back at home. The requests came at the perfect time because I have some awesome pictures to put up here.
This past weekend a group of us traveled out to Black Coral which is a very small island on the barrier reef surrounding Pohnpei. It is one of a few protected reefs around the island. It is protected because it is a grouper spawning area. I spent almost all of my time in the water enjoying the pristine snorkeling which you will see from all of the underwater pictures. I saw the most fish that I have ever seen while snorkeling. Just to name a few... I saw schools of barracuda, trevalley, sharks, parrot fish.... It was the most amazing snorkeling I've ever seen. The channel was about 20 feet deep and had a sandy bottom that made it great for snorkeling. The visibility was almost perfect. Here are a few pictures from the channel.
The channel at Black Coral was really awesome but the ocean was even better. If you swam out of the channel into the ocean you got to see bigger fish and a lot more than in the channel. Once you swim out into the ocean you can see the drop off into the abyss. The depth of the water goes from about 85 feet to over 1000 feet. These drop offs are the best place to see big fish.
On the way to the drop off I saw white tipped and black tipped reef sharks. Here are a few pictures of the sharks. These were all between 4-6 feet long.
There is also a picture of me underwater.
Once I reached the drop off I saw some of the gray reef sharks. There were about 5 of them swarming around in circles at about 100 feet. If you look in the background of the last picture you can see the bigger gray reef sharks. Some of the sharks were around 6-7 feet long!!
This last picture was taken at around 50 feet. I've been practicing free diving for the past few months and I have been able to reach between 80-85 feet. This last picture is the only reference that I can give you to showing the depth that I can dive now. I was able to touch the coral that is in the following picture. I guessed that the depth was around 80 feet?! It is pretty awesome being down that deep. However, it is also pretty scary. It seems like an eternity emerging from the depths. It seems as if the surface is never getting any closer. Pretty crazy. The current world record for a free dive is 122m which is 400 feet!! I have no ambition of reaching that crazy depth but the free diving is making spear fishing much easier. If you can get down to the deeper water..you can get the bigger fish.
I hope everyone enjoys the pictures! I also wanted to thank everyone for the birthday wishes and packages. Talk to you soon and have a great Thanksgiving.
Tyler
I've been getting some requests for some more pictures and some stories from everyone back at home. The requests came at the perfect time because I have some awesome pictures to put up here.
This past weekend a group of us traveled out to Black Coral which is a very small island on the barrier reef surrounding Pohnpei. It is one of a few protected reefs around the island. It is protected because it is a grouper spawning area. I spent almost all of my time in the water enjoying the pristine snorkeling which you will see from all of the underwater pictures. I saw the most fish that I have ever seen while snorkeling. Just to name a few... I saw schools of barracuda, trevalley, sharks, parrot fish.... It was the most amazing snorkeling I've ever seen. The channel was about 20 feet deep and had a sandy bottom that made it great for snorkeling. The visibility was almost perfect. Here are a few pictures from the channel.
The channel at Black Coral was really awesome but the ocean was even better. If you swam out of the channel into the ocean you got to see bigger fish and a lot more than in the channel. Once you swim out into the ocean you can see the drop off into the abyss. The depth of the water goes from about 85 feet to over 1000 feet. These drop offs are the best place to see big fish.
On the way to the drop off I saw white tipped and black tipped reef sharks. Here are a few pictures of the sharks. These were all between 4-6 feet long.
There is also a picture of me underwater.
Once I reached the drop off I saw some of the gray reef sharks. There were about 5 of them swarming around in circles at about 100 feet. If you look in the background of the last picture you can see the bigger gray reef sharks. Some of the sharks were around 6-7 feet long!!
This last picture was taken at around 50 feet. I've been practicing free diving for the past few months and I have been able to reach between 80-85 feet. This last picture is the only reference that I can give you to showing the depth that I can dive now. I was able to touch the coral that is in the following picture. I guessed that the depth was around 80 feet?! It is pretty awesome being down that deep. However, it is also pretty scary. It seems like an eternity emerging from the depths. It seems as if the surface is never getting any closer. Pretty crazy. The current world record for a free dive is 122m which is 400 feet!! I have no ambition of reaching that crazy depth but the free diving is making spear fishing much easier. If you can get down to the deeper water..you can get the bigger fish.
I hope everyone enjoys the pictures! I also wanted to thank everyone for the birthday wishes and packages. Talk to you soon and have a great Thanksgiving.
Tyler
Monday, November 2, 2009
Hey everyone,
The internet is pretty sketchy right now so I'm just going to post the pictures that I was able to upload. I will hopefully a more extensive blog soon when I get some internet that actually works.
But...here are some pictures of my latest deep sea fishing trip.
The first picture is a picture of Bird Island. Bird Island is a part of Ant atoll but it is at the farthest point from Pohnpei. The island has no rats so all of the sea birds nest there.
Here is a series of pictures of the fishing that was done at Bird Island. We were casting a big lure towards the breaking waves and we were able to catch 2 GT's (Giant Trevalia) and 1 Red Snapper. This is one series of pictures when we caught on of the GT's.
Allois catching the second GT.
Me gaffing the GT.
GT with knife in head.
Me with the GT.
Ok so catching the GT's was really awesome but the real excitement happened a few hours later when we were trolling for Blue Marlin. We trolled around Ant atoll for about 2-3 hours and did not get any bites and then a huge Blue Marlin bit on the line. Once the fish was hooked it took off running and never stopped. The fish ran and took 500 yards of fishing line. While it was running the reel started to smoke. White smoke from the drag mechanism was pouring out of the reel. We were frantically trying to pour water on the reel to cool it off and somehow slow this giant fish down. Unfortunately..the fish was way too big. It kept running and took all of the like off of the reel, destroyed the reel, and took all of the line with it. This was definitely the biggest fish that I have ever lost. It was the craziest thing that I have ever seen. The boat captain estimated that the fish was upwards of 500 pounds..maybe more. Then about 10 minutes later after untangling all of the lines and recovering from all of the mayhem we dropped the lines in the water. About 5 seconds after they dropped in the water another marlin was playing with the bait. I was watching it about 5 feet behind the boat. Unfortunately it never actually bit the lure.
Here is a picture of the mayhem when the first marlin was on the line. It doesn't really capture the craziness but.. its the best I could do.
Thats its for now. Talk to you soon.
Tyler
The internet is pretty sketchy right now so I'm just going to post the pictures that I was able to upload. I will hopefully a more extensive blog soon when I get some internet that actually works.
But...here are some pictures of my latest deep sea fishing trip.
The first picture is a picture of Bird Island. Bird Island is a part of Ant atoll but it is at the farthest point from Pohnpei. The island has no rats so all of the sea birds nest there.
Here is a series of pictures of the fishing that was done at Bird Island. We were casting a big lure towards the breaking waves and we were able to catch 2 GT's (Giant Trevalia) and 1 Red Snapper. This is one series of pictures when we caught on of the GT's.
Allois catching the second GT.
Me gaffing the GT.
GT with knife in head.
Me with the GT.
Ok so catching the GT's was really awesome but the real excitement happened a few hours later when we were trolling for Blue Marlin. We trolled around Ant atoll for about 2-3 hours and did not get any bites and then a huge Blue Marlin bit on the line. Once the fish was hooked it took off running and never stopped. The fish ran and took 500 yards of fishing line. While it was running the reel started to smoke. White smoke from the drag mechanism was pouring out of the reel. We were frantically trying to pour water on the reel to cool it off and somehow slow this giant fish down. Unfortunately..the fish was way too big. It kept running and took all of the like off of the reel, destroyed the reel, and took all of the line with it. This was definitely the biggest fish that I have ever lost. It was the craziest thing that I have ever seen. The boat captain estimated that the fish was upwards of 500 pounds..maybe more. Then about 10 minutes later after untangling all of the lines and recovering from all of the mayhem we dropped the lines in the water. About 5 seconds after they dropped in the water another marlin was playing with the bait. I was watching it about 5 feet behind the boat. Unfortunately it never actually bit the lure.
Here is a picture of the mayhem when the first marlin was on the line. It doesn't really capture the craziness but.. its the best I could do.
Thats its for now. Talk to you soon.
Tyler
Friday, October 9, 2009
3 Month Update
Hello everyone,
I am quickly approaching the three month mark in Pohnpei. I am pretty settled into my house now and everything is getting much easier. School is going very well and my students are progressing nicely. We just finished our midterms for this semester. The high school that I am working at has a schedule similar to college classes. We have 4 classes a day, each 1.5 hours each. I will be getting a new set of students next year for algebra. It is very crazy trying to teach them all one year of Algebra II in 4 months. But...it is going well so far. It is pretty tiring teaching for 6 hours each day. Next semester I should only have 3 classes which will be a huge break for me.
I have some more pictures from the past 2 weeks. I was able to take another trip out to Ant Atoll this past weekend. I was able to do some more spear fishing, some lobster hunting, and coconut crab hunting. I am pretty confident that if I was every stranded on a deserted island that I might actually be able to survive with all of these new skills that I've acquired.
The past two weeks we had a guest on the island from Kuwait. Matt is a soldier in the army and has been stationed in Kuwait for a while now. He took a vacation to Pohnpei because one of his military friends was from Pohnpei. So the past two weeks we have been doing a lot of cool stuff with Matt's friend's family here. His family brought us out to Ant and took a few of us out to go shark fishing last week.
Here is a picture of Matt and I going out spear fishing at Ant. This picture give you an idea of how tan I am. I am going to have the best tan when I return in June 10.
We had a very successful spear fishing trip. We swam out from the island a really long way into some of the deeper water and we ran into this huge mound of coral. There were some bigger fish and some sharks swimming around. It was between 30 and 40 feet deep at the coral so it was quite a workout getting to the bottom to shoot some of the fish. I had to equalize 3 to 4 times on the way down. I'm getting much better at holding my breath and going much deeper to get to the bigger fish. We shot an angel fish, parrot fish, UD fish (they are blue and gold), and a strange looking fish with really tough skin (looked like a zebra but black and blue). Here is a picture of me coming up from the bottom with a speared fish.
While I was out spear fishing on Sunday morning a tornado touched down in the lagoon and made a water spout. I did not see it because I was swimming around but here is a picture of the water spout. I will have a better picture sometime soon.
On Saturday night Reiner, the Pohnpeian who took us to Ant, took us lobster fishing on the reef. It was a full moon on Saturday night and that is the best time to get lobster. We went out hunting for them around 10 pm (low tide) and came back around 12. To catch these lobsters you have to take a flash light and find them on the shallow reef and then you have to stab them with a spear before the next wave comes and they swim away. We were successful in catching 4 lobsters which we ate for breakfast Sunday morning.
Another Pohnpeian who came with us (Barney) went hunting for coconut crabs in the jungle. He came back with 3 huge coconut crabs that we ended up eating for lunch on Sunday afternoon. To catch one of these crabs is pretty difficult but it is well worth the struggle. You have to walk around the jungle at night and then find one of their burrows. Then you have to smoke them out with a burning stick. Once they come out of their hole then you have to grab them. This is probably the toughest part because you are risking your fingers. The crabs are gigantic and I think that they could probably take a finger off if you happened to get bitten by one of the big ones. I can say that coconut crab is the best tasting crab that I have ever had. It was way better than king crab legs. I will probably only have these a few times in my life and it is the best treat ever. The shells of the crabs are super tough. I don't think that crackers from home would be able to break their shells. We had to find some coral hammers and smash their shells between pieces of coral. It was a lot of work to get to the meat but it was well worth it. If you ever have a chance to eat one...don't pass it up. Here is a picture of Sunday morning breakfast...lobster, reef fish (grouper, Parrot fish, bullock, bullock ...top to bottom), and a picture of a coconut crab. This crab is not one that we caught but it does represent what we had. I forgot to take a picture of the crab.
The trip to Ant was awesome and the boat ride home was amazing as well. It was pouring the whole way home and we were flying through mangrove swamps dodging logs and plants. I wish I had a video of the trip through the mangrove because it was insane. The boat drivers clearly knew the way but they made it seem like we were just barreling through these mangroves with no clear direction at all. It was awesome.
This past Tuesday I went up to one of the local waterfalls with some friends and did some swimming and cliff jumping. Here is another picture of the waterfall in Nett that I posted about on a previous blog. You can see me on the left side of the photo climbing up the rocks.
Here is a picture of a white tipped reef shark that was swimming around me while I was spear fishing. These are the most docile sharks in the area. When I was at ant a larger black tipped reef shark was swimming around me but I did not get a picture of it. Hopefully I will get a picture of some of the bigger sharks sometime.
This weekend I might be hiking up Sokehs rock. Here is a sunset picture with Sokehs rock in the background.
I have skype working now and if you want to call me just search for me on skype.
my skype name is tyler.rabe
I will probably be online friday and saturday nights (at home) if you want to talk.
Also, some people have expressed interest in sending letters and packages here. So if you want to send a letter or something my address is below.
Tyler Rabe
World Teach
PO Box 2378
Kolonia, Pohnpei 96941
Federated States of Micronesia
Talk to you soon.
Tyler
I am quickly approaching the three month mark in Pohnpei. I am pretty settled into my house now and everything is getting much easier. School is going very well and my students are progressing nicely. We just finished our midterms for this semester. The high school that I am working at has a schedule similar to college classes. We have 4 classes a day, each 1.5 hours each. I will be getting a new set of students next year for algebra. It is very crazy trying to teach them all one year of Algebra II in 4 months. But...it is going well so far. It is pretty tiring teaching for 6 hours each day. Next semester I should only have 3 classes which will be a huge break for me.
I have some more pictures from the past 2 weeks. I was able to take another trip out to Ant Atoll this past weekend. I was able to do some more spear fishing, some lobster hunting, and coconut crab hunting. I am pretty confident that if I was every stranded on a deserted island that I might actually be able to survive with all of these new skills that I've acquired.
The past two weeks we had a guest on the island from Kuwait. Matt is a soldier in the army and has been stationed in Kuwait for a while now. He took a vacation to Pohnpei because one of his military friends was from Pohnpei. So the past two weeks we have been doing a lot of cool stuff with Matt's friend's family here. His family brought us out to Ant and took a few of us out to go shark fishing last week.
Here is a picture of Matt and I going out spear fishing at Ant. This picture give you an idea of how tan I am. I am going to have the best tan when I return in June 10.
We had a very successful spear fishing trip. We swam out from the island a really long way into some of the deeper water and we ran into this huge mound of coral. There were some bigger fish and some sharks swimming around. It was between 30 and 40 feet deep at the coral so it was quite a workout getting to the bottom to shoot some of the fish. I had to equalize 3 to 4 times on the way down. I'm getting much better at holding my breath and going much deeper to get to the bigger fish. We shot an angel fish, parrot fish, UD fish (they are blue and gold), and a strange looking fish with really tough skin (looked like a zebra but black and blue). Here is a picture of me coming up from the bottom with a speared fish.
While I was out spear fishing on Sunday morning a tornado touched down in the lagoon and made a water spout. I did not see it because I was swimming around but here is a picture of the water spout. I will have a better picture sometime soon.
On Saturday night Reiner, the Pohnpeian who took us to Ant, took us lobster fishing on the reef. It was a full moon on Saturday night and that is the best time to get lobster. We went out hunting for them around 10 pm (low tide) and came back around 12. To catch these lobsters you have to take a flash light and find them on the shallow reef and then you have to stab them with a spear before the next wave comes and they swim away. We were successful in catching 4 lobsters which we ate for breakfast Sunday morning.
Another Pohnpeian who came with us (Barney) went hunting for coconut crabs in the jungle. He came back with 3 huge coconut crabs that we ended up eating for lunch on Sunday afternoon. To catch one of these crabs is pretty difficult but it is well worth the struggle. You have to walk around the jungle at night and then find one of their burrows. Then you have to smoke them out with a burning stick. Once they come out of their hole then you have to grab them. This is probably the toughest part because you are risking your fingers. The crabs are gigantic and I think that they could probably take a finger off if you happened to get bitten by one of the big ones. I can say that coconut crab is the best tasting crab that I have ever had. It was way better than king crab legs. I will probably only have these a few times in my life and it is the best treat ever. The shells of the crabs are super tough. I don't think that crackers from home would be able to break their shells. We had to find some coral hammers and smash their shells between pieces of coral. It was a lot of work to get to the meat but it was well worth it. If you ever have a chance to eat one...don't pass it up. Here is a picture of Sunday morning breakfast...lobster, reef fish (grouper, Parrot fish, bullock, bullock ...top to bottom), and a picture of a coconut crab. This crab is not one that we caught but it does represent what we had. I forgot to take a picture of the crab.
The trip to Ant was awesome and the boat ride home was amazing as well. It was pouring the whole way home and we were flying through mangrove swamps dodging logs and plants. I wish I had a video of the trip through the mangrove because it was insane. The boat drivers clearly knew the way but they made it seem like we were just barreling through these mangroves with no clear direction at all. It was awesome.
This past Tuesday I went up to one of the local waterfalls with some friends and did some swimming and cliff jumping. Here is another picture of the waterfall in Nett that I posted about on a previous blog. You can see me on the left side of the photo climbing up the rocks.
Here is a picture of a white tipped reef shark that was swimming around me while I was spear fishing. These are the most docile sharks in the area. When I was at ant a larger black tipped reef shark was swimming around me but I did not get a picture of it. Hopefully I will get a picture of some of the bigger sharks sometime.
This weekend I might be hiking up Sokehs rock. Here is a sunset picture with Sokehs rock in the background.
I have skype working now and if you want to call me just search for me on skype.
my skype name is tyler.rabe
I will probably be online friday and saturday nights (at home) if you want to talk.
Also, some people have expressed interest in sending letters and packages here. So if you want to send a letter or something my address is below.
Tyler Rabe
World Teach
PO Box 2378
Kolonia, Pohnpei 96941
Federated States of Micronesia
Talk to you soon.
Tyler
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tsunami
Hey everyone,
Just a quick post... The tsunami from the American Samoas did not have any real effect at all here on Pohnpei. Maybe a higher tide but nothing to talk about. I'm still alive and well.
Tyler
Just a quick post... The tsunami from the American Samoas did not have any real effect at all here on Pohnpei. Maybe a higher tide but nothing to talk about. I'm still alive and well.
Tyler
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Surfung?!
Hey everyone,
This weekend was pretty relaxing but on Saturday I went out to Palikir pass to try to do some surfing. Here is a link to a ton of pictures of surfing around Pohnpei. http://www.pohnpeisurfclub.com/surfing.htm The pictures in the gallery are pretty much what I saw yesterday.
There are no beaches here on Pohnpei. In order to surf you need to take a boat out to the reef that surrounds the island. There are many passes through the reef that produce some giant waves that a lot of pro surfers come here to ride. The really huge waves only occur 5-10 times a year. However, I think that the waves are pretty big every day. From what I have seen so far..the waves are bigger than me standing up and at times they were around 8 feet tall. Some surfers from Hawaii and Kwajalein came with us to Palikir Pass and I got to watch them surf some of these giant waves.
I paddled out to the break and realized that there was no way that I was even going to attempt to surf these waves because I am definitely a beginner. But, it was really awesome getting to paddle around in the huge waves. I decided that it would be a better idea to go spear fishing and snorkeling than get pounded on the reef.
I was successful in shooting a decent sized parrot fish this weekend at the pass. I also saw about 4 white tipped reef sharks that were around 5 feet long. They were pretty awesome. After I speared the fish the sharks made it to the area that I was swimming around in in about 5 minutes. Thankfully I threw the fish in the boat before I went back for more.
After I returned to dock one of the local fisherman told me the secret to spear fishing. He said that the best time to shoot at the fish is when it is looking directly into the spear or directly away from you. This seemed counter intuitive to me at first but then he explained some more.
The fish are so quick here that the second that the spear is released from the gun the fish move. So if you shoot at them when they are facing you...they will turn broadside once the spear leaves the gun and then it will have a better chance of hitting the fish. Hopefully this will help me out next time.
I don't have enough credit yo post pics on here right now so I have to wait until I get paid on the 1st. Talk to you all soon.
Tyler
This weekend was pretty relaxing but on Saturday I went out to Palikir pass to try to do some surfing. Here is a link to a ton of pictures of surfing around Pohnpei. http://www.pohnpeisurfclub.com/surfing.htm The pictures in the gallery are pretty much what I saw yesterday.
There are no beaches here on Pohnpei. In order to surf you need to take a boat out to the reef that surrounds the island. There are many passes through the reef that produce some giant waves that a lot of pro surfers come here to ride. The really huge waves only occur 5-10 times a year. However, I think that the waves are pretty big every day. From what I have seen so far..the waves are bigger than me standing up and at times they were around 8 feet tall. Some surfers from Hawaii and Kwajalein came with us to Palikir Pass and I got to watch them surf some of these giant waves.
I paddled out to the break and realized that there was no way that I was even going to attempt to surf these waves because I am definitely a beginner. But, it was really awesome getting to paddle around in the huge waves. I decided that it would be a better idea to go spear fishing and snorkeling than get pounded on the reef.
I was successful in shooting a decent sized parrot fish this weekend at the pass. I also saw about 4 white tipped reef sharks that were around 5 feet long. They were pretty awesome. After I speared the fish the sharks made it to the area that I was swimming around in in about 5 minutes. Thankfully I threw the fish in the boat before I went back for more.
After I returned to dock one of the local fisherman told me the secret to spear fishing. He said that the best time to shoot at the fish is when it is looking directly into the spear or directly away from you. This seemed counter intuitive to me at first but then he explained some more.
The fish are so quick here that the second that the spear is released from the gun the fish move. So if you shoot at them when they are facing you...they will turn broadside once the spear leaves the gun and then it will have a better chance of hitting the fish. Hopefully this will help me out next time.
I don't have enough credit yo post pics on here right now so I have to wait until I get paid on the 1st. Talk to you all soon.
Tyler
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Home/ Spear Fishing
Hey guys,
Nothing tooexciting for this week... I had my first free weekend since ive been here. There were no big plans. It was nice getting a weekend to relax. This week I will be teaching y=mx+b and some other graphing stuff to my students. Should be a pretty easy week. As of now there are no big plans for next weekend but I may try to do some hiking. If not I may just do some fishing.
Here are a few pics of my house, my room, and me spear fishing. The picture of the house is relatively recent and the pic of me spear fishing is from my trip to Ant atoll last weekend.
Tyler
Nothing tooexciting for this week... I had my first free weekend since ive been here. There were no big plans. It was nice getting a weekend to relax. This week I will be teaching y=mx+b and some other graphing stuff to my students. Should be a pretty easy week. As of now there are no big plans for next weekend but I may try to do some hiking. If not I may just do some fishing.
Here are a few pics of my house, my room, and me spear fishing. The picture of the house is relatively recent and the pic of me spear fishing is from my trip to Ant atoll last weekend.
Tyler
Monday, September 14, 2009
"Tropical Paradise"
Hey everyone,
Sorry that it has been such a long time since I last posted on here. It has been a really crazy few weeks with school/ holidays/ weekend trips. Today I will update you on my most recent adventure to Ant atoll.
This past weekend I took a weekend trip to Ant atoll with one other volunteer and 8 menwai (white people in Pohnpeian). Some of them are lawyers here working for the government, some of them have been living here for 10 years, and some of them work with the US embassy. We traveled out to the atoll in a sketchy boat on Friday afternoon. the boat was too small for 10 people and it was too small to take us 10 miles away from Pohnpei. But...we made it!! After we arrived we set up camp on one of the islands islands comprising the atoll. Here is a picture of one of the view from our campsite.
After setting up camp some of the group went out snorkeling to check out the reef around the island. The reef was pretty awesome and it had a ton of fish. Two weeks ago I purchased a spear gun from one of the local carvers and I got to test it out for the second time this past weekend. The first time I went spear fishing I was unsuccessful. You have to hold your breath for 2 minutes to get the fish to come close to you. I guess I will give everyone a quick crash course on spear fishing. First...get your spear gun loaded up and ready to fire. Second..dive down to a piece of coral and hold onto it. Third...Hold your breath as long as you can. Fourth...pull the trigger to shoot the fish that hopefully swim directly in front of you. Fifth..retrieve the spear with the fish on it before you surface for air. Sixth...Bite the fish just behind the eye to crush its skull. (This preserves the meat for longer...if you dont bite the skull the meat spoils faster.)
I had my first successful spear fishing trip this weekend. Here's a picture of my catch. They were pretty small but they were very tasty.
Friday night was spent drinking rum and coconut (really awesome combo) and cooking my fish over the open fire. It was a really awesome start to the trip.
I spent Friday night sleeping on the beach. I thought that this would be a great idea. Some of the other spent the night in their tents..but that was lame. Me, Ira, and Amy spent the night on the beach. Fortunately it never rained so I was dry all night. However, I did not sleep well. Neither did Ira. We woke up all night and decided that it would be better if we just gout up off the beach around 5 am to stoke the fire and get ready for breakfast. We watched the sun rise and then realized why we had not slept all night. We were both covered in bug bites. Tons of them. I had hundreds. Ira had thousands. (This is not an exaggeration at all) So..we realized that we were being bitten by sand fleas all night. So I was itchy all weekend...and I still am now (Tuesday).
Even with the sand flea bites all over me I still was enjoying my stay at Ant. I spent the day hiking around the island and snorkeling. I will be getting a ton of pictures of the snorkeling but they were taken on Amy's underwater camera. I have to get the pics from here and I will show you what the water here looks like.
I swam with some sharks, sting rays, eagle rays, reef fish, and turtles on Saturday. I also tried some more spear fishing but I came up empty handed and out of breath. The next picture is a view of the water during the day.
On Saturday night we hung out next to the camp fire and enjoyed the sunset. The sunsets were amazing. Here are two pictures of the sunset Saturday night.
After the sunset we proceeded to build the biggest bonfire that I have ever built. We threw every piece of dry drift wood near our campfire, every palm fronds, and basically anything that would burn into the fire. We had flames that were about 20 feet tall. It was awesome. Fortunately there is so much rain here that it is virtually impossible to light the jungle on fire. Everything is wet all the time so fires are no worry.
I slept a little better Saturday night because I slept closer to the fire. This kept the sand fleas away. Ira and I woke up around 530 again and decided to go for an early morning snorkeling trip. The sharks usually feed at dawn and dusk so the best time to see them on the reef is early morning and late evening. I was the first one to jump into the water with my snorkeling gear on Right when my face went under water I had this strange feeling in my lips...like small needles stabbing me. Ira did not have the same problem so I figured that it was nothing. I ignored it and kept swimming out to the coral. Then I realized that something was in the water that I could not see. I still have no idea what it was but it was really painful. I had stings all over my body and a really nasty sting on my right arm. Here is a picture of what my arm looked like after the stings.
After the stinging subsided I tried to climb a coconut tree to get some coconuts for drinking with dinner. I was successful in getting 15 coconuts. But I also almost fell out of one of the trees. I did not fall out of the tree but I did get pretty scraped up on the way down. I have a few nasty infected scrapes now. No need to show you a picture of those.
The rest of Sunday was spent traveling back to Pohnpei on the small sketchy boat and tending to my wounds that I acquired over the weekend. I currently am tending to the hundreds of sand flea bites, my jellyfish stings, and my wound from slipping down a coconut tree.
Some people have said that I am really lucky to be able to go to these remote deserted islands, which I am, but going to these places is not as amazing as it sounds sometimes. The scenery is unbeatable, but the crazy critters, biting flies, jellyfish, and strange skin infections make it a little less appealing. Don't get me wrong...I had an awesome time this weekend. But... I think that some people see a very romanticized view of "tropical paradise". However, In my opinion, the trip was worth all of the sand flea bites, jellyfish stings, and skin infections.
I hope everyone is enjoying the end of summer/ beginning of fall. I look forward to hearing from all of you soon. Take care.
Tyler
Sorry that it has been such a long time since I last posted on here. It has been a really crazy few weeks with school/ holidays/ weekend trips. Today I will update you on my most recent adventure to Ant atoll.
This past weekend I took a weekend trip to Ant atoll with one other volunteer and 8 menwai (white people in Pohnpeian). Some of them are lawyers here working for the government, some of them have been living here for 10 years, and some of them work with the US embassy. We traveled out to the atoll in a sketchy boat on Friday afternoon. the boat was too small for 10 people and it was too small to take us 10 miles away from Pohnpei. But...we made it!! After we arrived we set up camp on one of the islands islands comprising the atoll. Here is a picture of one of the view from our campsite.
After setting up camp some of the group went out snorkeling to check out the reef around the island. The reef was pretty awesome and it had a ton of fish. Two weeks ago I purchased a spear gun from one of the local carvers and I got to test it out for the second time this past weekend. The first time I went spear fishing I was unsuccessful. You have to hold your breath for 2 minutes to get the fish to come close to you. I guess I will give everyone a quick crash course on spear fishing. First...get your spear gun loaded up and ready to fire. Second..dive down to a piece of coral and hold onto it. Third...Hold your breath as long as you can. Fourth...pull the trigger to shoot the fish that hopefully swim directly in front of you. Fifth..retrieve the spear with the fish on it before you surface for air. Sixth...Bite the fish just behind the eye to crush its skull. (This preserves the meat for longer...if you dont bite the skull the meat spoils faster.)
I had my first successful spear fishing trip this weekend. Here's a picture of my catch. They were pretty small but they were very tasty.
Friday night was spent drinking rum and coconut (really awesome combo) and cooking my fish over the open fire. It was a really awesome start to the trip.
I spent Friday night sleeping on the beach. I thought that this would be a great idea. Some of the other spent the night in their tents..but that was lame. Me, Ira, and Amy spent the night on the beach. Fortunately it never rained so I was dry all night. However, I did not sleep well. Neither did Ira. We woke up all night and decided that it would be better if we just gout up off the beach around 5 am to stoke the fire and get ready for breakfast. We watched the sun rise and then realized why we had not slept all night. We were both covered in bug bites. Tons of them. I had hundreds. Ira had thousands. (This is not an exaggeration at all) So..we realized that we were being bitten by sand fleas all night. So I was itchy all weekend...and I still am now (Tuesday).
Even with the sand flea bites all over me I still was enjoying my stay at Ant. I spent the day hiking around the island and snorkeling. I will be getting a ton of pictures of the snorkeling but they were taken on Amy's underwater camera. I have to get the pics from here and I will show you what the water here looks like.
I swam with some sharks, sting rays, eagle rays, reef fish, and turtles on Saturday. I also tried some more spear fishing but I came up empty handed and out of breath. The next picture is a view of the water during the day.
On Saturday night we hung out next to the camp fire and enjoyed the sunset. The sunsets were amazing. Here are two pictures of the sunset Saturday night.
After the sunset we proceeded to build the biggest bonfire that I have ever built. We threw every piece of dry drift wood near our campfire, every palm fronds, and basically anything that would burn into the fire. We had flames that were about 20 feet tall. It was awesome. Fortunately there is so much rain here that it is virtually impossible to light the jungle on fire. Everything is wet all the time so fires are no worry.
I slept a little better Saturday night because I slept closer to the fire. This kept the sand fleas away. Ira and I woke up around 530 again and decided to go for an early morning snorkeling trip. The sharks usually feed at dawn and dusk so the best time to see them on the reef is early morning and late evening. I was the first one to jump into the water with my snorkeling gear on Right when my face went under water I had this strange feeling in my lips...like small needles stabbing me. Ira did not have the same problem so I figured that it was nothing. I ignored it and kept swimming out to the coral. Then I realized that something was in the water that I could not see. I still have no idea what it was but it was really painful. I had stings all over my body and a really nasty sting on my right arm. Here is a picture of what my arm looked like after the stings.
After the stinging subsided I tried to climb a coconut tree to get some coconuts for drinking with dinner. I was successful in getting 15 coconuts. But I also almost fell out of one of the trees. I did not fall out of the tree but I did get pretty scraped up on the way down. I have a few nasty infected scrapes now. No need to show you a picture of those.
The rest of Sunday was spent traveling back to Pohnpei on the small sketchy boat and tending to my wounds that I acquired over the weekend. I currently am tending to the hundreds of sand flea bites, my jellyfish stings, and my wound from slipping down a coconut tree.
Some people have said that I am really lucky to be able to go to these remote deserted islands, which I am, but going to these places is not as amazing as it sounds sometimes. The scenery is unbeatable, but the crazy critters, biting flies, jellyfish, and strange skin infections make it a little less appealing. Don't get me wrong...I had an awesome time this weekend. But... I think that some people see a very romanticized view of "tropical paradise". However, In my opinion, the trip was worth all of the sand flea bites, jellyfish stings, and skin infections.
I hope everyone is enjoying the end of summer/ beginning of fall. I look forward to hearing from all of you soon. Take care.
Tyler
Saturday, August 29, 2009
6 Waterfalls
Hey everyone,
This weekend has been another exciting weekend. I went on a hike with about 15 other people from the island. It was a hike to 6 different waterfalls on the interior of the island. Our guide was a ripped 48 year old and he was chain smoking the entire hike. He also never broke a sweat when I was sweating more than I have ever sweat before. He was also one of the best hikers I've ever seen. The hike was over wet and slippery rocks and down wet and steep hills. He never missed a step and was incredibly fast. I fell down like 5 or 6 times in the mud and I was completely soaked by the end of the hike. The hike was probably the best hike that I have ever done. It was not the hardest hike that I've done but it was the best. Here is a picture of our guide.
The waterfalls were amazing but my internet connection is painfully slow. So I will show you a picture of the best/last waterfall that we went to. The last waterfall I was not able to bring my camera because it was not accessible by land. We had to swim up a narrow channel through a swift moving river. When you got to the other side there was a beautiful waterfall that was pouring out of a cave in the rock wall. It was amazing. Here is a picture of me in front of the waterfall.
This week my local made spear gun will be completed. Me, Ciran, Johnathan, and Pete will be going out to Joy Island and spending the night there next Saturday. We are only bringing water, rice, spear guns, machetes, and a pot to cook food. Hopefully we can spear some fish or else it will be a boring meal for dinner. The island has many coconut trees so I would imagine that I will be trying to climb one to get some coconut milk for us. I will update the blog with some more pictures when the internet connection improves. I hope everyone is having a great
end of summer and getting ready for fall. Unfortunately...I will still be in summer..for the next year. hahaha. I will enjoy the endless summer here on Pohnpei. However, I will miss the skiing this winter. But, there will be plenty of time next year to school all of the family members on the slope.
Love,
Tyler
This weekend has been another exciting weekend. I went on a hike with about 15 other people from the island. It was a hike to 6 different waterfalls on the interior of the island. Our guide was a ripped 48 year old and he was chain smoking the entire hike. He also never broke a sweat when I was sweating more than I have ever sweat before. He was also one of the best hikers I've ever seen. The hike was over wet and slippery rocks and down wet and steep hills. He never missed a step and was incredibly fast. I fell down like 5 or 6 times in the mud and I was completely soaked by the end of the hike. The hike was probably the best hike that I have ever done. It was not the hardest hike that I've done but it was the best. Here is a picture of our guide.
The waterfalls were amazing but my internet connection is painfully slow. So I will show you a picture of the best/last waterfall that we went to. The last waterfall I was not able to bring my camera because it was not accessible by land. We had to swim up a narrow channel through a swift moving river. When you got to the other side there was a beautiful waterfall that was pouring out of a cave in the rock wall. It was amazing. Here is a picture of me in front of the waterfall.
This week my local made spear gun will be completed. Me, Ciran, Johnathan, and Pete will be going out to Joy Island and spending the night there next Saturday. We are only bringing water, rice, spear guns, machetes, and a pot to cook food. Hopefully we can spear some fish or else it will be a boring meal for dinner. The island has many coconut trees so I would imagine that I will be trying to climb one to get some coconut milk for us. I will update the blog with some more pictures when the internet connection improves. I hope everyone is having a great
end of summer and getting ready for fall. Unfortunately...I will still be in summer..for the next year. hahaha. I will enjoy the endless summer here on Pohnpei. However, I will miss the skiing this winter. But, there will be plenty of time next year to school all of the family members on the slope.
Love,
Tyler
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Hey everyone,
The past two weeks here have been very action packed and full of surprises. I started teaching last week. So far I have given a diagnostic test to my students and realized that they are at a much lower level than I initially imagined. Negative numbers and fraction are a serious problem. Most of their former teachers did not stress these at all and encouraged the students to use calculators. Unfortunately some students are having trouble with addition and subtraction. Today in class I told them not that they can't use calculators all year and they could not believe it. Pretty crazy. But, everything is going well. I'm doing my best to plan to teach them through the beginning of Algebra II. So...I have a long way to go.
Last weekend was one of the most awesome weekends I've had here. I hiked up to a waterfall in Nett. It was about a 1.5 hour hike and it was well worth it. It was unreal. When we arrived we hiked down to the bottom of the falls.
It was beautiful. After the whole group of us swam in the lower part of the waterfall we climbed up to the top where there was a large pool with a cliff.
If you know me at all.. you probably know what I did.
The waterfall hike was on Saturday. On Sunday I was able to go to Nahlap Island to supervise a childrens surf camp sponsored by Pohnpei Surf Club. Nahlap Island is one of the small outer islands. In order to get a free trip to this island I had to swim around the kids when they were surfing. It was a pretty sweet deal. I did not realize that they get some pretty large waves beyond the reef at Nahlap. When I was swimming around I found myself dodging waves that were bigger than anything that I've ever seen back in New Jersey.
I was also able to do some snorkeling on part of the outer reef. It was probably the best snorkeling I've ever done. Even better than the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. I was able to swim around with a reef shark that was about 4 feet long. It was really awesome being in the water with a shark. Don't worry Mom..the reef sharks are very docile.
I spent the rest of the afternoon at Nahlap taking a nap in a hammock and hanging out with the rest of the volunteers.
This weekend I will be taking a trip out to another outer island called Black Coral. I will be spending Saturday night there. I should have some really nice pictures to put up for next week.
That's it for now.
Tyler
The past two weeks here have been very action packed and full of surprises. I started teaching last week. So far I have given a diagnostic test to my students and realized that they are at a much lower level than I initially imagined. Negative numbers and fraction are a serious problem. Most of their former teachers did not stress these at all and encouraged the students to use calculators. Unfortunately some students are having trouble with addition and subtraction. Today in class I told them not that they can't use calculators all year and they could not believe it. Pretty crazy. But, everything is going well. I'm doing my best to plan to teach them through the beginning of Algebra II. So...I have a long way to go.
Last weekend was one of the most awesome weekends I've had here. I hiked up to a waterfall in Nett. It was about a 1.5 hour hike and it was well worth it. It was unreal. When we arrived we hiked down to the bottom of the falls.
It was beautiful. After the whole group of us swam in the lower part of the waterfall we climbed up to the top where there was a large pool with a cliff.
If you know me at all.. you probably know what I did.
The waterfall hike was on Saturday. On Sunday I was able to go to Nahlap Island to supervise a childrens surf camp sponsored by Pohnpei Surf Club. Nahlap Island is one of the small outer islands. In order to get a free trip to this island I had to swim around the kids when they were surfing. It was a pretty sweet deal. I did not realize that they get some pretty large waves beyond the reef at Nahlap. When I was swimming around I found myself dodging waves that were bigger than anything that I've ever seen back in New Jersey.
I was also able to do some snorkeling on part of the outer reef. It was probably the best snorkeling I've ever done. Even better than the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. I was able to swim around with a reef shark that was about 4 feet long. It was really awesome being in the water with a shark. Don't worry Mom..the reef sharks are very docile.
I spent the rest of the afternoon at Nahlap taking a nap in a hammock and hanging out with the rest of the volunteers.
This weekend I will be taking a trip out to another outer island called Black Coral. I will be spending Saturday night there. I should have some really nice pictures to put up for next week.
That's it for now.
Tyler
Monday, August 3, 2009
A Sweet Picture
Hey everyone,
Last night I had the opportunity of going to the nicest hotel on the island. We just finished orientation so our field director brought us out for dinner. The picture speaks for itself. Enjoy.
Tyler
Last night I had the opportunity of going to the nicest hotel on the island. We just finished orientation so our field director brought us out for dinner. The picture speaks for itself. Enjoy.
Tyler
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Week 2/3
Hey everyone,
So Ive been here for over two weeks now and Ive just completed my orientation. I begin teaching next week. I’m pretty nervous but excited at the same time. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I get to move out of my host family’s house and into my own place. I’m going to be living in a smaller village just outside of Kolonia. The house is pretty big and ill be living with two other volunteers.
This past weekend I was able to do some hiking, exploring, and snorkeling all around the island. On Saturday we climbed up Sokehs Ridge which overlooks the airport and Kolonia. The picture below is me at the top. It was pouring the entire way up and that is why I am completely soaked. After hiking to the top of the ridge we were able to do some exploring in the jungle. We found some old Japanese bunkers and cannons from WWII. If you look below you can see the huge guns that are just sitting in the middle of the jungle. It was really cool getting to see these giant cannons and explore some of the bunkers where Japanese soldiers were hiding. In some of the bunkers you can see some Japanese writing on the walls.
On, Sunday I went to one of the outer islands of Pohnpei. My host family has a cousin who lives on one of the islands and he invited us to go visit. So we got to do some great snorkeling and hiking in the jungle. When I was snorkeling in the deeper water I ran into a manta ray. It was not a huge one but it was really cool getting to swim next to a manta ray. The area where I was swimming was a breeding ground/ feeding area for the manta rays so they tend to hang around there. The family who lives on the island has invited us to come back sometime this week. Hopefully ill be able to learn how to spear fish or something like that.
I guess that’s it for now. Ill have a more reliable internet connection in about a week so ill try to get some more pictures on here.
Tyler
So Ive been here for over two weeks now and Ive just completed my orientation. I begin teaching next week. I’m pretty nervous but excited at the same time. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I get to move out of my host family’s house and into my own place. I’m going to be living in a smaller village just outside of Kolonia. The house is pretty big and ill be living with two other volunteers.
This past weekend I was able to do some hiking, exploring, and snorkeling all around the island. On Saturday we climbed up Sokehs Ridge which overlooks the airport and Kolonia. The picture below is me at the top. It was pouring the entire way up and that is why I am completely soaked. After hiking to the top of the ridge we were able to do some exploring in the jungle. We found some old Japanese bunkers and cannons from WWII. If you look below you can see the huge guns that are just sitting in the middle of the jungle. It was really cool getting to see these giant cannons and explore some of the bunkers where Japanese soldiers were hiding. In some of the bunkers you can see some Japanese writing on the walls.
On, Sunday I went to one of the outer islands of Pohnpei. My host family has a cousin who lives on one of the islands and he invited us to go visit. So we got to do some great snorkeling and hiking in the jungle. When I was snorkeling in the deeper water I ran into a manta ray. It was not a huge one but it was really cool getting to swim next to a manta ray. The area where I was swimming was a breeding ground/ feeding area for the manta rays so they tend to hang around there. The family who lives on the island has invited us to come back sometime this week. Hopefully ill be able to learn how to spear fish or something like that.
I guess that’s it for now. Ill have a more reliable internet connection in about a week so ill try to get some more pictures on here.
Tyler
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Week 1
Hey everyone,
I've made it to Pohnpei safely and I'm having a great time so far. The first week has been great. Once we arrived we were all transported to our host family’s houses where we received our first Pohnpeian meal. The next few days after arrival we went right into our orientation program which consists of language classes and an introduction to the culture. So far the language classes have been very helpful but it has been pretty difficult. There are many sounds in their language that English speakers cannot make.
Pohnpei is by far the wettest place that I have ever been.
The view from the Rusty Anchor
A local bar called the Rusty Anchor has bands occasionally. A bad played last night and their name was “Wetter than
The next few pictures are from some of the places that I have been recently. Hope you all enjoy them. I will try to write some more soon when I get a chance.
The ocean ^
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