Scuba Diving

All right, first things first.  Where the heck is Yap?  Part of the Caroline Islands, it is a group of islands in the Pacific ocean, about 500 miles southwest of Guam.  Yap is one of the states that make up the Federated States of Micronesia (the others are Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae).  This country sees fewer than 3,000 tourists annually.  One reason for this may be that there are only 3 flights per week.  The other may be the extreme inconvenience and cost of getting there.  Luckily we were able to use a chunk of our frequent flier miles to reach this far-flung place.

 

We arrived at the tiny airport, which doesn’t have X-ray capabilities – luggage is searched by hand – and stood outside while waiting to pass through customs into the single room arrivals lounge.

We were greeted and lai’d by a topless local woman.  Traditional Yapese women do not wear shirts, but at the same time, consider it rude to expose the knees.

Yapese society is organized in very strict caste systems within each individual village.  The elders of the villages run things, and they seem to have more power than the state government.

Each village has a men’s house, located by the water, which women cannot enter, and a meeting house, used for gatherings and traditional dances.