Olympic Day

June 23 was International Olympic Day, and it was with much excitement that we learned that Yap was going to mark the occasion with a 1.2 mile fun run/walk around the Blue Lagoon.

The actual event wasn’t set to take place until June 26, but three days late isn’t too bad when you’re on island time. Both of us enjoy running and racing, albeit not very competitively, and the lack of a running scene here in Yap has been one of the more difficult things for us to adjust to. We do occasionally see people – mostly expats – out for a run, but most of the time it’s too dang hot to do anything but lay around panting.

The race itself turned out to be more of a walk. Most people find it a challenge to sprint in flip-flops, and running with a basketful of betelnut is likewise difficult.

We jogged around the Blue Lagoon once and then caught up with the tail end of the group on our second trip around. A good time was had by all, and we hope to do it again next year.

On Sunday we headed out onto the water with some scuba divers for a day of snorkeling.

It was a lovely blue-sky and blue-water day. This time of year is low-tourist season, but the Pacific, especially inside the reef, is as smooth as glass. In addition to perfect sunsets,

this makes for wonderful snorkeling in crystal-clear tropical waters.

We had run into some problems with condensation on our underwater camera during our first snorkel trip, but it worked much better this time around. The reef and the fish here are spectacularly diverse.

We’re looking forward to spending more time in the water as time goes on. Thanks for reading, and have a great week.