Micronesia: Scenic island-hopping and a lesson in letting go

Pohnpei

A short flight west took us to Pohnpei, a lush, mountainous island and one of four states making up the Federated States of Micronesia.

Pohnpei's capital, Kolonia, has souvenir shops, remnants of a historic Spanish wall and a helpful tourism office. Don't leave without a colorful floral skirt, an island fashion staple.

An hour's drive took us to Pohnpei's crown jewel: the ancient city of Nan Madol. Picture 13th-century ruins rivaling the splendor and lore of Cambodia's Angkor Wat or Peru's Machu Picchu, minus the crowds. As with most of this trip, we were the only tourists.

Kepirohi Waterfall is a gorgeous cascading pyramid near Nan Madol. A hard-to-spot sign on Circle Island road marks a turn-off where you pay a $3 entrance fee.

The waterfront Mangrove Bay Hotel has scenic views and a restaurant serving exclusively sushi and chicken wings. The onsite Pohnpei Surf Club can arrange water excursions and guided tours of Nan Madol.

To reach some of the 100-plus man-made islets, you can pay local families a few dollars per person to cross their land. But we opted to navigate Nan Madol's shallow channels by kayak. After winding through dense mangroves for about 30 minutes, the dark, twisty jungle opened out into the vast, clear-blue ocean. Massive shadows darted around our wobbling vessel－stingrays from a nearby sanctuary.

At this point, I noticed the kayak inching lower into the sea. But we were by then an hour from the marine institute that runs the small boat rental business. We had no choice but to carry on.

On shore we found walls of stacked basalt columns, an engineering feat still shrouded in mystery. We traipsed through megalithic ruins by foot for a few hours before starting our doomed return to civilization. The hull of our punctured kayak was slowly flooding.

My panic grew exponentially after nearly capsizing a few times. My husband paddled gently as I clutched the phone, drone and fancy camera we purchased a few days earlier.

The water was calm and we are both fine swimmers. But I was upset: This was not the plan.

With the dock in sight, the boat's sway became unmanageable. In the blink of an eye, we were underwater.