On this 6th day in November, 2017, I was chatting over WhatsApp with my niece Retta Sue about her hiking adventures and my travels.  I really admire her courage and positive take on life.  She asked me if I blog, and I said that I did a long time ago but when I got busy with work, I stopped.  She said since I'm a world traveler that I should blog because I can make money giving tips and how-to's for travel. I thought about it and since I'm going on a big trip with my friends, I decided to locate my blog and revive it not for money but just to share my experiences and for others to enjoy and live vicariously through me.

Retta Sue and I in Saipan at our family reunion in July, 2017.

Pohnpei - June 4-6

A few months ago, I flew to Pohnpei (PNI) for the Micronesia Challenge Focal Points meeting. I was exhausted by the time I got to PNI because I had to wake up at 2:30 a.m. to check-in for the 4:00 a.m. flight to Guam and then there was a 4 hour layover in Guam, a stopover in Chuuk, then I finally got to my final destination at 1:00 p.m… whew!

I’ve been to Pohnpei once before over the holidays in 2003. Peter and I were on the island hopper, diving throughout Micronesia. It seemed alot busier since I was there last, more cars and more buildings. The “Wall Mart” I saw in 2003 is still here.

A view of Sokehs Rock from my hotel balcony.

On the first night, we were invited to Willy Kostka’s home, Willy is a well-known conservation leader in Micronesia. He is the Executive Director for Micronesia Conservation Trust, where the Micronesia Challenge endowment is will be housed.

At Willy’s home, they made a lot of food and it was so delicious. Almost all the starches had coconut milk from pounded breadfruit to red taro, white taro, tapioca, bananas and more. They roasted a pig and carved it. We also had fried fish, fried chicken, ribs, green salad and a variety of fruit and desserts.

The highlight of the social event was the sakau ceremony. Sakau is made from a pepper plant, piper mediastinum which contains a form of alkaloid that gives you the buzz. Strips of hibiscus bark was used to squeeze out the juice. They would squeeze it into a coconut shell cup and passed around in a circle. After my first 2 sips, my tongue started getting numb, so I was told to drink water to wash it down. After my fourth sip, I was told that I needed to close my eyes when I drink the sakau because of the spirit’s presence in the drink. This was my first experience with fresh sakau in Pohnpei and it was good

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The village Chief was there with his wife and his son was the processor of the sakau. It was extremely quiet during the drinking process. We were all seated in a circle and the men who had been drinking 30 minutes before I did, started to appear different, they all had different facial expressions, some had their eyes closed. At first I thought, this was freaky, but then I got comfortable after a couple of sips. A good friend whom I will not mention had a completely different facial appearance during the drinking event. He appeared angry as if a spirit had taken over his body. I was actually afraid to make eye contact with my own friend. The next day when I saw him, he was back his to normal self.

I did work while I was there, it wasn't all fun, we had meetings everyday for a full 8 hours and then I was appointed by the Micronesia Challenge Chairperson to do the presentation on behalf of the Steering Committee.

The next day the group went to the Village because Trina was raving about how great the bloody marys were. She was right. I think I had 5 of them. It was so good because they grated fresh horseradish root into the drink. They are the best I’ve had so far in all the places I’ve been too, but I still think mine is the best.

We had a social on the last day of the meeting. It was fun to network after a week-long meeting. The food at the last party was great, but everyone got really sick the next day. I guess we must have eaten something that had been sitting out for too long. I had food poisoning for at least four days, and it was a very unpleasant experience.

A nice view from the Village right before we went to the airport.

Traveling to Palau

I was in Palau recently at the request of the Governor to attend the 9th Micronesian Chief Executives Summit. It was a last minute trip that wasn't included in my work travel plans. As always, Palau is a great place to be even for just 4 days. In my short time there, I managed to squeeze in a couple of dives, get my work done and party with some VIPs.

L-R President Tommy Remengesau Jr., Minister Tony Debrum, Governor Fitial, Governor Sebastian Anefal from Yap

L-R Governor of Kosrae, Governor's Representative from Pohnpei, Governor Felix Camacho, Guam, President of FSM Emmanuel Mori and President Remengesau.

On my second day, I went out for my dives with Sam's Tours. The first dive was at Siaes Tunnel which was a deep dive down to 120 feet, then I ended up at Siaes Corner. The dive guide said I made him tired because we did 2 dives sites in one dive.

During the surface interval, we went to Ulong Island to eat our lunch. While we were there the Park Rangers came by to check if we all had our dive permits. I was yanked out from my snorkeling to show my permit. I didn't take a picture of the rangers, but apparently they knew who I was because they asked if I was a Castro. It's such a great feeling when people from other islands know who you are.

We then proceeded to dive #2, the Teshio Maru wreck. The wreck was an awesome macro dive, but I didn't like how I was being rushed everywhere. So I ended up just swimming around by myself to look for cool stuff... this is what I found:

Later on that evening, I partied with some folks from MVA, Judy Torres and PTI's Velma and her husband Paul Camacho, John and Tom Valderama who were there to promote regional communications to the Chief Executives. They were so excited to see President Remengesau, they asked me to get the President to take a picture with them. I asked President Remengesau for a snapshot and he asked his friend Emmanuel Mori, the President of FSM to be in the picture too.

The next day we had the Chief Executives meeting at the Cultural Center. We sat there all day listening to presentations from the various committees on Regional Energy to Recycling to Tourism and Health, and I participated in the presentation of the Micronesia Challenge update.

Later on that evening, we had a reception followed by the signing of the Communique' and some socializing.

The Chief Executives

Governor of Guam, Felix Camacho.

My classmate since kindergarten Judy Chong-Torres, she's the Deputy Managing Director for the Marianas Visitors Authority.

After the reception, I went back to my hotel, packed my clothes and got on the 2:30 a.m. flight to Guam and then onto Saipan. I was exhausted but was so happy to be heading home.

My Guam Trip

I was invited to attend the 10th Micronesians in Island Conservation (MIC) retreat in Guam last week. It was great to meet and network with conservation leaders from all over Micronesia.

I stayed at the Marriott and right in front of it is the Tumon Bay Reserve. I started my first two days at 6:30 a.m. having a field day in the Reserve. I was tasked by my boyfriend Peter to find the acropora staghorn corals to see how well they are doing.

I found the staghorn beds and they were doing very well.

I went back the second day because someone told me that if I swam towards the Hilton, I might see big fish. I saw two big fish, a big snapper and a skipjack chasing each other. I saw some baby parrots, baby red snappers, lots of convict tangs and goatfish.

On my third day in Guam, we went on a field trip to Cocos Island in Guam. It was my first time on Cocos. The was no shortage of birds on that island, they were everywhere.

I jumped into the water for a snorkel, but there was nothing but algae and triggerfishes..not worth the post.

We found MINA's pet gecko crawling all over the Saipan Blogger.

I also found time to go to Underwater World thanks to Elaina Todd, Guam's NOAA Coral Reef Fellow who gave Angelo, Kathleen and I free passes. We saw alot of cool creatures. Here are some nurse sharks and a guitar fish:

Elaina gave us a tour of the back room.

And I also found time to party a little bit, eat Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream, shopped till I dropped and watched Nim's Island, all in 4 days.

Old Family Pictures

Just posting some old family pictures. I have 4 siblings, 3 sisters and 1 brother. I need to find some old pictures of my brother and youngest sister to post later.

In this picture is my Mom, me in the red dress, my Dad, Uncle Bert from Guam and my oldest sister Jovie. Jovie is the owner of Kagman Mobil in Saipan.

In this picture are my sisters Vicky (she is the Governor's CIP Administrator) and Jovie, me and our Japanese neighbor who is a tenant in one of our houses. She invited us over for some rice cracker and soda pops. I was 5.

My parents Frank and Julie Castro are both retired from the CNMI Government in the mid 80s. My dad was the Chief of Immigration and my Mom worked at Finance handling federal grants for DEQ. Our EPA-CNMI Program Manager Pat Young and her husband Carl Goldstein who started DEQ both worked with my Mom then, and now I'm working with Pat and Carl.

This is my Dad, Frank C. Castro outside his office at the Immigration.

My mom Julie A. Castro outside her office at the Finance and Accounting. My mom was born in Yap and is one-quarter Yapese which makes me one-eighth, I guess. I have yet to visit Yap and I have some family there too.