My friend Emmy’s aunt worked in the Marshall Islands for a couple years. When she told her aunt that I was planning a visit, her aunt responded, “Why? There’s absolutely nothing for tourists there.” My dad responded in a similar fashion. “Didn’t the US test nuclear weapons there?”
First of all, yes, the US did indeed test nuclear weapons there. 67 tests over about a decade and a half, in the Bikini Atoll and Enewetak Atoll. Radiation levels remain high in some areas of the islands and it has had other environmental ripple effects across the country. And Emmy’s aunt is right, there aren’t many tourist sites in the Marshall Islands, but that has never stopped me before.
The journey from Micronesia to the Marshall Islands was a series of three flights on the United Island Hopper. It felt like a long day – each flight individually was not really long enough to settle in or nap, but then we would land, the lights would turn on, customers would get on and off, they would make us get our bags out of the overhead bin to check them, and we would have the whole safety video spiel again. We had one other stop in Micronesia, Pohnpei, where at least they let us get off, stretch our legs, and get snacks if we wanted. Our first stop in the Marshall Islands was a military base. We weren’t allowed to take pictures or get off the plane at that one. Finally, we made it Majuro!
While we were in the Marshall Islands, Wander rented out a private island! We had two big villas, one for the men and one for the women, where we all slept, but most of the time we spent by the beach or in on the docks. We cooked our own food as well. This meant that we got to do one of my favorite things to do in any country, which was go to the local grocery store.
One of the things that most surprised me about this region was the lack of fresh produce. When I think about tropical destinations, I typically imagine pineapples and mangoes and all of those classical fruits, and so I expected some of that while we were here. But apparently, the Marshall Islands (and broadly across the whole region) have very salty soil, and so produce doesn’t grow well here. All of it has to be imported. The produce section of the grocery store was inordinately expensive for pretty bad quality. It’s a big problem across the region – they have higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and other related health issues because of the difficulty of getting healthy food on these islands.
We didn’t spend the whole time on our private island, though. We also headed out to Arno Atoll for a beach day. It’s an atoll one over from where the capital, Majuro, is located.
It was gorgeous – it had some of the bluest water I’ve ever seen as we pulled up, and the beach itself was deserted. We didn’t see any other tourists, and only a couple locals. The only sad part is that there was quite a bit of trash nearby, just steps from where the sand began.
One of the cool things about being so far away from major population centers was how clear the stars were each night. As long as it wasn’t cloudy, we could see a large part of the Milky Way each night. One of the guys in the group, Matt, had recently gotten interested in astronomy, and he was excited to share his knowledge (and amazing photos) with the rest of us.
One of the days we were in the Marshall Islands, we threw a party on our dock, and danced and sang late into the night. It was so much fun!
I can see why Emmy’s aunt asked about what I would be doing here – there did not seem to be much tourist infrastructure or areas that would be particularly interesting for a visitor. And given how remote it is, it’s understandable that most people wouldn’t think the tradeoffs are worth it to get here. It’s not really a place I would say that you should go out of your way to visit, given that there are plenty of nice beaches that aren’t quite so remote in this region. Still, I always find it interesting to go to the places that most people don’t. The people were friendly and the beaches were great, and it was a very enjoyable part of this trip.
I had a lovely time in the Marshall Islands. When I think back on it, I think about eating grilled cheese and singing on the dock and drinking beer in the ocean. It was a nice, relaxing few days, and then we were back on a plane and headed to our next destination: Nauru!