Day 5 of the International Coral Reef Symposium, and I missed it! I was not disappointed, however. We need to leave today if we are to make the once weekly flight to the Ulithi Atoll.

As you might imagine, getting to one of the least visited countries in the world is no easy feat. During this adventure, I became well acquainted with the interiors of increasingly smaller planes. For an idea of what getting to the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) looked like; this was our flight schedule:

Day  1:      Monterey, CA, USA    →    Los Angeles, CA, USA
Day  1:      Los Angeles, CA, USA    →    Honolulu, HI, USA
Day 6:      Honolulu, HI, USA    →    Guam
Day 7:      Guam    →    Yap, FSM
Day 9:      Yap, FSM    →    Falalop, Ulithi Atoll, FSM

WOW! 3 days after leaving the United States, we finally arrive at our research site.