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This page will require some nerdy explaining. One of the natural wonders of Uh municipality in Pohnpei is a grotto known as Pahn Takai (under the rock). Here are some photos of it.
From a distance in the mist
It was about a 30 minute hike from my house. You took the main path (now a paved road) from Saladak north toward Nan Uh and then turned left into the forest and followed a little stream until you reached this magnificent clearing. At the time of this writing, a panoramic video was available on YouTube. You'll need to crank the volume way down on the "music" track. The video mentions the custom of bringing an offering for the stone altar there, which I would suppose is a stalagmite that has grown up from the base of the thin waterfall.
The boys that first led me back to Pahn Takai helped me to pick the right kind of leaves to place on the altar, as required by tradition. There is probably a legend told about this place, but I never heard what the story is. Bats (called "wild bats" in the video) love the place because it is protected from the weather. There is a pronounced odor of ammonia. I also never heard whether anyone has harvested the guano.
You can see the little stream on the topographic map. Wherever the contour lines are densely close indicates a steep drop-off, as shown by the circle I drew on the map.
At some point I wanted to have a raised relief map of Pahn Takai, based on the contour lines of the topo map, so I made one, but when did I do that? At first, I assumed that I had made the model while I was still in Pohnpei, but now I am reconsidering this memory. Would I really have had the topographical map there in my cabin? The only copy I remember for certain was hanging on the wall in the Peace Corp office in Kolonia. So no: false memory.
Topographical map showing Pahn Takai
I must have built the pink model after I got back to the States, probably after I was married and living in Lawrence. This had to be the case because I had to buy the card stock that I cut into layers--three layers each for every contour thickness. I would also have had to photocopy the map and enlarged the copy in order to cut easily along the contour lines.
Try to imagine how much time this took.
The highest layer on the map section is 400 feet, and each contour line represents ten feet of height. That means I had to cut 40 x 3 or 120 layers for the tallest section. But, as the lowest photo in the right column shows, I built a base for the tallest section using thicker cardboard. I reached a stopping place, thank God, with the shoreline square. There is some cartographer DNA in me that apparently must have its way occasionally. I will keep these pink reminders of Pahn Takai to my dying day. Unlike the Tate books, they don't take up much storage space.
Raised Relief Map in 3 sections
Under the falls
View of the streambed from the coast line
Detail of layers in the pink model
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