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Description
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The little known Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is an archipelago of 14 tiny islands in the mid-Pacific region of Micronesia. Nestled just north of Guam and south of Japan, the entire Mariana archipelago spans 420 miles (675 kilometers). This story is about Sarigan, a volcanic island in the CNMI only 1.9 square miles (5 square kilometers) in size.
You could hike across Sarigan in a day if you didn't mind scrambling over boulders, hacking your way through dense vegetation with a machete, hunching down through thick hibiscus vines, trying to keep your balance walking over moss-covered coconuts, climbing precariously steep slopes, and getting really sweaty. Although Sarigan's northern and western slopes are blanketed with tall coconut trees, its plateau and ravines support pockets of native forest. Only grasses and ferns cover its precipitously steep eastern and southern slopes.
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The Chamorros, Carolinians, Germans, and Japanese who inhabited Sarigan in the early 20th century planted coconuts by the thousands and brought goats and pigs to the... |
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