Dear Friends and Family,

Awaking early that final morning in Jeju-do, we were keenly aware that our time had almost slipped by. However, some time remained and we hit the road early, first to unsuccessfully seek a coffee shop and then on our way to fulfill my birthday wish to hike Jeju’s famous Seongsan Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak).

Of course it was Simon Winchester, whom I keep quoting ad nauseam, that piqued my interest regarding a unique society of women divers off the east shores of Jeju Island known as the Haenyeo. In addition to interviewing the divers in the late 20^th century, Winchester included a description by diplomat William Franklins Sands from the beginning of the 20^th century who wrote that,

Man, in this lost corner of the world, was an inferior being; the woman was everything. She was the real house-bond. She owned all the property; her children bore her family name, and she never took a permanent husband. Men were allowed to come over form the mainland once a year, but they were not encouraged to stay long, and when they returned took with them all the boys who had reached thirteen years…

It was more like a matriarchy, a real Amazon community, for the women were always ready to assert their power and uphold it by force.

The women were fine swimmers and divers. Young and old would swim out through the breakers, leave a basket buoyed by gourds floating on the surface and dive fathoms down for abalone shell or a bunch of edible seaweed. They would cut it out with a short sickle (the same weapon they used on the men when annoyed), attach an empty gourd to it, drop the stone with which they had weighted the gourd and let it float to the surface to be picked up when they were ready to come up themselves. They could swim and float about for hours, dive as simply as a duck, and work or move about from place to place under water as easily and as long as so many sea fowl. While resting on the surfaced they would keep up a monotonous whistling in different keys to warn chance men in the fishing boats to keep their distance.

Fascinating, yes?? But it is said that as modern society advances, the allure of a life spent diving pales in comparison to an easier dwelling in big Korean cities and that the Haenyeo divers are fast dwindling. Reportedly the remaining Haenyeo dive more for tourist money than seaweed and yet, I badly wanted a glimpse of these remarkable women. Lonely Planet suggested a two-for-one at Sunrise Peak: a good hike + a view of the divers. I was determined and my friends were happy to oblige.

In full view of the village of Seongsan, rising from the sea is not so much a peak as a humungous rock with vertical sides that resulted from of a long-ago hydromagmatic eruption. Leaving the car behind, we climbed to its top via perfectly maintained steep stone steps and viewed the center, a sunken crater filled with browned grasses (the volcanic rock is too porous to contain water) with the sea glinting beyond. The view was splendid and well-worth the trip but there were no Haenyeo bobbing up and down in the distance. As we descended, I couldn’t resist a longing look towards the ferry that carries tourists to their home on the island of Udo, but conscious of time I was contented with the walk, the congenial company, and the gorgeous day.

Time to our flight was short but we did not, as we should have, resist the urge to make one final stop. Originally hoping for the world’s largest lava tube, instead we had a rollicking good time fulfilling a childhood dream: working our way through a full-sized evergreen garden maze. We giggled at our bad maze-solving theories and wrong turns and in the end, it was Emily’s navigation that won us each a ring of the bell on a platform of the maze before speeding, speeding off to our flight to Seoul.

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Now, a month later, with each Jejuvian tangerine I find myself thinking, “this is the best tangerine I’ve ever had” – even when that tangerine is my 2^nd or 4^th or 27^h. I daresay that the products of and the Island of Jeju itself has that effect on people. For my part, I could always enjoy another tangerine, I badly want to climb the majestic Mt. Halla, see the Haenyeo, be drawn to the other Jeju love destinations, visit the Hamel Museum, visit the Tangerine Museum, and oh, there was this nice temple that we passed on the way to the airport… not to mention that it would be notable to visit the world’s largest lava tube and I could always enjoy a splash in the “pada” and… well, let's just say that I find myself eager to return to Jeju-do. Someday.

Laura