Northern Mariana islands, in fact and legally related to the territory of the United States of America (like the entire Mariana Archipelago), are presented here as a separate direction. This was not done by chance: the very nature of the rest, and many of the nuances of staying here are completely different than on the rest of the American beach resorts... For a tourist, the Northern Mariana Islands is an untouched and very beautiful tropical nature, many historical sites associated with the battles for Pacific Ocean during World War II, fantastic coral reefs, sea fishing with a rich and varied catch, golf, surfing, diving, snorkeling and good conditions for a beach holiday.
How to get there
There is no direct flight from Russia to the islands. You can fly to Saipan with a connection in Shanghai (China Eastern), Tokyo (Japan Airlines and Northwest Airlines) or Seoul (Asiana Air). The duration of the flight (excluding connections) is about 16 hours.
In the case of a flight through Tokyo, tourists will need to apply for a transit visa.
Search for flights to Saipan (closest airport to the Northern Mariana Islands)
Visa for the Northern Mariana Islands
Until October 1, 2019 Russian citizens will not need a visa to enter the Mariana Islands for up to 45 days for tourism purposes. From the beginning of October, you will have to obtain a B1 / B2 visa, which allows multiple entries to the United States within 180 days.
Customs
Import and export of national and foreign currency is not limited. Any amount can be imported in cash, traveller's checks and payment cards. Only amounts over 10,000 USD are required to declare. When importing gold, a declaration is required. Personal items are not subject to duty, the import of perishable products (meat, vegetables, fruits, etc.), weapons and drugs into the country is prohibited. The export of corals and other local marine life is prohibited.
Prices on the page are for September 2018.
Useful phone numbers
All emergency services (ambulance, police, firefighters): 911
Roaming on the islands is not yet available to subscribers of Russian operators, but they can rent a cell phone there. Phone calls to Russia are best made through a phone card from public telephones in hotels, on the streets and in shops. Calls from hotel rooms are much more expensive.
Northern Mariana Islands Maps
Electricity
Mains voltage 110 V, 60 Hz. The standard of the sockets is American.
Weather in Northern Mariana Islands
Money
Travelers' checks of tourists in American dollars are accepted everywhere, except for the most remote islands. It is not necessary to exchange them: most hotels, restaurants and large shops accept them as cash. There are commercial banks in Saipan, Roth and Tinian. On other islands, tourists will have to carry enough cash to pay for goods and services, as small private shops do not accept travelers' checks. This also applies to renting boats and yachts, as well as paying for the services of guides and guides. Major credit cards (especially Mastercard and Visa) are also accepted for payment almost everywhere, but again - only on the large islands.
Tipping is optional and remains entirely at the discretion of the tourist. There is no generally accepted size of tips, according to tradition, in bars and restaurants, foreign tourists leave "tea" no more than 10% of the bill, and porters and maids in hotels are usually given 1 USD.
Shopping and shops
Prices in all stores are fixed, bargaining is not accepted.
Popular hotels in Northern Mariana Islands
Entertainment and attractions of the Northern Mariana Islands
Best snorkelling spots: Saipan - Managaha Island, Tiniana - Tachona Beach, Rota - Corell Gardens in Sasanaya Bay. All three main islands of the archipelago are good for hiking... The main route in Saipan is the Laderana-Tangka trail through the Marpi Commonwealth forest. Tinian has a beautiful route along the Kammer and Taga banks south of San Jose.
Other ways of recreation: windsurfing, which is popular here (the best place for it is Mikro Beach on Saipan), tennis, golf and short underwater excursions in the lagoon between Saipan and Managaha Island, where at the bottom of the sea, in addition to its many inhabitants, you can see traces of Japanese ship wrecks and American "B-29".
Northern Mariana Islands or Community of Northern Mariana Islands- small Island state in Micronesia, in the western Pacific Ocean on the Mariana Islands archipelago. It has the status of a non-aligned territory, freely associated with the United States. Territory - 477 km². The capital is Saipan on the island of the same name.
The Mariana Islands archipelago consists of 15 islands of volcanic origin, the largest of which are Saipan, Tinian and Rota. However, only 14 islands belong to the Northern Mariana Islands, and the fifteenth, Guam, the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands, is considered a separate territory belonging to the United States.
The Mariana Islands is an island arc located in a tectonically active region in the western Pacific Ocean. The archipelago is located 2500 km east of the Philippines and the same distance north of Papua New Guinea. The islands are stretched for about 800 km.
Geologically, the islands can be divided into two groups: the older southern (Rota, Tinian, Agihan, Farallon de Medinilla, Saipan) and the young northern (the rest of the islands of the archipelago). All islands of the northern group are stratovolcanoes. Most of the islands are surrounded by coral reefs. The reefs of the southern islands are older and better developed. In the area of the islands there are about 50 underwater volcanoes and 11 volcanoes form islands.
To the east of the islands is perhaps the most famous local geographic attraction - the Mariana Trench, with a depth of 11,775 meters.
Climate of the Northern Mariana Islands
Climate of the Northern Mariana Islands- tropical, trade wind.
The rainy season lasts from July to December, the average temperature at this time is +33 .. + 35 ° C. Tropical storms and typhoons hit the Pacific Ocean from August to November. The "dry" months on the islands are from December to June, due to the sea breeze, the average temperature at this time is +27 .. + 29 ° C. The average annual sea water temperature is + 25 ° C.
The best time to visit the Northern Mariana Islands - from December to March, and tourist season on the island of Saipan lasts all year.
Last changes: 10.05.2013Population
Population of the Northern Mariana Islands- 88.6 thousand people (2009). The average life expectancy is 74 years for men, 79 years for women.
Ethnic composition: Asians (Filipinos, Chinese, etc.) 56.3%, Oceanic peoples (including Chamorro) 36.3%, mixed origin 4.8%, white 1.8%, other 0.8%.
Most of the believers on the islands are Catholics (Roman Catholic Christianity). Part of the population refers to themselves as confessions of East Asian origin.
official languages: English, Chamorro, Caroline.
Last changes: 10.05.2013Currency
Currency: US Dollar (USD), 1 USD = 100 cents. In circulation there are bills in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 dollars, coins - penny (1 cent), nickel (5 cents), dime (10 cents), quarter (25 cents), half dollar (50 cents), as well as 2 and 1 dollar.
Japanese yen and Korean won are accepted almost everywhere.
Bank branches are open from Monday to Thursday, from 10.00 to 15.00, on Fridays - from 10.00 to 18.00. Some bank offices in the outer islands may operate on their own schedule.
Most hotels, restaurants, car rental agencies and diving centers in Saipan, Tinian and Rota accept credit cards. ATM machines can be found in branches of banks and large shopping centers... On remote islands, one may encounter problems when trying to pay for something with a plastic card, because often small private shops simply do not accept card payments.
Traveler's checks in US dollars are accepted for payment everywhere, and it is not at all necessary to visit a bank branch, since most hotels, restaurants and large stores cash them on the spot. If during the trip you are going to visit small islands, we recommend that you still stock up on the necessary amount of cash in advance.
VAT and Tax-Free
When paying for services at hotels, a hotel tax of 10% will be charged. There are no other commercial taxes, including VAT.
Last changes: 10.05.2013Communication and communications
Telephone code: 1 - 670
Internet domain: .mp
Ambulance, Police, Fire Department: 911
How to call
To call from Russia to the Northern Mariana Islands, you need to dial: 8 - dial tone - 10 - 1 - 670 - subscriber's number.
To call from the Northern Mariana Islands to Russia, you need to dial: 011 - 7 - area code - subscriber number.
Fixed connection
You can find pay phones everywhere. All of them work with telephone cards, which are sold at post offices, newspaper and tobacco kiosks. You can make local, long-distance and international calls from any pay phone. Some phones accept credit cards.
mobile connection
Cellular communication covers almost all the southern islands and part of the northern ones. Roaming with local networks (GSM 850/1900 standards) is available to subscribers of the largest Russian cellular companies through the networks of other operators in the region.
Internet
Internet cafes are few and far between, mostly concentrated in Saipan, but almost all large hotels and business centers have their own access points, including those equipped with Wi-Fi equipment.
Last changes: 10.05.2013Where to stay
Prices for hotel accommodation on the island of Saipan are quite high, especially during the holiday season for the Japanese (the Northern Mariana Islands are visited by up to 0.5 million tourists a year, mainly from Japan). There are few cheap hotels on the islands, there are no hostels.
Last changes: 10.05.2013Sea and beaches
On the islands of the Southern group ( Saipan, Tinian and Rota)- beaches with fine white sand. Northern group islands - beaches here with black volcanic sand.
Last changes: 10.05.2013History
The Mariana Islands were discovered by the Magellan expedition on March 6, 1521. The Chamorro natives, who lived at the stage of the primitive communal system, stole a boat from the Spaniards, and Magellan called these islands Las Islas de los Ladrones - that is, the Islands of Thieves or the Robber Islands.
Although these islands were declared possession of Spain in the 16th century, the Spaniards began to establish practically control over them only from 1668. There landed Spanish Jesuit monks, who renamed the islands to Mariana, "Las Islas Marianas" or "Las Marianas" in honor of Marianne of Austria, and began to convert the natives to Christianity. This provoked fierce resistance from the natives, and as a result, almost the entire male population of the islands was destroyed by Spanish soldiers accompanying the monks. Subsequently, the population of the Mariana Islands increased again due to the offspring of Aboriginal women from Spanish soldiers and monks.
The Spanish colonialists practically did not develop the islands, and at the end of the 19th century Germany became very interested in the Pacific territories. As a result, under an agreement dated February 12, 1899, Germany bought the Mariana Islands from Spain for an amount equivalent to $ 4.5 million (except for Guam, annexed by the United States - the largest and southernmost island Mariana Archipelago).
The Germans began to create plantations on the islands, but their dominion was short-lived - in the First World War, the Mariana Islands (like the neighboring Caroline and Marshalls, also bought by Germany from Spain in 1899) were occupied by Japan, which, according to the Treaty of Versailles, received them as a League mandate Nations.
The Japanese actively developed sugarcane plantations on the islands, as well as coconut palms, tobacco and citrus fruits, and pursued a deliberate policy of settling the islands by the Japanese and forcibly assimilated the aborigines (including the method of forced physical mixing of aboriginal women with Japanese settlers).
During World War II, American troops captured the Mariana and other Pacific Islands, after the war, Japanese settlers were deported to Japan, and the Caroline, Marshall and Mariana Islands were transferred to the custody of the United States in 1947 by the decision of the UN.
The Northern Mariana Islands Community was formed in 1976 as part of the division of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Unlike the Marshalls and Caroline Islands, Mariana decided to abandon state independence, preferring only internal self-government.
On November 4, 1986, the final agreement on the political union of the Northern Mariana Islands with the United States came into force.
In 2007-08, changes were made to the political alliance agreement between the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States, bringing the laws of the commonwealth closer to the requirements of the United States. Including on a gradual increase in the minimum wage to the levels established in the United States, on the election of a delegate to the House of Representatives in the US Congress and changes in immigration laws (the latest changes took effect on November 28, 2009).
Last changes: 10.05.2013Entertainment
Popular in the Northern Mariana Islands are - diving, snorkeling, trekking, windsurfing and golf.
Diving- the main dive site of Saipan "Grotto" (underwater access to the ocean through underwater grottoes) - is the most unique in the world for the beauty of underwater architecture. The water temperature in the coastal waters of the islands is comfortable all year round and does not change depending on the time of day. Perfect transparency allows you to see all the beauty of the underwater world.
Snorkeling- the best places for snorkelling: Saipan - Managaha Island, Tinian - Tachona Beach, Rota - Corell Gardens in Sasanaya Bay.
Trekking- All three main islands of the archipelago are good for hiking. The main route in Saipan is the Laderana-Tangka trail through the Marpi Commonwealth forest. Tinian has a beautiful route along the Kammer and Taga banks south of San Jose.
Windsurfing- The best place for surfing is Mikro Beach in Saipan.
Golf- Several golf clubs are open on Saipan: Kingfisher Golf Links, Coral Ocean Point, Lao Lao Bay Golf Resort("Lau Lay Bay Golf Club"), Marianas Country Club ("Marianas Country Golf Club").
The golf courses of the island are very different from each other technically, but they are similar in one thing - beautiful ocean views and gorgeous tropical nature... The clubs here require the same punctuality as most clubs elsewhere in the world. All clubs are required to dress appropriately for golf. Camis and flip flops are not welcome.
Citizens of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus need a visa to travel to the Northern Mariana Islands in 2020. Visa-free regime entry to the Northern Mariana Islands as well as Guam and Saipan was canceled on 3 October 2019.
The Mariana Trench and Everest are the names most people remember from their school geography course. The first is the deepest point on the planet, the second is the most high mountain... Height and depth are measured from ocean level. In absolute value, the deepest depression overtakes highest peak by a significant margin.
The Mariana Trench on the world map must be sought in the Pacific Ocean northeast of the Philippine archipelago (southeast of Japanese islands), it is a semicircular trench with a length of about 1,500 km, its convex part directed to the east. The deepest point of the trench is called the "Challenger Abyss" and has a depth of 10,994 meters.
The Mariana Trench is named after the adjacent Mariana Islands, which stretch along the western part of the trench. The island of Guam, the closest to the Challenger Abyss, is located 340 km northeast of it. Coordinates deepest point World Ocean: 11 ° 22'23.9 ″ N, 142 ° 35'30.1 ″ E.
The trench is located at the junction of two tectonic plates, and its relief is a relatively flat strip of the bottom no wider than 5 km between two steep slopes. In some places along its length, the bottom has a stepped structure and mountain ranges. The water pressure at the lowest point is approximately 108 MPa, which is 1,072 times higher than normal atmospheric pressure.
For the first time the depression was discovered by the English sailing-steam corvette "Challenger" during the world's first complex oceanographic expedition in 1875. The depth was then determined twice with the results of 8 367 m and 8 184 m, which made it possible to call this depression the deepest on the planet. In 1951, the British research vessel Challenger II conducted ocean research in these places.
The echo sounder recorded a depth of 10 899 m. This point was given the name of the ship. Over the next years, new measurements were carried out, the depth was corrected several times in both directions, the last value of 10,994 m was recorded in 2011.
The difficulty of measuring the depth of such scales with an echo sounder lies in the dependence of the speed of sound waves in water, on its properties (density, temperature, chemical composition, impurities). These properties are different depending on the depth. To obtain accurate values, it is necessary to take water samples from different depths, analyze them and take the data into account in subsequent measurements.
For the first time, the Trieste bathyscaphe with two researchers on board (US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Picard) sank to the bottom of the depression (10,915 m) in 1960. Then several times autonomous dives were made by unmanned vehicles, and the Japanese Kaiko probe in 1995 took the first soil samples from a depth of 10,911 m.
In 2012, famous director James Cameron dived to the bottom for the first time in history, staying there for a total of 6 hours. Subsequently, a 3D film about the history of this dive was released under the title "Challenge to the Abyss". It is worth mentioning that famous traveler Fedor Konyukhov in 2020 also announced his intention to dive to the bottom of this depression.
Fauna of the Mariana Trench
Sunlight cannot penetrate to a depth of over 1000 m, eternal darkness reigns there. Together with colossal pressure, this makes living conditions in the depths extremely difficult. Nevertheless, the Mariana Trench is inhabited. The bottom is covered with silt, which, as shown by the first samples taken, is saturated with shell organisms; here they also found huge armored amoebas (up to 10 cm in diameter).
In addition to the simplest barophilic bacteria, crayfish, gastropods, sea cucumbers, fish live here. Even during the first visual observations from the Trieste bathyscaphe, small fish resembling a flounder were seen. The specificity of the conditions makes the appearance of many local fish amazing: they have huge teeth, eyes rotating in different directions (or their absence), instead of fins there are sharp spines.
There are also unidentified worms up to 2 m long. There are no algae at such depths, and the food for the protozoa is the remains falling to the bottom (detritus). Recent studies have shown that the bodies of local small crustaceans contain many heavy metals, which are extremely toxic to ordinary living cells.
Overall fauna Mariana Trench poorly studied, many scientists believe that species long extinct on Earth can be found there.
For example, teeth of a giant shark - megalodon were recently found. It is believed that these monsters, weighing up to 100 tons, became extinct about 2 million years ago, while the age of the teeth found is from 11 to 24 thousand years.
Research was constantly accompanied by various mysterious stories: vague huge shadows resembling dragons appear on the monitors, a loud metallic grinding is heard, and once, according to the team of the German deep-sea vehicle "Highfish", on the monitor of the infrared camera they saw a creature gripping its teeth in a bathyscaphe, it had to be frightened off with an electric discharge.
Large islands there are 15, there are also several small rocks and reefs. The population is about 215,000 people. The nationality of the indigenous people is Chamorro, and their language is also called. It is believed that the Chamorro are descendants of the ancient settlers from the Philippines. Currently, there are practically no true representatives of this people, all who call themselves Chamorro are mestizos.
Determining the nationality of the Mariana Islands is not as easy as it might seem. Most south island, Guam, has an independent status, it is an unincorporated organized territory of the United States, that is, the island is not included in the United States, but its territory is considered American, and the islanders (more than 180,000 people) have US citizenship. The capital is the city of Hagatna, located on west bank.
The Northern Mariana Islands constitute a separate administrative entity - the Commonwealth, the state status is completely similar to Guam (freely associated with the United States). The main island is Saipan, the capital is called the same.
The first Europeans to discover these lands were members of Magellan's crew, who dropped anchor here in 1521. The meeting with the natives ended with the loss of the ship's boat. Frustrated Magellan gave the archipelago the name "Island of Thieves" (de los Ladrones, Ladronsky), which existed until the beginning of the twentieth century.
The islands were immediately declared the property of Spain. A few decades later, colonialists began to come here. As so often, the missionaries arrived first. They gave the territories modern name in honor of the Spanish Queen Marianne, since then the Mariana Islands on the map are called that way. Colonization did not go smoothly. As a result of armed clashes and prolonged repression indigenous population 200 years after visiting Magellan, it decreased 30 times.
In 1899, the Northern Mariana Islands were sold to Germany, and at the beginning of the First World War, the entire archipelago was occupied by Japan. In 1944, US troops landed on the island of Saipan, long bloody battles began with numerous casualties, only local residents killed about 40,000 people.
Americans equipped on the island of Tinian military base from which the bombers took off, dropping atomic bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the end of the war, the archipelago was under the control of the UN for some time, and in 1947 it was transferred to the custody of the United States.
US citizens do not need a visa to visit the Mariana Islands, and the presence of an American visa in their passport serves as a pass to these territories for citizens of other countries.
The monetary currency is the US dollar.
The Mariana Islands are separated by the Pacific Ocean and the Philippine Sea. This is a classic island arc of the Pacific Ring of Fire zone, formed by active subduction (sinking of the edge of a relatively thin oceanic crust under the base of a thick continental-type crust) of tectonic plates. To the south and east of the chain of islands lies the world's deepest Mariana Trench, up to 11,775 meters deep (according to other sources - 11,022 meters), which is just a visible expression of the plate collision zone. Geologically, the Marianas are part of a chain of submarine volcanoes known as the Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc, which consists of nearly fifty submarine volcanoes. active volcanoes and 11 old volcanic peaks, whose peaks form the islands of the group.
The northern group of islands (Farallon de Pajaros (Uracas), Asuncion, Pagan, Sarigan and others) is geologically young - most of these islands were formed during the last 5 million years and continue to grow today. The young cones of these islands are high and still active - volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of magnitude up to 7 on the Richter scale are not uncommon. The steep slopes of the volcanoes run down to the virtually reefless waters of the surrounding ocean, forming typical volcanic landscapes with numerous lava fields and tongues. Vegetation and animal world scarce, natural sources of water are also few (the exception is quite numerous fumaroles and mini-geysers, annually throwing thousands of tons of highly mineralized water into the ocean).
The southern chain of islands (Saipan, Tinian, Agrihan, Rota, etc.) are older volcanic formations, whose age reaches 42 million years. They are also based on the tops of underwater volcanoes that fell asleep many millions of years ago. This is where the most high point countries - Agrikhan volcano, or Agrigan (965 m). Over the next time, the underwater slopes of the once formidable volcanoes were actively "assimilated" by corals, the many-meter strata of which, raised by tectonic processes above sea level, formed the surface of the islands of the southern group. Today, almost all of the islands in the southern chain are massive massifs of coral limestone lying on a volcanic base. Numerous coastal terraces and high cliffs mark the ocean level at various stages of island formation, and the coast is mostly framed by young coral reefs that form the marginal lagoons.
The natural vegetation of the islands is not rich. The main plant is coconut palm... Copra and palm oil were the most important export commodities and the main source of income for many islanders. The coconut provides food and drinks (besides the coconut milk itself, even flowers are used, ropes are made from palm fiber, wood is used for building materials, branches are used for weaving baskets and mats, and charcoal is made from the husks of nuts and cake). No less important is the fire tree (Brachychiton acerifolius), imported from other islands of Oceania (however, recently its role is more decorative), as well as the Coleus, Caladium and Philodendron (Araceae). But various fruit species introduced by man grow here in great numbers.
The only endemic mammals on the islands are the fruit bats, although they have all but disappeared due to the popularity of their meat in the cuisine of the local Chamorro people. Sambar deer can also be found on Rota, and skinks and geckos are found almost everywhere. But the bird community is quite diverse - about 70 species of birds are found on the Mariana Islands, including the gray-necked fantail (Rhipidura dahli), honey sucker (Meliphaga), Australian tern (Sterna nereis) and the endangered swiftlet (Collocalia). And the waters around the islands are literally teeming with marine life.
In fact, few people know anything about the island of Guam in the distant sea-ocean ... Guam is the largest and southernmost island in the Marin Islands ridge! We do not know much about the Mariana Islands either ... About the myths and reality of this corner of the Earth - my story!
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Myth I ... Mariana Islands - a white spot on the world map
The "White Spot" is located 3 hours flight from Tokyo or Manila, 4 hours flight from Seoul. The Mariana Islands are located in Micronesia and conditionally separate the Pacific Ocean and the Philippine Sea. That is, the seventeen islands of the Mariana Archipelago are washed by the ocean waters on one side, and the seas on the other.
Myth II... The Mariana Islands are named after the Mariana Trench
Quite the opposite. The depression is named Mariana because it is located relatively close to the Mariana Islands. From Guam - the largest and southernmost island of the Mariana Ridge - to the depression is only 300 km.
Islands discovered during its travel around the world Magellan. This happened in 1521. Fernand called the islands Thieves, because. local residents they liked the things on the ship so much that they were not too lazy to steal them.
But already in 1568 the islands were renamed in honor of the Spanish queen Maria Anne of Austria (wife of King Philip IV).
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Myth III... Primitive tribes live on the Mariana Islands
The Marian tribes with a matriarchal lifestyle were described in their chronicles by Jesuit missionaries, who formed their first settlement in 1568. In 1565 the island of Guam became a colony of Spain. In the course of numerous wars and revelations, Japanese, Spanish and American threads have been woven into the history of Guam.
Today - Guam is the most important air hub in Micronesia, an island of two American military bases and an extremely popular resort, which is visited annually by more than 1 million tourists. The above-mentioned institutions are serviced by the indigenous population, including lawyers, hotel managers, and doctors. By the way, the Department of Marine Biology at the University of Guam trains some of the best specialists in this field of knowledge.
Myth IV... There are many dangerous animals in the Mariana Islands
A tree snake can be attributed to the dangerous creatures of God. It is dangerous for birds - because it feeds on eggs that it finds in nests. Snakes live in the jungle, are afraid of any noise and are never the first to attack. V tourist spots where there is noisy and enthusiastic exclamations, snakes are not found.
Myth V... The Mariana Islands are prone to frequent typhoons
There are two seasons in the tropics - the rainy season and the windy season. The first lasts 4 months - from June to September. Typhoons are possible at this time. But the last strong typhoon passed over Guam in 2000. By the way, in the entire history of meteorological observations in Guam, not a single person died during a typhoon.
In recent years, due to global warming, air masses are collected in a tropical storm not only at the equator, but also in the tropics themselves.
For example, in September 2009, near the Mariana Islands, several tropical storms formed, "swirled" into typhoons: one went to Samoa, the second to Japan. A tropical storm, by the way, is a downpour with gusts of wind. It copes well with washing cars and glass, it should be noted.
The rest 8 months of the year in Guam is the wind season. A wonderful sea breeze, a wind that drives white clouds across the sky. Of course, it rains from time to time and during the wind season, but they are short-lived. And most often the rain comes from just one cloud: there are clouds around, blue sky, the sun - and a rainbow under one small cloud!
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