Colonia

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Colonia

Colonia

Colonia is an urban area of the municipalities of Rull and Weloy, the capital of the state of Yap. Colonia has a variety of hotels, restaurants, shops and a medical store, as well as a hospital and a bank. A Spanish Catholic mission was founded in Colonia in 1885, when Yap was a Spanish colony. Tomil Harbor is Yap state's main port, where boats must pass through a 2.5-kilometer-long reef-lined passage to reach the harbor. The area is famous for its Rai stones, a limestone traditional money brought from the neighboring islands of Palau. Today, many Rai stones are placed in front of meeting houses and around village courtyards. Many of them are kept along roads called malal or stone money bank. In the southern part of Colonia, you can see a malal made up of many different rai stones. The Yap Living History Museum, made up of various traditional buildings in the area, was founded in 2005. Sunset Park is known for its beautiful views, and several war memorials have been erected in the World War II Public Memorial Park. Many families in Yap earn their livelihoods by building traditional pirogues, or small boats. At the Yap Traditional Navigation Society in Colonia, where the older navigators instruct the younger generation in navigation skills, you can see pirogue-building from a freshly cut tree. Near the Parliament building, you can visit the remains of a Spanish fort dating from 1887. The three German towers in the town, built around 1910, are also worth a visit. These were built during the German colonial period for telecommunications, and are about 20 feet high. The remains of a German dock can also be seen.