The boat is fueled. Frosted beer bottles glint in the ice boxes. The provisions are stashed, and we are about to go and find ourselves our very own desert island.
We're in the right place for the quest. Here in the Republic of Palau, Micronesia, nestled between the waters of the Philippine Sea and the vast North Pacific, there is no shortage of desert islands to choose from.
Micronesia itself is a water world of islands scattered over an area as large as the United States. The population, by contrast, is roughly equivalent to that of Rhode Island, the smallest state in the U.S.