We have been in island paradise now for almost 2 weeks and thoroughly enjoying all it has to offer. We are getting ready to fly to another island group - Yap - tonight so thought we'd take a quick moment to share about our time in Palau.
Scuba Diving
Thanks to the recommendation by a family friend, who raved about the diving in Palau, we planned to do as much diving as possible! Here are some of our highlights, but be sure to check out our photos too.- Reef Hooking: This was a new experience for the both of us. The technique was
supposedly founded in Palau by a local who works at Fish and Fins dive shop. Due to the strong current in and around the many reefs and rock islands, Palauan diving is greatly influenced by the tides. Under the water along the reef there are valleys and canyons in which the current from outside the reef is either streaming in or out over the reef. Once near the edge, we pull out our reef hooks (large metal hook attached to a nylon cord that is hopefully attached to you!) and attach our hook to some hard coral or rocks (preferably nothing living) and inflate our BCDs. This makes you float weightlessly in the current and conserve energy as you're not fighting the flow of water. The current supplies a large quantity of food for sharks, schools of barracuda and a cornucopia of other tropical fish...which provides a colorful parade all within arms reach.
- Amazing Sea Life: Even when we were not reef hooking we saw many amazing corals, sharks, turtles and an array of other fish. Our photos don't do justice, even though we are getting better at under water photography. You'll just have to come to Palau and see it for yourselves!
The Palauan marine diversity is second to none from what we've experienced so far in our
diving careers. With our 11 dives we were able to experience many beautiful wall dives in and around Palau's famous Blue Corner and enjoyed many shallow snorkel trips between dives (Clam City). We even took an amazing video of a huge tiger shark while traveling between rock islands and over shallow reefs on the boat (will upload this video for you to view at later date). This place seems to have everything!
Our other expeditions took us to Palau's famous Jellyfish Lake. The salt
water lake is in a crater in the center of an island which isolates the jellyfish from many of the predators of the sea. Due the the unique circumstances, the jellyfish are able to live off photosynthesis. They are docile creatures and don't sting...as long as snorkelers treat them with respect and don't bat them around too much (check out the photos).
- Wreck Dive: We also experienced our first wreck dive in Palau (getting our advanced
open water certification allows us to dive to 30M, which is necessary for almost all wreck dives - good timing!). Due to the many WWII battles fought in Palau (see below for more details) and its outer islands, there are tons of gun ships and naval transport ships used by the Japanese with large torpedo holes. They are in relatively good shape and excellent to explore while diving.
We dove in and around the Japanese Techiu Maru ship and had our first experience swimming through a once operational ship, seeing up close what we've only read about or experienced in movies like Titanic. There is an eerie feeling swimming around these giant beasts frozen in time below the surface.
- Chandelier Cave (Fish 'n Fins Link Chandelier Cave): As we are not yet truly
experienced divers, cave dives can be a little intimidating. This cave is composed of four caverns with large stalactites that touch and dip into the water, especially during high tide. The caves are full of beautiful mineral deposits that shine like chandeliers (hence, the name) when our dive lights ricochet off them. There are many Palaun myths tied to the caves - at one time they were filled with ancient carved figures. Definitely a must see if you are ever in Palau. - Mariah "Narked": She will deny it, but anyone who has been out with Mariah drinking
will know that she never gets drunk...just a little "tipsy". When entering a large cave where the entrance was 27 meters below the surface, we definitely crossed the 30m mark where the amount of nitrogen in your system begins to cause a drunken affect. I saw Mariah smiling and waving, pretending to be the Little Mermaid as she pirouetted around in circles more than 30m below the surface in a cave... she was having a great time, but I quickly got us up to a little shallower depths so she'd get back to normal :)
- Dive Masters in Fiji?: What does the future hold for us and our diving carer? Well, we have our advanced diver certification and are planning on completing our rescue diver certification over the next couple of months in hopes of doing the Dive Master training while in Fiji. Before we move forward at full speed, we still need to reassess our finances because diving while exciting, it is still an expensive sport. We hope to continue our training and are hearing many amazing stories from other divers about sites around the world. We definitely would like to take the time in the future to do a live aboard dive trip (where you live/dive on the boat), which would allow multiple dives per day and reduce the transportation time between diving and living on the mainland.
Camping on Our Own Private Island
Many of the islands of Palau are small rock islands and not inhabited, but have lovely little 
beaches and picnic areas with shelters that are ideal for camping. We were able to arrange with our dive shop to drop us off at one of the islands one day after diving. We chose a small island with a couple sandy white beaches - one perfect for sunset and one perfect for sunrise. In the middle of the island there was a grove of trees that we used for hanging up our hammock to swing and read.
When we arrived to the island at about 3PM, no one was there...so we had our own private little island. We unloaded our gear and set up our beds on the benches under the shelter. Then we went exploring and beach sitting to enjoy the last of the sun. I found a coconut that looked ripe for eating and Eric and I took turns smashing it against a rock until we got it open and could enjoy its fruit as appetizers before dinner. We should start calling ourselves Swiss Family Robinson! :)
beaches and picnic areas with shelters that are ideal for camping. We were able to arrange with our dive shop to drop us off at one of the islands one day after diving. We chose a small island with a couple sandy white beaches - one perfect for sunset and one perfect for sunrise. In the middle of the island there was a grove of trees that we used for hanging up our hammock to swing and read.When we arrived to the island at about 3PM, no one was there...so we had our own private little island. We unloaded our gear and set up our beds on the benches under the shelter. Then we went exploring and beach sitting to enjoy the last of the sun. I found a coconut that looked ripe for eating and Eric and I took turns smashing it against a rock until we got it open and could enjoy its fruit as appetizers before dinner. We should start calling ourselves Swiss Family Robinson! :)
The sunset was beautiful. After taking plenty of photos, we ran out into the ocean and watched 
darkness fall while swimming in the aqua blue water. We finally headed back to our shelter to begin dinner preparations. Eric lit the coals on the BBQ and we grilled hot dogs and baked beans. We enjoyed our fancy meal out on the picnic table lit by our lanterns under a sky of a billion stars. The star gazing was incredible - we could see the entire milky way and a number of shooting stars. Bedtime was quite early due to lack of light or anything to do...though it took us awhile to get to sleep because it was so hot and there were some interesting sounds of the night - is it a bat, rat or bird?!
darkness fall while swimming in the aqua blue water. We finally headed back to our shelter to begin dinner preparations. Eric lit the coals on the BBQ and we grilled hot dogs and baked beans. We enjoyed our fancy meal out on the picnic table lit by our lanterns under a sky of a billion stars. The star gazing was incredible - we could see the entire milky way and a number of shooting stars. Bedtime was quite early due to lack of light or anything to do...though it took us awhile to get to sleep because it was so hot and there were some interesting sounds of the night - is it a bat, rat or bird?!We were both up by 7AM and enjoyed a quiet breakfast of banana bread sitting by the shore. However, our private little beach was not to stay that way for long...by 8AM, a group of locals arrived for Sunday picnicking. While we did have a number of groups come and go throughout the day, the beach luckily turned out to be more of a local hangout rather than a touristy beach filled with Japanese tourists. We met one group of locals who asked if we'd like to share their BBQ chicken, sausages, steak and fresh sashimi - we instantly obliged! As the day drew on, we began wondering when the dive boat would come back to pick us up. At 3PM, everyone had left the island again and we were there on our own with a package of food from our local friends and some water in case we were stuck here another night. Just as I was starting to consider waving down passing boats to hitch a ride back to the main island, our boat finally pulled up. It wouldn't have been all bad to be stuck there for another night, but we were planning to catch a twice-weekly boat the next day to the island of Peleliu...
The Island of Peleliu
The local boat to Peleliu was a great experience...we were packed on with a variety of cargo heading to the island and a number of locals. We had some nice chats with a couple of the women, who were enjoying their betel nut chewing (a light sedative that turns your mouth red). When we arrived, we were met by our local guide, Tangie, who would be helping to find us a place to stay and showing us around. Tangie is an exuberant fellow and a self-made local historian with a passion for taking tourists around his island.
We negotiated a good price for a double room at Wenty's Guesthouse, run by Mama Antonia (as we called her). Mama is an elderly woman who loves to spoil her guests. She is quite a character - 
a devout Christian very passionate that she wants to "meet us in heaven" and a proud Palauan wanting to make sure we experienced the local food and culture. In fact, she wanted to feed us at every turn, despite our polite refutes that we had brought much of our own food. She gave us bananas, papaya and insisted on making us dinner each night. We must admit, we did quite enjoy the fresh caught fish, taro root, rice, watermelon and coconut juice she provided at no extra cost. Mama also used palm leaves to weave us traditional headdresses with flowers in them. On the way to the dock on departure day, Mama was styling in her sunglasses and swerved back and forth on the little road (thank God there is hardly any traffic on the island!) stopping every time she saw a different kind of flower so I could get out and pick it for my "crown." Her hospitality, and the overall friendliness of everyone we met on the island, made this one of our favorite places in Palau.
a devout Christian very passionate that she wants to "meet us in heaven" and a proud Palauan wanting to make sure we experienced the local food and culture. In fact, she wanted to feed us at every turn, despite our polite refutes that we had brought much of our own food. She gave us bananas, papaya and insisted on making us dinner each night. We must admit, we did quite enjoy the fresh caught fish, taro root, rice, watermelon and coconut juice she provided at no extra cost. Mama also used palm leaves to weave us traditional headdresses with flowers in them. On the way to the dock on departure day, Mama was styling in her sunglasses and swerved back and forth on the little road (thank God there is hardly any traffic on the island!) stopping every time she saw a different kind of flower so I could get out and pick it for my "crown." Her hospitality, and the overall friendliness of everyone we met on the island, made this one of our favorite places in Palau. It may be surprising, but one of the bloodiest battles of WWII between the Japanese and the 
Americans took place on this peaceful little island. Over 2,000 American soldiers died and nearly 10,000 Japanese. Our guide Tangie has devoted much of his time to learning the history of the battle. He knows the island inside and out and spent a day taking us around to all the battle sites - showing us tanks, am tracks, guns and caves left over from the war. He's also put together a nice little museum filled with war relics, news articles and personal photos and stories he's gathered from many of the veterans of the battle. It was very interesting speaking to him and learning about the history and effects of WWII on the island. If you'd like to read more about this important historical event go to: http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/peleliu.htm
After our day of history with Tangie, we spent our last day exploring the small 6mile x 2mile island by bike. We rode to all the island's beaches and a local swimming hole. It was great exercise after so much island living! We relaxed in the evening at the locally owned Dolphin Bay Resort over a beer and a few games of backgammon. This nice little resort (also home to Peleliu Divers) is certainly a place we'd come back to in the future - it's closer to the dive sites and we found Peleliu a much nicer island to stay on if you're okay with lots of peace and quiet.
What's Next...
In just a matter of hours, we board our flight to Yap and will be there for the next 25 days. We are hoping to get to some of the untouched outer islands to witness the native culture and also spend time diving and doing some volunteer work on the main island. We hope it will be a good chance to stay put for a few weeks and really get to know more about the local community. We're not sure what internet access is like on Yap, so it may be awhile before our next posting, but we'll do our best!
Until next time...
Mariah and Eric
Americans took place on this peaceful little island. Over 2,000 American soldiers died and nearly 10,000 Japanese. Our guide Tangie has devoted much of his time to learning the history of the battle. He knows the island inside and out and spent a day taking us around to all the battle sites - showing us tanks, am tracks, guns and caves left over from the war. He's also put together a nice little museum filled with war relics, news articles and personal photos and stories he's gathered from many of the veterans of the battle. It was very interesting speaking to him and learning about the history and effects of WWII on the island. If you'd like to read more about this important historical event go to: http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/peleliu.htmAfter our day of history with Tangie, we spent our last day exploring the small 6mile x 2mile island by bike. We rode to all the island's beaches and a local swimming hole. It was great exercise after so much island living! We relaxed in the evening at the locally owned Dolphin Bay Resort over a beer and a few games of backgammon. This nice little resort (also home to Peleliu Divers) is certainly a place we'd come back to in the future - it's closer to the dive sites and we found Peleliu a much nicer island to stay on if you're okay with lots of peace and quiet.
What's Next...
In just a matter of hours, we board our flight to Yap and will be there for the next 25 days. We are hoping to get to some of the untouched outer islands to witness the native culture and also spend time diving and doing some volunteer work on the main island. We hope it will be a good chance to stay put for a few weeks and really get to know more about the local community. We're not sure what internet access is like on Yap, so it may be awhile before our next posting, but we'll do our best!
Until next time...
Mariah and Eric
