Last day in Palau

Our last day in Palau was February 13th.  We were set to fly out of Koror about 2am the next morning, so it was a no-diving day.  Which was fine because we had some relaxing, and shopping and touristy things we wanted to do before we left.

We started out the morning with a long, leaisurely breakfast.  As part of our hotel package, breakfasts each day were included.  The majority of the people that stay at the hotel are Japanese, and apparently Japanese don't eat breakfasts like we do, like of eggs and cereal and toast...it's just another meal to them.  Breakfast was always an interesting combination of American type things, like eggs and bacon and regular food stuff like hot dogs and sweet and sour chicken and sushi and salad.  We tried everything that day since we weren't getting a dive boat with a full stomach.

A view of our hotel from the water as the boat is bringing us back after a day of diving.

The lobby of our hotel, the Sea Passion.

After paying our tab at Sam's and taking a few last photos, we decided to head downtown for some shopping with Marv and Jo.

The Bottom Time Bar & Grill at Sam's.

A cab ride downtown, which was about 2 miles away or so, was about $5.  We could have walked, but it was just too darn hot.  So, the four of us cabbed it, and they took us to the shopping place, which mostly consists of a big Ben Franklin store.  They had a lot of cool trinkety stuff and t-shirts there, but none of us were really in the mood for that.

Dan and Marv really needed some tools for diving before we left for Truk, so we trudged around and asked some locals for directions, but finally found a hardware store.  A few things that we saw along the way:

Dan had to get a pic of the boat, of course!

Needed this pic for reference, for when we move to Palau and need a home! ;)

I think alcoholism is a problem in Palau.

This was a banana tree.

After the guys got their tools, we went into some more shops.  One thing that Palauns are famous for is crafting storyboards.  They are these old legends that are carved beautifully out of wood.  We saw a bunch of them in almost every store we went in, and really wanted to get one.  We continued out, thinking about whether or not we should get one to remember our Palaun love story by.

We had heard that the best place to buy storyboards was at the Prison.  Apparently, there is a prison giftshop, and the inmates carve storyboards.  So, we just kept walking until we found it.



Entering the prison was kinda interesting, because the guards had to lock one door, and then open another.  And, as I stood there waiting to go into the next locked room, I glanced to my right and happened to be standing about 10 feet from the prisoners locker room and they were all taking showers.  I quickly averted my eyes and hoped no one had seen me!!

Anyway, the storyboards there were totally amazing, and Dan and I found one we really liked.  It was one of the scuba tanks in the top right corner of the pic.  But, we didn't have enough cash on us to buy it, so we figured we could come back later that day and buy it, since they were open til 6pm.

After leaving the prison, we walked over to Bem Ermii, a hamburger stand and got a little treat.  The owner was hanging out, and we talked to him for a bit and he told us about life in Palau.  I kinda dragged everyone to Bem Ermii because I really wanted to go there and get a t-shirt for Stef.  I think she was a Bem Ermii junky when they lived there, and it was fun.  They all put up with me in good humor!

Dan really wanted to go to the Red Rooster brewery for some authentic Red Rooster T-shirts, so we started walking that direction.  We asked several people along the way which direction to go.  It was after noon by this time and HOT and we were kinda dragging, so just hoping to get there as soon as possible so we could relax.  Unfortunately, we finally get to Red Rooster...and of course, it's closed for rennovations!!

So, we called our cab and went back to Sam's for lunch and to buy more diving t-shirts!!

As the afternoon went on, Dan and I decided we wanted to buy the storyboard we found.  We found Tom and told him about the prison and he said he wanted to come into town later to check it out, so he'd come with us.  We decided to do a quick snorkle in the lagoon outside of the resort and then we'd shower and meet up with Tom at 5 to head back to the prison to buy our storyboard and then eat dinner somewhere.

Outside the resort, there was a beach and a little lagoon, and in the lagoon there was a Japanese Zero plane from WWII that had crashed there.  It was just a short swim out and about 10 feet down so we wanted to see it and get some pics.

We found it, took a few dives down and took some pics and decided to call it a day.  We were gung ho to get back to the prison and get our storyboard.

So, Dan got up on shore first, where a Japanese family of four happened to have been playing for hours.  All of the sudden he started screaming, and of course I was like, WHAT THE HELL???  He started shrieking that he'd stepped on a stonefish.  Now, I don't know my fish all that well, but I do know that a stonefish sting is not good and people die from them.  All my emergency first responder skills flew out the window and I frantically called Marv in his room and told him to come down and help us.  Actually, the only first aid thing that went through my mind was wondering whether I should pee on him, like they do on Friends!!!  During this time Dan continued to squeeze the venom out of his foot and there were some folks sitting down by the beach from Austrailia, where stings of this nature are common, who suggested we soak it in vinegar.  The hotel staff brought some out and he soaked his foot for awhile.  He said it was feeling better, but the hotel said they'd take us to the hospital.  And since we were headed to Truk that night, which is kind of remote and not super modern, we decided to take advantage of what we could in Palau.

So, Dan and I hopped in the car to go to the hospital.  On the way, Dan is feeling better and is starting to freak out that we aren't going to get our storyboard, and suggests maybe I just go buy it and he'll just go to the hospital and see what that brings.  I thought that would be a pretty crappy thing for a newly engaged person to do to their finacee, so I went with him to the hospital instead.  I figured even if he ended up being fine, that was probably something I would never live down.  He was feeling a bit better about things though, as he and Marv had determined that what he'd stepped on was not a stonefish, but a scorpianfish.  Which, although poisenous, not as much as the stonefish.

We walk into the Palaun ER and someone came to talk to us right away and determined that he wasn't going to die, and they said we had to wait because they had another emergency.  Turns out that this 20 something year old guy was beaten up by his uncle and his shoulder was dislocated and he had a big gash in his head.  I also think he might have been on drugs.  We weren't feeling like such an emergency after we saw that.  In the meantime, we sit and fill out paperwork, and it's almost 5:30.  Dan continues to freak out about the storyboard, so I called up Marv and Jo and asked them if we could borrow money from them and if they'd go back to the prison and buy our storyboard.  They said why yes of course, and went and did it.  It was SO NICE of them!!

Dan got treated a few minutes later.  The doc talked to him for a while, and determined that the stinger wasn't imbedded in his foot, and the poisen hadn't spread beyond the bottom of his foot.  So, he soaked it iodine for a long time.  And then we paid $75 and left and got back to the hotel shortly after 6.  So much for our relaxing!!  Dan's foot was sore for probably the rest of the trip, but other than that, he's fine.  Unfortunately I have no pictures of our ER room visit to share, but it was really quite nice.

We went over to Big Drop off at Neco Marine for some final Red Roosters and dinner and then tried to catch a few hours of sleep before we had to leave the hotel at midnight.  The night sky was absolutely beautiful that night.

Palau Day 7

Well, this was our last day of diving in Palau.  And those of us that were still diving were bound and determined to make it a good one.  So, we decided to check out German Channel again, try a new site called Big Drop Off and end it all with Blue Corner.

We took some shots on the boat, since we knew this would be the last time we'd get the opportunity...on this trip at least!

At German Channel, we were hoping to get our third spotting of Manta!  We went down to the cleaning station and sat there for about 15 minutes and no sign of them.  I was thinking that this dive might be a bust, as far as seeing manta.  So our dive guide moved us along, and we saw the Feathertail Ray laying in the sand again.

After giving the manta a break for a while, we went back to the cleaning station, and just as we got settled, the most beautiful manta came swimming in.  I have a really good video of this one.

We ended the dive with the divemaster showing us the most breathtaking hot pink anenome I have ever seen.  There is even a cute little clownfish protecting his home.  What a great dive!!

During the surface interval before our second dive, at Big Drop-Off, Dan and I were enticed by the color of the water, and decided to go for a little snorkle. 

Our guide told us that sometimes you see black tip reef shark while snorkling there, so of course we grabbed the camera.  We did see a shark, but the pic below is my favorite photo from the snorkle.  I was in the water first, and a few minutes later when Dan jumped i, and the fish just went crazy.  They were everywhere, and I got this shot.

Big Drop Off was one of the most beautiful wall dives that I've ever done.  It was a great place to practice underwater photography.

And of course, the last dive of the Palau leg of our trip....BLUE CORNER!!!  It was definately Sharks Galore!!!  Of course we saw other things, but compared to all the sharks, it really isn't worth mentioning.



After diving that day the majority of us went and at dinner at the Taj, an Indian Restaurant in downtown Koror.  It was FANTASTIC!!!

Palau Day 6

On our sixth day of diving we headed to Virgin Blue Hole, followed by Blue Corner and then ended with a dive called Dexter's Wall.  This day started out kind of dark and dreary, and it was raining really hard when we got to our first site, the Virgin Blue Hole.

At this dive site, you drop down a hole to about 100 feet, and then you swim through a large tunnel for probably another 100 feet or so until you come out and you finish your dive along the wall.  A few of us were kind of anxious about doing a tunnel that long, and decided at the last minute to forego the tunnel and just stay along the wall.  I was part of the group that "chickened out" of the tunnel experience, whereas Dan and a few others went in.

After the dive talking with Dan and the others, I am SO GLAD that I didn't go the tunnel route.  Mike, another guy we were traveling with, termed the dive the Virgin Black Hole because it was BLACK inside and you couldn't really see anything.  I'm sure it's a lovely dive when the sun is out, and you can see the exit through the tunnel, but this was a cloudy and rainy day.  I definately enjoyed my panic free dive along the wall.

I didn't bring my camera on that dive, since I was worried about the tunnel and didn't want anything else to have to think about.  I also didn't bring it on the Blue Corner dive that was next because I didn't want to be "that diver" that always uses their camera.  However, it was a spectacular dive, and afterwards I wished I would have had it.

I did bring it along on the Dexter's Wall dive.  I had dove this site before when I was in Palau, and knew there was a good chance of seeing turtles.  And we saw some of the most beautiful HawksbillTurtles.  The markings on them were just amazing.  A few even had Remoras attached to them, and didn't seem to mind at all.

Palau Dive 5

This was our fifth day of diving, and some folks that were with us decided this would be their last.  Others of us, Dan and I included, decided to do two more additional days after this.  So, because this was their last day, we decided to go back to two of our favorites and went to German Channel and Blue Corner.  We were only doing two dives this day, but planned to end the day with a hike to and snorkle in Jellyfish Lake.

At German Channel we were fortunate to see Manta again.  They were beautiful and graceful.  No good shots of them and no great video like I did the other time though.  However, I did get a nice shot of a Feathertail Ray that was laying in the sand and a playful turtle that we saw towards the end.

We also were incredibly fortunate to see a HAMMERHEAD SHARK on this dive!!!  It's extremely rare to see these in Palau.  In fact, our dive guide Steve, who is Palaun and has been diving here for 15-25 years has only seen them two or three times before.  I did get some video, but it is very patchy and it would probably make you puke, so I won't put it on here.  But, it was truly a really cool thing to experience and a neat memory.

The next dive at Blue Corner was just absolutely amazing.  We saw a lot of shark, of course!!!  We also saw SEVERAL green moray eels, and I even got a video of one swimming around.  We saw our one and only Lion Fish too, which is interesting because you see them all over the Caribbean now.  We also saw the pair of spotted eagle ray that live here, and are always together.  They kind of remind me of dogs too.  Our friend Jo also celebrated her 100th dive on this dive, so we captured the moment with a picture.

After Blue Corner we headed over to Jellyfish Lake for a snorkle.  You can't dive at Jellyfish Lake, something in the earth underneath the water makes it poisenous at depth.  Plus, you don't need to, the jellyfish like to follow the sun.  The jellyfish in this lake have evolved over time and have lost the ability to sting.  It is just amazing to watch and touch these little guys.  However, you have to be really gentle with your fins because they are fragile creatures and can easily tear if you kick them the wrong way.

After we finished up at Jellyfish Lake the boat took as back to Sam's, the dive shop.  A few of us had decided to do an extra shore dive there.  You were able to just take a tank from the shop and hop in the water off the dock and do a dive against the shore wall.  It was probably only 5 to 10 feet deep at most, but it is the home of Mandarin Fish, which are so beautiful.  Being the dive junkies we are, Dan and I are never one to skip a dive, so of course we wanted to go.  Unfortunately, three dives is about all our camera battery can handle, and it died during the Jellyfish Lake snorkle.  But,our buddy Tom had his camera and we have a few pics of the Mandarin Fish that he took.  They are so cool!

Mandarin fish come out to mate around dusk.  There was about five of us that hopped in the water and spent about 45 minutes watching these beautiful creates flit around.  They were kinda shy and would have to work up some courage to come out and see us.  These fish are really small, probably an inch or two at most, and there were some little babies that were probably just a couple of centimeters long.

Later that evening, Dan and I went over to the bar/grill at Neco Marine for dinner.  It is called Big Drop Off.  It was pretty good food.  But then again, we aren't picky when it comes to fresh fish and french fries!