Palau - Part Two

Are you ready to head under the water?  If so, be at the boat at 8:30 am, geared up and ready to go!  We will be going to famous dive sites such as Blue Hole, Blue Corner, German Channel and more.

We headed out for three days of three dives each, with little pieces of paradise for our lunch spots.  Here is the wonderful group we dove with:

Lunch Spot - Maria, Jeff, Linda, Anne, Imilio, Ashley and
Hernel (who was brave enough to lead this unruly group!)

Let us introduce you to a friend of Jeff's.  He is a surgeon fish, and loves to play in bubbles. It is amazing to see other creatures seemingly "play"!   Jeff had no idea what I was filming, he just knew that I was telling him to stay there and don't move.

Palau has such a wealth of creatures under the water, some we have never seen before, and therefore we took many many pictures.  We have put the best into a variety of videos so that you can see as much as possible without getting too bored (we hope).  Ready?

We saw at least one of Jeff's favourites every dive:

These sleek, graceful creatures (new to us) were so much larger than these pictures show:

Ah, another first for us....we hooked onto the reef in the current and just watched them go by:

Another first - a cave dive.  Chandelier Cave has four caverns we surfaced in on this trip:

One last video of just a glance into more of God's creation that we were so fortunate to see....giant clams, Napoleon wrasses (HUGE), trigger fish making her nest (moving rocks and coral with her mouth), anemone fish, "falling" down Blue Hole, barracuda, schools of jacks, big eyes looking so sad, colourful and small mandarin fish, moray eels, lion fish, school of mackerels, and just enjoying the time together.  Seriously, does life get any better than this?





 We hope you enjoyed this trip to Palau as much as we did! 
 As usual, we love you all....Diving Buddies for Life, Linda and Jeff

Palau - Part One

We had GREAT
service - though we
look a little lonely

The hard working man took a few days off, and we were off on a scuba diving trip with our dive masters from Manila.  Our little UN group - diver master, Hernel, Filipino, divers - Filipino, Singaporean, Spanish and three Canadians - all had a wonderful time diving in this little country in the middle of no where.  It was just after the busy season, so we had restaurants and dive sites to ourselves - which was PERFECT!

Streets were very quiet
and beautiful

Palau (find it on a map!) has only 21,000 people in the whole country,  but over 300 beautiful islands.  It is 459 sq km, roughly 2.5 times the size of Washington, DC.

 The little country is a fascinating mix of cultures - first owned by the Spanish after Magellan arrived in 1521, sold to the Germans in the late 1800s, then entrusted to Japan with the rest of Micronesia after WWI, was the site of many battles during WWII (as these remaining guns attest to), then given to the US as a Trust Territory when WWII ended.  After decades of development, Palau became an Independent State in Free Association with the United States in the early 1990s.  All of those languages, along with a few others, flow in the people's day to day speech.

Oh - and they do brew their own beer - appropriately named Red Rooster.  Two of the Canadians just had to try it!

Anne - a friend we met in Manila
who is wonderful to dive with!

Good Canadian boy with his beer!

 








Between the spectacular sunsets

 and full moon

Reflection of the moon

 












and beautiful scenery, you may think we just enjoyed the island above the water.....

however, we were there to enjoy what was under the water!  Boy, we were not disappointed!!

This video is just a teaser to finish off Part One of our Palau blog.  Since I learned about this place, I have wanted to dive with these jelly fish, and that dream has now been ticked off as completed on my life list.  They have been land locked for thousands of years, with no natural enemies, and over time has lost the ability to sting.  None of us were disappointed with this snorkeling opportunity.  Enjoy the video and stay tuned for Palau - Part Two when we will bring you even further under water!!