We began our day with another breakfast on our lanai overlooking the surrounding hills and ocean. We were picked up promptly and driven to the dock to begin our tour of the rock islands. We had a group of eight people — four of them were Japanese and commentary was delivered by our guide in a smattering of both languages. The first leg of our journey was a bit concerning since the water was a bit choppy. Luckily, once we made a turn toward “Milky Way,” things settled down.
The Milky Way is a semi-insulated body of water with lots of limestone-enriched muddy waters. Nicole and I applied said “mud” sporadically to our bodies. Our pilot yesterday said it smells like mayonnaise and I was highly skeptical of this statement, but wow was he accurate. It was a bit pungent. Our guide took a picture of us jumping into the water to cleanse the mayonnaise from our bodies.
From the Milky Way, we continued on to an area called “Clam City.” Unsurprisingly, it contained numerous giant clams in a small area. There wasn’t really anything else to see beyond the clams, so we were only there for a few minutes. From there, we ventured on to an area called the German channel. It’s a trench-like straightaway cutting through the coral reef. The Germans used dynamite to blow apart this area to allow their ships to pass between the lagoon and the rest of the Pacific Ocean when Palau was a German colony. It’s now a popular diving spot, but we were just using it to transit. From surface level, you don’t really grasp the size of the project, so I’m showing a picture from the plane yesterday as well.
It was a short boat ride through the channel until we got to a spot called “Big Drop Off.” Palau has very descriptively named all of the main sites of the rock islands. “Big Drop Off,” is an area of shallow reef that very suddenly plunges over 130 feet into a dark abyss. Nicole decided to abstain from this particular snorkel because it was a point-to-point venture that would last about 45 minutes and also the whole dark abyss thing didn’t sit well with her. There were numerous fish along the way, and a large number of scuba divers as well.
It is a big dive spot, but I actually don’t see what the fuss is about because I actually think the best stuff was closer to the surface. If it wasn’t already clear, our guide was big on taking our pictures, especially mine for some reason. I guess he figured I was a good swimmer and told me to dive down and turn around and pose for a picture. As you look at it, note that I was not actually as close to the coral as it appears, and secondly I was giving the shakas, not flexing, but it was captured at the wrong moment.
After finally reaching the boat at the far end of the snorkel, we headed to an area called Long Beach. It was, in fact, a long beach, but it is dependent on tides to reveal the actual sand bar. We were able to wade through the waters with our nicer cameras over our head in order to take some better pictures. While we were doing this, one member of our group (we shall call him Brad) went steaming off along the sand bar to some unknown destination and soon disappeared from view. Brad was weird.
In any event, this gave us more time to take pictures, and I took far too many. It was just such a photogenic spot. Every time I looked up, I felt the need to try and capture what I was seeing. Eventually we all got back in the boat and the guide went to see if Brad was still alive. After wasting about 20 minutes waiting for the return of Brad, we continued onward. Brad is the worst kind of person. Don’t be like Brad.
Forced to endure side eye and disappointed looks as he returned from his ill conceived adventure, Brad then isolated himself for the rest of the journey to Carp Island. This is where we had our lunch prepared for us. It is the location of the Carp Island Resort, and there were various bungalows and buildings on the island, but Nicole and I refuse to believe that it is still in operation because it was very run down. Boards on the dock were loose when we walked on them. It had a weird vibe there like it’s where some cult leader has their compound. Brad was in his element.
The four Americans were given forks and the Japanese were all given chopsticks. We found this a bit discriminatory, and all of us ended up using chopsticks in the end to eat our fish, beef, hot dogs, and rice. We eventually got off Carp Island, and not a moment too soon. Something weird happens there. Also there were stray dogs. . .on an uninhabited island. Not normal.
We had one more stop at the appropriately-named “Shark City.” It is a popular meeting spot for the sharks — particularly black-tipped reef sharks as you see above. I think everyone was of the assumption that we just pulled up there to observe them from above, but the guide kept looking at me and saying, “Ok, jump!”
I was the first one in the water and everyone seemed to sort of gasp, but after they realized I wasn’t chewed to shreds, everyone quickly followed suit. Nicole was in the water a few minutes later. The guide looked at her and said, “Now you’re ok with going in the water?” Sharks get a bad reputation, but Nicole is smart enough to know they are friendly creatures.
It was really cool to see them up close. I saw a leopard shark toward the end of the big drop off snorkel excursion, which I was pretty excited about, but I’m not even attaching that picture because it couldn’t compare to the experience at shark city. That was the last stop on our itinerary before returning to the dock and being shipped off to the Carolines Resort.
I think the tour of the rock islands was a big success even though we got caught in a bit of stinging rain, and people like Brad exist. Despite those setbacks, it was a very enjoyable trip. That frees up our day for tomorrow to do whatever. We haven’t decided what we will do yet, but laundry will likely be a part of it. Tomorrow is essentially our last day in Palau, though our flight doesn’t depart until the 7th . . .at 2am. We are working to get a late late checkout. Wish us luck.
passports & pepto bismol 