Palau Day 3 - Getting our Feet Wet

 

5/15/2022 - Sunday morning started out very similar to our Saturday, we woke up to some amazing views, had an extraordinary breakfast, and by 8:30 am, Winifred, Joan and myself were being picked up by Sam's shuttle. 

Actually, this deserves a comment, the shuttle service in Palau for dive companies, or restaurants was awesome. Everywhere we went, with the exception of touring the northern island by car, had a free shuttle. Yes, free! The more we thought about it, this makes total sense from a business model standpoint, wouldn't you stay for an extra desert or evening drink if you don't have to worry about driving home. Quite genius, and very much caters to that tourist appetite. 

Once at Sam's dive shop we met our scuba master for the day, Neil. He greeted us first thing with a handshake and a welcome, really awesome guy and I owe Sam's and Neil a positive review on Google. This was something that is different from the dives we have done in Guam, Neil accompanied us on each dive, gave guidance and looked over the group, very nice for being in a new place. We were then guided to pick up our gear tote, and board the boat for a day out on the water. The boats were pretty cool, they were close to 30ft long, upto 12 passengers, and high powered with twin motors for fast transportation around the island. Each seat had an area to hold our gear tote as well as an area behind the seat to hold our scuba cylinders. The position of these things makes setup really easy to grab the gear below the seat, connect the BCD to the scuba tanks, fit your booties + flippers, and check your googles before a dive. Now that we were all settled, it was time to take off into the Pacific Blue. 

The ride out to our first dive site was around 45 mins, and this was the most exciting 45 mins we had ever had on a boat. Every direction you turned there was something new to see, whether that was new islands, crystal clear water, or even flying fish. Image 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8, start to give this sense of the Palau paradise. Each of us we're gitty with excitement, really this place feels like something out of a movie or maybe a little piece of heaven on earth.  Image 1 is a picture of a very distinctive place along this journey, this carved out area is called German Channel and as you can see it has quite the marine colors. The history is we will save for a future post, thankful to this built channel we are able to criss cross  the reef into our diving area that is home to some very pretty sites. Todays two dives were Dexters Reef, and Blue Holes, each next to a dive site that is famous in these parts called Blue Corner. You get the idea, many of them are named with some sort of "Blue" name. 

Upon arrival to Dexters Reef, we were guided to get our dive gear on and Neil gave us a briefing of the site. Just as it sounds Dexters was a large reef area with tons of coral and fish to look at, this was an easier dive, as Neil was ensuring we had the sufficient training to take on more challenges later in the week. An additional new thing that was discussed was a new way to enter into the water, the backwards roll. This was intimating for each of us, at least for the first few times. The backwards roll is where you sit on the edge of the boat with your gear on, hold your mask and regulator in with your right hand, left and holds your head, and you backwards summersault into the water in a literal roll fashion. A bit disorienting at first, but as the week progressed, I much preferred this way of getting into the water. Now under the waves, this was our first glance at what Palau had to offer. Winifred, thankfully, was our photographer for all the underwater shots. Her go pro really did the trick, and as you can see, Palau really impressed. The time flew by, Neil did great at grouping us back together as it was too easy to be distracted by look at the coral, look at the schools of fish, wow, wow, wow. Once again I must say, underwater diving opens you to a whole new world, sing it with me, I know you just heard the little mermaid jingle! Really fun photos to now go back and look at, the schools of fish were dense, the sea anemone was vibrant, and those underwater shots of Joan and I are cool. 

Once back on the surface, we were able to once again talk with each other about the neat things we just saw. Thinking back now its all a bit of a blur of blue, but the excitement in the moment was contagious. Next was lunch, when we signed up for this dive trip one of the things we noticed was Sam's provided bento boxes for us to eat. I wish we had a photo, as these were fun and looking at lunch back home in the future, this might be the way we go. Heavy asian cuisine influence here. Each box came with a small bed of rice, vegetables that included carrots and cucumber, and a choice of chicken, fish, or beef. The chicken is what I had day one, it was thin chicken breast that was fried in a crunchy outer layer of panic bread crumbs. So yummy, my mouth is literally watering as I think about it. To finish off, the boxes had a small brownie for dessert, highly caloric to help revamp those lost swimming calories. Neil also offered us the choice of sweet tea or tang to drink, when was the last time you had Tang? It was a kick in a glass, and probable to my teeth upon returning to the mainland. 

Dive two was Blue Hole, and sadly between getting used to the waves of the boat on day one, and overheating my chicken, I was ill for this dive. So I sat up top and talked with the boat captain about what it was like to live on Palau while the crew was diving. This did present a great chance to take photos on the surface of the diver recovery. The last couple images show a dive bouy being deployed as well as Joan at the side of the boat getting ready to come back aboard. While I don't have much to comment on for Blue hole, everything they said carried equal excitement, if not more. I will have to dig through more photos, Blue hole is as it sounds a series of holes that create a cavern in the sea floor. You are then able to dive into the hole and explore the different entrances all while having clear visibility to the surface. The light that shines into the cavern exhibits a blue color as you look up thus the blue hole name. 

Our return trip back to Sam's was very similar, we were tired at this point but each view was something new to take in. It was just crazy how pretty the views were, my photos, my words just won't do it justice. The three of us had signed up for a third dive for the day, we tried to make the most out of each of our dive days, why not as we already have the gear rented and the boat is fueled up. We dropped off a few people at the dock, gathered one last scuba tank and headed out, about 6 of us. 

Todays dive was Chandelier Cave, a site that was at max 5 mins away from Sam's. Sadly the GoPro had run out by this point so I will have to describe. Im sure your initial thought of diving in a cave is one of concern, underwater, black hole, what could go wrong? I assure you this isn't a long term sport that we will be taking on. Chandelier Cave is another one of those famous Palau sites that is must see, its really a Cavern and at each major opening there is an air pocket. So diving this cave is really quite simple you go from room to room with stopping points where you can breathe and take in the surroundings. The opening for this cave started underwater, which amazes me how anyone could have found it. 20ft down or so is this very large opening that allows you to swim in, another 30ft or so and you find yourself at the first of the four cavern spaces. I should note before even starting Neil passed out underwater flashlights so we could see our way, cool tech. The inside of the first room showed a vast variety of stalactites coming down from the ceiling, we were guided that as we surface we should put a hand over our head and reach out of the water to prevent and unwanted whack. The space inside was quite large and the rock formations were very cool, some dripping water in places. We spent maybe 10 mins in each of the four rooms exploring this very unique experience. Exiting we were able to turn off all our lights under the water and see the blue opening to swim towards, very eire to be under water in black, but still have light coming in from one space. Overall I would very much recommend this experience if are diving, the air pockets was what really sold me. 

This was an amazing day of vacation, one that we will hold very close in images, memories in words. Highly recommend Palau, and if I haven't convinced you yet, there are still many more days in the water to write about.