Palau

On our first day in Palau we did a land tour.

A few more pictures of the waterfall:





These are stone monoliths at the very northern edge of Babldaob Island. No one really knows who put them there or for what purpose, but they are similar to the monoliths at Easter Island (only smaller).



This is a traditional bai, or men's house where the village chiefs met to make decisions. Traditional Palauan culture is matrilineal with the land, money and power of the family coming from your Mother's side. Although the men made the important decisions about who to war with, etc, women were still considered more powerful because the elder women decided who the chiefs were.



After the day of land touring and hiking, we dove for one day. Although I do not have any from in the water, here are some photos from the boat ride out there and from our lunch spot. The islands are called the Rock Islands, and they look like they are floating at high tide:






On the way back from the dive trip that day, the boat stopped off at jellyfish lake. Jellyfish lake is the only place in the world where you can swim surrounded by thousands of non-stinging jellyfish. The lake was separated from the ocean at one point, and in the absence of predators, the jellyfish lost their sting. They live in symbiosis with photosynthetic bacteria which provide them with food. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries and I only got this one shot. The jellyfish became much more concentrated after this, but at least it gives you the idea.


OK, that is enough for now. I will add more later to this same blog. Enjoy the pictures!

We went kayaking the day after the first dive. We did a guided kayak tour during the day, then the company dropped us off on a beach on one of the uninhabited Rock Islands to camp for the night. In the morning, we got up and paddled back to the dive shop. It was a really nice, peaceful experience, camping out there on the deserted beach. Probably not for everyone, but we liked it!

Here are some kayaking and snorkeling pictures. The snorkeling was really amazing, the places we went had shade and sun loving corals.
A clam:

Mandarin Fish. Look close and you will see a blue and orange patterned fish, it was a really beautiful fish.

This is bubble coral, it is a soft coral that turns hard if you swish your hand near it.


Some amazingly bright corals:


There were a few more I was going to put up, but the computer has decided to be extremely slow in uploading, so I will post them up in the next few days, along with the pictures from the dolphin encounter we did after we returned from kayaking.