Palau. If there was ever a magical place, I’m pretty sure thats where it would be. Palau consists of about 200 gorgeous islands of limestone and volcanic rock islands covered in lush green forest and surrounded by sparkling turquoise water.
For those of you that are curious where Palau is, there is a tiny speck on google maps between the Philippines and Guam. Right smack in the middle of nowhere is paradise.
I seriously plotted ways for us to miss our flight home… That is how epic this trip was.
I thought about how I could possibly share this trip in all its awesomeness and not bore you with book report facts or overwhelm you with the 1400 photos I came home with. So I’m going to do my best and give you just the major points after 25 dives.
This was our home for 10 days at the Palau Royal Resort:
This was our view every morning heading out to the dive sites with Fish n Fins:
The topic of conversation everyday was the Palau trifecta. Shark, Manta, Turtle. And you could see all 3 in ONE dive at the German Channel. Oh and we visited the German Channel 5 times. 😀
The famous Blue Corner is everything its cracked up to be. Amazeballs. And you find out what it feels like being “bait” at the end of a fishing line… Also called “reef hooking” 😀
Did I mention MANTAS?! 😀
There were sharks on 95% of the dives. Grey Reef, White Tip, & Black Tip Sharks. Just hanging out. No feeding. No chumming. Just 100% National Geographic-ness. (yes that’s a word) Seriously. 😀
The fish population is insane. So many species. At first I thought I had a bunch of particulate in photos… Nope, that’s just hundreds and hundreds of tiny fish.
If my high school history class let me dive wrecks and tanks of WWII, maybe I would have paid attention more. You can’t help but get wrapped up in the history of the islands. It’s as beautiful as heart wrenching. The Peleliu Tour and local museums were a must. We were even taken through an old bunker. I’m still trying to forget the bats….
The wall dives were incredible. Sheer drop offs of sea fans and soft corals into the deep blue. Crazy schools of fish. Oh and sharks will be cruising through right below you. Turtle Cove was one of my favs
The Blue Holes and Siaes Tunnel were gorgeous. I love the ambient lighting of these drops. Siaes Tunnel was at 100ft below!
And last but not least, JELLY FISH LAKE. There are no words really. It felt like a dream. How does something like that even exist?! I will call you Squishy, and you will be mine.
And of course what always makes a great trip is the people you travel with. We had a great group of divers, an awesome crew at Fish n Fins and so many great memories! Till next time!
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