Visitor number two managed to come and go from Palau injury free! Tom definitely got a little bit more sunburned than expected, but that's not a surprise, given that Palau is 7 degrees north of the equator, and Wisconsin is, well, in Wisconsin. It was fantastic to have family in town, and it was a lot of fun to show him off to my friends and co-workers. And between having dinner with the CJ (the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court), and sitting a table away from the President of Palau at a restaurant, Tom got a little taste of how the wheels turn here. Unfortunately this is the only photo I have on my camera from his visit....
But rest assured, Tom hiked, swam, and floated all over this place!
According to our guide, if you collect some of the clay and smooth it over your body, you immediately "lose ten years!" I'm not convinced that it's not just a way to get those silly tourists to cover themselves in mud, but Tom and I did it anyway. It was a lot of fun, despite the fact that we were both picking siltiness out of our hair for the rest of the day.
After Milky Way we got to check out a few nearby snorkeling sites. Tom got really lucky and saw 2 or 3 turtles, along with some beautiful coral and a pesky school of needle fish that didn't seem to want to leave us alone. And, of course, we saw some remora sleeping in a sandy patch...I was ready to protect Tom but luckily they didn't try to latch on. But that doesn't mean that we didn't have some close encounters at...
Shark City! After we stopped for lunch at a rock island with a beautiful sandy beach, our guide nonchalantly said, "OK guys, time to go see some sharks!" So we grabbed our snorkel gear and followed her to a spot about 30 feet away from the beach. And saw sharks we did! When we caught up with our guide, we were immediately surrounded by at least 20 reef and black tipped sharks. They were literally surrounding us and swimming back and forth at a pretty rapid (and a little too aggressive for my taste) rate. I wasn't used to seeing this type of action from sharks--usually they just swim right by me without any interest whatsoever. But this time they were more than curious about our snorkeling group. Tom seemed to be having a great time watching it though, so--being the tough Island Girl I claim to be--I pretended that everything was just peachy. After about 15 minutes of terror/excitement, our guide led us to our boat that was waiting nearby. It all made sense when our guide hopped on the boat, reached in the pocket of her board shorts, and pulled out a bag of tuna, commenting "It's illegal to actually feed the sharks, but they don't say anything about tempting them!" Awesome. But, like I said, Tom enjoyed it, so I wasn't complaining!
After all the sharks, we took a little time-off to view some giant clams at yet another nearby snorkel site. These guys get to be about 5 or 6 feet wide. Although we were tempted, Tom and I opted not to see what happens when one places one's hands or feet inside a giant clam's shell.
Finally, we made our way to the destination I'd been anticipating since I learned about Palau: Jellyfish Lake! I know I've mentioned this place before, but this saltwater lake was formed when certain rock islands connected thousands of years ago, leaving behind only very small fish and a species of jellyfish whose stingers eventually lost their bite for lack of need. This 100-foot deep lake houses literally millions of jellyfish, ranging from the size of a fingernail to the size of a volleyball. And those willing to pay a small fee to Koror State can hike through a rock island and go snorkeling through this freak of nature!
Thankfully, Tom is up for absolutely anything, and so we hiked the small trek up and down the rock island, and hopped right into the lake. We swam about 50 meters out through the murky water, and we both saw one jellyfish. Getting excited, I decided to snap a picture with our underwater camera. Bad decision because that was our last shot. After swimming another 50 yards, we were literally surrounded by millions of the jellyfish. I didn't get to document it, but it looks something like this:
And it feels...well, it's tough to describe. The best I can say is that it's somewhat like you're swimming through kooshballs covered in superball material. Surreal and a lot of fun. While we were swimming around, all I could hear was Tom laughing through his snorkel. Apparently some of our fellow snorkelers didn't like it, but we had a blast!
When we eventually listened to our guides plea for us to get out and head back to the boat, two funny things happened:
1. Our guide had been paddling alongside our group the whole time rather than snorkeling. I just figured that it was because she had a better view of where the jellyfish were. But when Tom and I got out of the lake, we overheard her asking the Koror state employees where "Snappy" was. After some prodding, she told us that Snappy is a four-foot baby crocodile that had recently made jellyfish lake his home. She said that they've been unable to remove the elusive Snappy, but that we shouldn't worry, the only times he's bothered snorkelers was when he glided on top of a guide's boogie board. Oh, great! At least it'll be a friendly crocodile that approaches me in a murky lake!
2. Apparently I'd forgotten to tell Tom that the jellyfish don't actually sting you. He said that he "figured it out" by touching them once he was surrounded. Another point for adventurousness Tom!
Tom and I were completely wiped out after the Rock Islands tour, so he took it easy the next couple of days while I worked, hanging out on my porch and at PPR. We headed up to Babaldaob a few days later and went on the Jungle River Cruise, where we spotted a six foot long crocodile, held a baby croc, and let a huge fruit bat perch on our hands. In Palau fruit bat soup is considered one of the local foods that everyone must try, but after holding one of these ugly guys, I'm just going to forget they exist. Tom and I agreed that they're just gross.
Finally, on Tom's last day here, Tom, Holly, and I drove up to Babeldaob again and hiked to the waterfall in Ngardmau. I've been to this waterfall once before--it's the biggest waterfall in Palau. Tom had a great time hiking through the jungle, standing under the waterfall, and enjoying his first coconut at the end of the hike!
All in all, it was a pretty great trip! But of course, Tom experienced the daily grind that living in Palau means. My power steering broke down, and I had to fix it mid-week. Tom had to drive through Palau rush hour, which, although only about a half mile long, proves to be pretty aggravating when there are no stop signs and plenty of bottlenecks. We got a flat tire one night after I finished work, and once we fixed the tire, my car wouldn't start. Because it was after 5 pm, no nearby auto shops were open, and we were stuck. Thankfully, a crafty man helped us out by switching out my car battery for his, following us back to my apartment, promptly switching the batteries back, and driving away. But Tom was a great sport about the whole thing, as long as he got a few Red Roosters afterwards.
The WORST part about his visit (and my biggest complaint about Palau) is that we didn't get to watch the Packers win, and Tom was stuck checking the score every 30 seconds. For some reason that's just beyond me, we don't get FOX sports here. It's not that I miss that annoying robot mascot, it's just that I don't want to watch cricket (shown on ESPN all the time here!) when my Packers are on the road to the Superbowl! But thankfully one of the bars here will be having a Super Bowl party on February 7, a few other Packer fans and myself will be there at 7 am to bang on the drum!!!
GO PACK GO!!!!!
