Day 6 – Last day of diving

Day 6 – Last day of diving

Today we learned more about marketing our trips. Trip-n-Tour has come up with several good ideas. Then we went over some more of the local area history. After Japan attacked China, they claimed all of Micronesia. Some say that Amelia Earhart did her around-the-world-flight for a couple of reasons. One, to be the first to do it and second, to fly through the Japanese areas of the South Pacific to see what type of build-up they had been doing. There apparently have been some recordings of seeing her in a Japanese jail on the island of Saipan. The Japanese used Palau as a large base. Palau Pacific Resort still has some of the bunkers around and you can still see the ramps that were used for the seaplanes. Bummer, class is over and they say we must go diving again. This is our last day in the waters of Palau.

We were given a nice tour of the Rock Islands and our boat driver Ray took us through Palau’s famous arch. I have been around the rock islands many times now and I am still impressed with the beauty of it.

Dive 1: New Drop Off: I did not take my camera this time around and because of that we got to see a couple of lionfish, and a great photo-op of a grouper getting cleaned by some cleaner wrasses. The fan corals on this dive were large and very colorful. Overall this would have been a great place to take some wide-angled pictures.

Dive 2: Turtle Wall: At first I was not sure we were going to see any turtles, but we did run into them. We saw a couple of them swimming around and at least 2 just sitting there. The current here was just enough at some places to help us move along without having to kick. That is the type of diving I love.

Dive 3: Chandelier Cave: Not much of a dive as in bottom time, but fun none the less. There are four different chambers to ascend into, the first one being the largest. The stalactites were amazing with the color and the sparkling crystals. The water is super clear. I got up ahead of the group and was able to look back at everyone with the light glow of blue from the opening and blackness around us except for the flashlights of the divers. That was a perfect picture, if I had my camera. When we left the cave I did try to find the mandarin goby, but to no avail. It was too early for them to come out.

The dinner for tonight was at the Cliffside Hotel. They had setup a nice buffet style dinner for us. We had dinner with Lucy Sugiyama, Resident Manager of Palau Pacific Resort. Shallum and Mandy Etpison the owners of Neco Marine also joined us for dinner. So far we have had dinner at different restaurants around the city of Koror and they all have been good. The most expensive dinner to this date was at the Cliffside Hotel, costing $25 per person. Tomorrow night the Palau Pacific Resort is hosting our dinner. It will be kind of nice to have dinner at the same place we are staying. So until tomorrow I bid you a good night and happy diving.