Yesterday we had our first day of diving. We went first to a dive site named German Channel. There is a feeding station there and if you are lucky you can see Manta Rays they are not always out it depends on the the moon, the current, etc.. We were lucky enough to see the Manta Rays. One came about 5 feet away from me. All of a sudden it was dark above me and I looked up to see the huge Manta with at least a 10-15 foot wing span it was really crazy!! They looks so alien like. But, they are so graceful. Every dive we see sharks but the first shark we saw as we descended was a huge white tip reef shark he had some girth on him. We then went to a deserted beach that was beautiful and had a bento box lunch. And on to our secdond dive at blue hole. Which is a place that has holes in the coral that you go down and then come out at the bottom at about 90 feet then you finish your dive off on a big wall. We saw a lot of pretty colored fish and soft corals. After the first day of diving the jet lag really settled in. After getting back to the hotel I immediatly took a shower and headed to the Spa for a Balinese massage I knew it was going to be the only thing that would help me. So I got an hour balinese massage with a 30 min foot massage. The only thing I remember from the whole massage was the masseuse spraying my face with a peppermint mist to wake me up I think I was on another galaxy! After that I felt a lot better and we went to dinner and went straight to sleep. We woke up the next day feeling much better and ready for another day of diving. today we went to Ulong channel and we had an awesome dive. We saw turtles and sleeping sharks, and awake sharks, and baby sharks, We got to see Cabbage coral, and nudibranchs, as well as Eels. Our total dive time on that dive ended up being 63 mins!! We then went to lunch at Ulong isalnd were the Survivor was a couple years ago ad we ate lunch there. It is a really pretty place except I saw a rat!! EWW. We then headed to do another dive at Shia's Corner. This was a huge wall there was a point in the dive were there were about nine 10 foot sharks below me all circling it was really cool. There was a time they came pretty close but I think they were just checking us out. Nothing to be scared of. We then headed off to Jelly Fish lake a lake on a rock island that has millions of stingreless jelly fish. The islands are made of limstone and the only animals that can live on most of them are sime birds, bats and some trees. This lake is full of salt and fresh water the bottom of the lake has sediment from the limestone so no free diving or scuba diving is allowed in the lake because at the bottom the water is toxic. But on top is were the fresh water is from rain so it is fine to snorkel. The jellyfish stay together and they follow the sun. At first you are snorkeling and you do not see anything then all of a sudden you see a cloud of white and they are all little jelly fish there are big ones and baby ones. It is such a trippy experince. You could spend hours there and never get tired of hanging out with them. It is the coolest feeling to have jelly fish touching every part of your body they are so soft. Its also really fun to look at them becuase they are see through and you can hold one and look at everything going on inside of the jellyfish. I got a lot of good pictures of them. After the lake we went back to the dive shop and got some dinner tonight at the buffet at the hotel it is french night they had rack of lamb stuffed with pineapple, french onion soup, steak, fish, shrimp, and potatoes. It was really good. We are planning on trying to do three dives tomorrow then head to a Local thai food place for dinner that is supposed to be amazing.
One thing I am noticing that is great about Palau is it is so kid friendly there are kids age 2 and 4 out on the dive boats with us. The parents dive while a babysitter from the dive shop watches the kids on the boat. The kids are so cute and have a lot of fun. The PPR hotel is also very secluded from the wind so the water is like a lake there are no waves and the water off the beach is only 3 feet deep and stays that way for a long time. It is also very safe here there is not much crime if any and all the people are very nice.