Palau

Palau Kids Sea Camp journey

Even though it was 10 P.M. Palauan time, we were greeted by some native girls and boys dressed in native attire. They placed leaves on us made of local flowers interlaced in palm fronds. It was late at night when we arrived at The Palau Royal Resort, so I went straight to sleep.

Sunday

I woke up this morning still adjusting to the humidity and heat (82 degrees F and sunny). From the balcony, I saw a breathtaking view. For the first time, my Mom woke up early and actually wanted to stay awake. The tall limestone cliffs, each inch covered with lush, green growth, dip into crystal-clear blue water. There was no smog, so I could see to the end of the Earth. We headed down to an unusual breakfast buffet. It had a combination of American, Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese foods. Taking snorkeling gear from the dive shop, we headed out to the dock for our boat tour of the Islands and Jelly Lake. It was amazing! The boat ride took us through more lush green islands, unspoiled by mankind, sticking up like broccoli heads.

Jellyfish Lake was incredible!

This was my first time ever touching a Jellyfish (that didn’t sting). The Jellyfish in Jelly Lake have lost their ability to sting because they have no need to. Jelly Lake is an isolated saltwater lake with no predators to eat the jellies and no fish for the jellyfish to hunt. Now they rely on internal algae for food, following the sun during the day, but at night they go down into a highly toxic (to humans) nitrogen-rich layer of water to fertilize the algae.

Later that day, we had a BBQ lunch. I made a new friend. Her name is Callie. She is 10 years old, blonde, and energetic, and she is a certified diver like me. We all loaded back up onto the boat and headed for a snorkel at Clam City. The Clams there, Mackenzie. She is younger than me, 8, and in the Kids Sea Camp’s sassy program. From Clam City, we went back to the resort, explored a bit, and then we got ready for our welcome dinner at the Sea Passion resort.

We knew the President of Palau was coming that evening, so I put on my best dress. We had an exuberant welcome by native dancers and a native ritual of “Calling of the Canoe”. The President of Palau gave a welcoming speech in which he spoke about the islands of Palau and how much he enjoyed having us there. A week before our arrival, he had declared to the United Nations that Palau was the first and only “Shark Sanctuary” in the world. I got to shake his hand, take a picture with him, and all the kids at Kids Sea Camp.

Monday:

On the second day, we had the unusual breakfast again and headed over to Sam’s Tours for our first dive. There I was assigned to the “Whale Shark” boat, where I met some of the other Junior Open Water Divers and our Dive guides.

German Channel

Our first dive took us on a one-hour boat trip winding through the Palauan islands to a location named German Channel. We sighted a 6-foot Manta Ray, lots of corals, a porcupine fish, and lots of sharks. The German Channel is a cleaning station for all fish. In this area, fish from all over the ocean stop to let cleaner wrasses safely clean large predatory fish that would otherwise eat them. This makes the German Channel a safe and amazing place to view lots and lots of ocean creatures.

The lunch spot was awesome! We went to a private white-sand beach with the ocean on both sides and large coconut palms for shade along the edges of a dense jungle. I went swimming and shell collecting with my friend Callie.

The second dive of the day was named “Big Drop Off”. This dive is a wall drift dive. Along with wide varieties of fish, we found a lizardfish and a Nudibranch among the corals and sea fans that covered the wall.

We returned to the resort and got ready for our next evening. Dinner was served at an Indian restaurant named the Taj. They served us a delicious dinner of different and interesting Indian foods. That evening, we had interesting Indian dancers about my age. They did a bunch of dances, changing clothes between each one. Some of the dances had veils, and some had little bells all over the outfits – like belly dancers. They were quite impressive.

Tuesday

Once again, we had breakfast and headed out to the German Channel. We were met by a lot of rain coming sideways at us like bullets as we sped along in the boat. At German Channel, we saw two humongous Manta Rays, the size of cars, at the cleaning stations; 28 sharks – all different kinds – white tip, black tip, and reef – the size of surfboards; a Green Sea turtle; and some very interesting sea stars. An excellent and lucky dive!

We had another fabulous lunch – a chicken bento box. This time we had lunch at Sam’s Tours because of the rain.
The second dive took us through rough surf to the Blue Corner dive site. Since I was limited as a Junior Open Water diver to 40 feet, this dive was ok. We saw one puffer fish, two warty sea slugs, and some starfish amongst schools of triggerfish, butterflyfish, and bannerfish.

That evening, we went to the Sea Passion for another exquisite dinner. That day, we had the Polynesian dancers. There wasn’t much singing like before, but there were some instruments, like a hollowed-out gourd made into a drum and two frayed sticks that sounded like rain and thunder when put together. That night we went home (back to the hotel) and slept like rocks.

Wednesday

That day, I awoke to something very unusual – it was absolutely pouring rain. We headed down to breakfast and tried to avoid the downpour. After breakfast, we headed down to the dive shop and hopped on the boat. My guide, Alex, warned me that I still needed to put on sunscreen even if the sun wasn’t visible. Once again, the rain was coming into the boat sideways as we sped over to the German Channel. That day, I wore my wetsuit before I even got into the water.

One thing about SCUBA is that if it rains, it doesn’t matter because you are below water! That day I saw schoolmasters, horse-eyed jacks, squirrel fish – the usual hordes of schools and corals. I didn’t see much in the channel, unique or extra large, on this dive.

Blue Corner

That afternoon, we headed out to Blue Corner – also there, I didn’t see any unique fish – a large puffer, but I was told that the adults down at 70 feet saw quite a few sharks. The Teen Divers also had a painting lesson with a funny artist who travels with Kids Sea Camp around the world, teaching children how to paint.

After the painting, I did my first night dive. It was amazing, I saw several interesting Sea Cucumbers and fish. All of them were hiding. That night, we had the Yap dancers. Yap is a very small island just northeast of Palau. We were told we were going to girls dancing, but instead they sent the young men with bo staffs. As soon as our heads hit the pillow, we fell asleep.

Thursday – Thanksgiving

It was my first time celebrating Thanksgiving outside of America. I was told that the locals don’t really celebrate the holiday, other than going to church. Catholicism is the main religion. They do celebrate Halloween there.

It was a sunny day as we headed out on the Silvertip boat to our morning German Channel dive. There I saw one large Manta Ray going into the cleaning station and a couple of sharks. I was surprised that the sharks were so large.
I must say it was quite a thrill to be diving with them. My dive guide told me that in thousands of dives, there have never been any issues with the sharks. They are in the channel as part of their lifestyles and don’t bother with us divers.

Jake’s Seaplane

After a fabulous lunch on the beach, we went to Jake’s Seaplane. This dive spot features an interesting plane wreck and a lot of diverse coral. It’s down about 40 feet, so perfect for Junior Open Water Divers. There were lots of Parrotfish. Part of the plane’s right wing was missing. I found it 20 feet away, hollow and covered in corals. The plane was a WWII plane – I don’t know whose.

We did a third dive at 10 feet for 15 minutes, where I saw a puffer fish and my first Mandarin Fish. It was soooo cute. A native of this area with large yellow lips, green to its forehead, blue chin, orange body, and blue squarish circles all over its body.

We went to Sea Passion for dinner. The four turkeys were baked in four different ways, along with several other sides, including cornbread, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and cranberry sauce. That evening, we made a sand Manta Ray on the beach about the size of the real deal. With my guide and new best friend’s boyfriend, Paul, who made a sand shark with the boys.

Friday

Our last day diving. My first dive was the German Channel, and almost as if there was a going-away send-off, we saw a large Manta Ray, sharks, and lots of interesting Fish. After that dive, we went back to the dive shop for lunch and caught up with our parents. We went to the Light House dive site, where we dove as a family, just the four of us, with two guides. This was my father’s 100th dive, making him a century diver. My mother got her century dive in a few days before. It was a great dive with loads of fire corals, lizardfish, and bubbles.

Saturday

Today is my last day in Palau. I am not pleased to be leaving. We made a lot of friends in Palau. My guide, Alex, I will miss. I wish I could stay. I went to a beautiful waterfall with my dad. We went under two waterfalls and jumped off small ledges into a pool along the river’s path. There was a lot of mud, and one time I actually got stuck. I think my Keens were a little less pink after that hike.

We went to the stone head garden

Some looked happy, sad, or angry. There we had lunch. The usual Bento boxes, but this time we had some traditional Palauan food like candied tapioca and fresh coconut milk/meat. After that, we headed back to the hotel, stopping at the Capitol building.

When we got back, we packed up our stuff, took a shower, and headed over to Sam’s tours for the graduation ceremony. There was a whole cooked pig! There was a ceremony for each group: adults, teens, sassy/seals, and junior open waters. Then there was the poem contest. The poem that my mom and I worked on the evening before got first place (out of like 20 poems).

We won an underwater digital camera.

We then watched the video made by Nick Martirano, who followed us around all week, said our last goodbyes, and headed for the airport. I practically cried all the way there. We arrived at the airport for our treacherous flights to Colorado. I slept most of the way through it. The odd part was that it started on Saturday, then Sunday, then Saturday again, and finally, we got home on Sunday morning at 5 A.M.
Final thoughts

I think Palau is one of the best places for families to go in the entire world. Kids Sea Camp is a great place to meet new people and learn about the world’s different cultures. Palau is one of the best places to go diving. Magnificent Mantas and Sharks. Try to go there at least once in your lifetime. Thank you, Margo Peyton and Kids Sea Camp!

Jane Colon-Bonet’s Kids Sea camp Adventure, Palau trip Journal