Diving Day 1 - Ulong

Sorry for the delay in posting updates. It turns out that Palau has the worst wifi connectivity in the northern hemisphere. We repeatedly tried downloading an app to transfer photos but never got beyond 12%. Alas we're crossing the Pacific back towards the US and have some time and connectivity to catch up.

We were pleasantly surprised upon waking the first day to find that our garden view looked out into a bay with the lush limestone islands that make up Palau. After a quick breakfast, we were picked up by Sam's Tours and driven a short distance to the dive shop. We could have walked.

We got our gear set up on the dive boat and headed to an area called Ulong. The first dive was Sandy Paradise. We were lucky and saw two octopus, Brittany's favorite, one of which was moving about and showing off his tentacles. Nico spotted a white tip shark taking it easy under some coral.

After our first dive, the captain took us to Ulong Island to enjoy our bento box lunches. This island is apparently where two seasons of Survivor had been filmed. It was very isolated and incredibly beautiful.

The second dive was Ulong Channel. It was a drift dive. At first glance, it looked like there were hundreds of rocks lining the bottom of the channel, but after a closer look, they were actually Groupers gathering in time for spawning around the new moon. Many of them were very playful, darting around after each other. There was also a large lettuce coral that many fish swam in and out of.

At night, we ate dinner at the hotel. The food was decent but overpriced. We got to hear the most obnoxious sneeze known to man. It was an early bed time this night.Read more