Palau

December 2018 - January 2019

A trip with Adrienne to Palau for scuba diving, with stops in Guam and Oahu

Guam Map Palau Map Oahu Map

After four flights, we took a break for a couple of days in Guam. Unfortunately, we happened to be there during a federal government shutdown, so we didn't get to visit the National Wildlife Reserve or many of the museums. We did see a recreation of the cave where a Japanese soldier hid for decades after WWII ended, and a beach with magnetic black sand.

Our next stop was Palau, where we stayed in a cute hotel and did some souvenir shopping and sightseeing before getting on a liveaboard for a trip out into the rock islands. We had a great trip, doing lots of diving. Unusual creatures we saw: Giant clams, mantis shrimp, spadefish, turtles hanging out with batfish, squids who inked at us, Napoleon wrasses, Bumphead parrotfish spawning, Mandarinfish, and Leopard sharks. We also snorkeled in the famous Jellyfish lagoon and saw thousands of medusas.

We were supposed to visit Kauai on the way back, but our flight out of Palau was canceled because of mechanical problems. We spent an extra couple days in Palau waiting for word of when we'd be able to fly back and taking a jungle river cruise and driving an ATV around.

We decided to stick to Oahu on our return, and rented a Jeep. It was awesome to ride around with the top down, pulling off the highway to visit tidepools, watch humpbacks, and go on hikes. We did a birding tour and saw some neat endemic species. We picked up some more aloha shirts to add to my collection, and a bunch of fabric and an authentic pattern. Adrienne has big plans for making Aloha shirts when we get back to the mainland.