Snorkeling in the Rock Islands

One thing I really wanted to do before I left Palau was to see Jellyfish Lake again. On Sunday, Emily, one of the other expat lawyers, was taking the Rock Island snorkeling tour with Maggie, a friend of hers from home. They invited me along and I thought it was excellent idea to see all the big snorkeling spots one last time. Coincidentally, the only other member of our group was another expat lawyer named Craig who wanted to see the Rock Islands before Survivor shuts down large portions for two months. Friday's paper had the list of filming locations and it looks like they'll be using the same spots as the last time.

We left Sam's in one of their small boats with Melahi as our guide. She was thrilled to have locals who knew the area and it made for a very relaxed trip. This was my third time on their tour and I had been to most of the sites on my own as well, so this trip wasn't about seeing anything new, it was about enjoying it one last time. Once out in the islands, the water was incredibly calm and glasslike so much you could see the islands and sky reflecting on the surface.

The first stop was Cemetery Reef which I had just been to the day before. This time, I went all the way around the reef and explored it thoroughly. I saw the giant lettuce coral and the small anemones. No wrasses this time, but there was plenty of trigger fish cruising the reef. We were the only ones there and hung for a while perusing the reef until two other tour boats arrived and we decided to move on.

Next up was Big Drop-off out past German Channel. Where we jumped in we saw a huge wrasse looking for food. Below us a group of divers had just descended and their bubbles were rising all around us so we swam on to get ahead of them. At first there was only the coral and smaller fish to entertain us. The reef has a sheer drop off 2,000 feet and is fascinating to follow the edge. Further along I started seeing some black tip sharks and then I came across the turtles. I saw three turtles swimming below and followed their path for a while. With sharks, turtles, and more wrasses to see we stayed in the water a long time. Melahi let us stay out until we were ready and then picked us up in the boat.

In order to avoid the tourists we decided to push back lunch and head next to Jellyfish Lake. They've made many improvements to the dock area and there is now a Koror State shelter at the initial dock where they are checking permits. Being a local, I got to walk right past them. After the hike up and over the hill we arrived at the lake just as the tour groups were leaving. We had the entire lake just for the four of us. It was a sunny day so the jellyfish were not all grouped at the surface, but once I got out into the lake I was surrounded. It had been six months since my last time, but there was no hesitation and I eagerly touched and held the jellyfish. It was such a serene experience diving down and swimming through the jellyfish and then looking back up as the suns rays made them translucent. Even though it was my fourth visit, I had a fantastic time and it still remains the most unique experience in Palau.

For lunch we eschewed the beaches where all the tourists go and Melahi found us a small unoccupied beach. We sat in the shade underneath the broad leaves of trees and the pillowy soft sand and ate our lunches. It was a beautiful spot to rest and dewrinkle from a long morning of snorkeling.

The next stop was the reef with many names, from Melahi's Reef to Rainbow Reef. It's a current snorkel where we jumped in at one end and let the current take us over the brightly colored coral. The others saw a large black-tip, but I was further away and missed it.

We next headed over to milky way, but at first I was the only one to jump in. I swam down and got some mud for Emily's friend Maggie, who slathered it on. The others were avoiding getting in, so naturally I started throwing mud at them. They feigned anger, but then jumped in and swam around the muddy water.

Our final stop was a place I had kayaked over and fished before, but had not snorkeled. The area was in Malakal harbor near Dolphin's Pacific. It had large bushes of coral that had survived the El Nino bleaching in the 1990's. I had not seen much coral like that so it was really interesting and great to see someplace new even after being here a year. We had just a short ride back to Sam's to conclude a wonderful day snorkeling the Rock Islands. That evening, I joined Emily and Maggie for dinner at the Taj and had a great meal, although Emily was nursing a bad sunburn.