Malapascua Diving

April PADI IDC

May 31st, 2010

Our April PADI IDC was our usual success, and star candidates Karlis, Dustin and Henrik sailed through getting high marks and keeping up TSD’s perfect record of 100% first time pass in the PADI Dive Instructor Course.

L-R: George Wegmann (PADI Instructor Examiner), Dustin, Mike (CD), Karlis, Henrik

This IDC was definitely a fun one as everyone knew each other very well. Dustin, Karlis and Soren are all long termers at TSD and Malapascua – at least 6 months each, and Henrik had been here for 2 months completing his DM.

The IDC flew by with our resident Course Director, Mike, at the helm. All too quickly they were off to beautiful Dumaguete for the PADI Instructor Exam where they achieved the much deserved qualification of PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor.

All 3 continued on to take PADI Specialty Instructor ratings, with Henrik doing no less than 13! Joining them here and there along the way to add to their Specialty Instructor ratings, were already certified instructors Bernita, Holly, Justin, Matt and even our own Dino!

We wish them all the best of luck in their future careers, with Karlis heading off to his job in the Red Sea, Soren to Thailand, and Henrik off to finish diving the length and breadth of the Philippines before maybe trying to find work… Dustin will be staying with us at TSD to continue in his unofficial post as head nudibranch spotter and identifier whilst teaching and guiding in between.

Tags: Dive Instructor Course, PADI IDC, Philippines
Posted in Instructor Development, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Thresher Shark Diving!

May 28th, 2010

That’s (almost) our name, don’t wear it out!

The last two months on Monad Shoal have just been crazy, crazy, crazy, with big stuff absolutely everywhere. All our divers have been coming back every day with huge, beaming smiles and great photos.

To start with, there have been plenty of thresher sharks to go around. And the mantas are out in full force. Also devil rays are being seen in numbers I have never heard of before – up to 30 at a time. Devil rays flying in squadron formation is truly a sight to behold, it almost feels like you are in Star Wars!

As an example, earlier this week there was an almost unheard of 6 thresher sharks circling at the same time. And as if that wasn’t enough, the lucky divers went back later that afternoon and saw 5 mantas. Quite a day’s diving.

This almost beats Trevor’s all time world record from back in 2004. He was doing a 75 minute nitrox dive with our old friend Alain and they had 7 sharks circling at once.

Peter Quinn was with us recently and managed to shoot these excellent video clips on just his basic point and shoot camera.

On a related note, probably the most popular question asked by divers coming to Malapascua Island is, “When is the best time for thresher sharks?”

Well, as threshers are wild animals, they don’t always come when they are supposed to, so it is tricky question to answer. But I will try my best:

Threshers can be seen year round and it is very rare to have a day when one is not seen on Monad Shoal. But there are times of the year when the general tendency is better and there are more sharks around.

Over my 7 years on Malapascua Island, June to October have been the months when we see the most, whereas January and February are not so good. But having said that, January and February 2008 and 2009 were great for threshers and September 2008 was not. And this year, April and May have been just amazing.

So go figure…

What does this mean?

Book your holiday whenever is best for you and you are almost guaranteed to have some great shark sightings! But it is a good idea to come for at least 4 days diving just in case, to make sure you get that special experience.

But for the inside scoop, my favorite month has always been September

Tags: manta rays, Shark Diving, Thresher Sharks
Posted in Thresher Sharks | No Comments »

Family Planning

May 1st, 2010

This blog is ostensibly a diving blog, but our lives here are, by necessity, intertwined with local life and the local community so today’s entry will focus on them.

As you know if you have been here, the local community is very poor. The Philippines itself has huge problems with poverty. Wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few and according to international data, 44 % of the population subsist on US$2 or less a day.

One of the main contributors to poverty anywhere is population growth. In the Philippines it is the main cause of poverty, over and above even corruption. Population is growing at an alarming rate, currently 2.36% per year and is expected to increase from around 84 million in 2006 to a staggering 111 million in 2015. Reasons include a lack of family planning, lack of education, lack of access, lack of funding etc etc. And the laws in the Philippines only serve to compound this – artificial methods of contraception are strongly discouraged and abortion is illegal. Read more on this.

The Philippines is a very catholic country and the government is seemingly intent on expanding its population, at the very time in the Earth’s history when it should be cutting back. It is not unusual for women here to have up to 10 or more children, their families living on something around the equivalent of USD50 per month.

But back to Malapascua. Our staff used to be primarily men so pregnancy issues were not something that affected us. But when we opened the bar and restaurant 2 years ago, we started employing more women. Over this time we have lost many of them temporarily or permanently to pregnancy. The lucky ones have ‘supportive’ partners. The unlucky ones are barely out of adolescence and left alone to care for their child(ren). The up side is that Filipino families are communal, so there are usually relatives to help care for the child, allowing the young mother to go back to work.

But to my shock and dismay, I recently found out about a worrying trend on the island. It’s a secret, but everyone seems to know. The young women are finally fighting back at tradition and the law and saying that they are not yet ready for babies. They are not prepared to be celibate (the reasons for this open a whole other debate), contraception is not widely available, not affordable and/or not known about. So in their eyes, there is only one other horrendous path open to them: backstreet abortions by varying, often life-threatening, methods.

As soon as I found out about this, I set out on a mission to do something about it. This used to be slightly related to my field back in my old life, but I am a little rusty to say the least, and had little idea where to begin in a country where even the most basic forms of birth control are frowned upon and difficult to get.

After a ton of web research, I decided to start with a talk and discussion. Armed with a powerpoint presentation I had written, a stack of condoms, a banana and some thermometers, we met in the classroom for an afternoon of education and hilarity. If you have ever met our girls, you know that they like to giggle, so this was certain to be a fun session.

Me and my gals

I had no idea what to expect or even if they would be interested. But they had greeted news of the session with glee and enthusiasm and everyone who could come attended. I anticipated their current education to be limited to basic biology mixed in with a few old wives tales. When I remembered the limited knowledge of many teenage girls in the west, it did make me wonder what would come up. My mind always returned to our waitress who carried a pouch of garlic in her underpants throughout her pregnancy to ward off vampires from sucking her unborn baby’s blood…

Their knowledge was indeed limited, but they listened with wide eyes, asked lots of questions, and I hope learned a great deal. Their knowledge and misconceptions were actually very similar to their Western counterparts’.

We had a lot of fun, we giggled a lot, we practiced using condoms on a banana which we gave to Dino afterwards, although failed to trick him into eating it. The girls took the used condoms afterwards to fill up with water and thrown over each other. They each took home a sheaf of condoms for their own use, a certain lady chef promising to practice that very night with her husband, our lucky compressor man. ☺

We will be running a follow up session soon and I intend it to be an ongoing program. I will personally be sponsoring contraception for all our girls and helping them use it effectively. Hopefully we can prevent a few unwanted children on Malapascua and help our girls have children when they are ready, rather than when fate dictates. Who knows, if it works out, I would love to be able to extend it to the whole island.

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TSD newsletter finally launched

April 25th, 2010

After years of planning and procrastinating, we have finally launched our newsletter!

If you are interested in receiving our regular updates, you can sign up here:

http://www.malapascua-diving.com/newsletters/newsletter.html

Updates will be sent quarterly so they are sure to be packed with loads of interesting reads and it is easy to unsubscribe if ever you so choose.

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Malapascua finally joins the 20th Century, maybe even the 21st…

April 18th, 2010

It’s been a long hard road for us on Malapascua. Living on a heap of sand in the middle of the Pacific (as my mother puts it) is all well and good, but it tends to lack those creature comforts.

Looks beautiful, right? And it is. But this tiny island, only 2 km long, is so isolated that the things I previously took for granted, like electric cables, phone lines or a sanitized water supply, were seriously lacking when I first arrived 7 years ago.

When you turn on a light switch, you expect a light to come on, right?

Not necessarily on Malapascua.

When you turn on the shower you expect clean, hot water, right?

Not in my house.

And most importantly it seems for many of our visitors, when you go online, you expect to be able to surf the internet at lightning fast speeds and not have to wait 30 minutes for facebook to load.

Right?

Ha ha, not here

As I told one of my old schoolfriends with whom I recently reconnected (thank you facebook), “I live in the Philippines on a tiny wee island, where cold water is de rigueur and electric is optional.” And don’t even talk to me about how many hours it took to send that facebook message on my snail connection.

But NOT ANY MORE!!!!

In the same month, we were blessed with not one, not two, but all three of these modern necessities!!!

Electric

Up until now ‘Island Electric” ran from 6pm-11pm, was notoriously unreliable, of variable voltage and incredibly expensive – 8 times the price of mainland power. Most business ran their own generators which is also expensive, wasteful, hard to maintain and terrible for the environment.

But finally, after many years in the making, we have 24 hour power. This is great for the businesses but more importantly it is has changed the life on the locals who are being plugged in gratis in an effort by the government to electrify the outback.

Yeah!

Water

Although most of the resorts now have hot water, it had, up until now, evaded me at home. But after finally finding a decent plumber I can now have steaming hot showers any time of the day or night.

Double Yeah!

Wi-Fi!!!

It’s sad to say, but I am actually more excited by the advent of wifi that I am of electric. It means I can now spend all day writing these blogs!

With no landlines or any other traditional means of getting a strong internet signal, and after 5 months of messing around with the wi-fi company, we finally have super fast wi-fi in the dive shop!!! It is the fastest internet connection on the island and is currently free of charge for all our customers.

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Added to this, we have just had a stonking satellite system installed, specifically to show the World Cup. So if you fancy spending June diving during the day and watching the football in the evenings, then Malapascua is your place!

Life is now perfect in paradise!

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New Chef

March 18th, 2010

Oscar’s restaurant above TSD has been open for 15 months already and has gone from strength to strength. The food has been consistently amazing and continues to astonish us with its all-out yumminess.

But we always want to improve and for the last few months we have been looking for a new chef to move us up to the next level. After much searching and many interviews we finally hired Executive Chef Val. Val has worked as head chef and sous chef in some of the top restaurants in Cebu including Tinderbox and Abaca where I have had some of the best food in my life. So how could we turn him down?

In the short time he has been with us, he has shaken up Oscar’s and added a serious extra spark to our menu, while retaining our old style. Chef Val, quite simply, loves food, and it shows in his dishes. He manages to put together ingredients that work perfectly together – ingredients that you would never ever mix in a million years, melt together in a food frenzy in your mouth. A menu item that you think, “Huh?” works so well, you write down the ingredients and take it home to try out for yourself.

Oscar’s menu changes every day, and each evening I sit down, look at the menu of the day and want to order one of everything. It is that good.

Val is particularly fond of fusion foods and has come up with some amazing dishes. Yesterday it was Tropical Shepherd’s Pie. A contradiction in terms you may think. But the mixture of this traditional English dish with pineapple and a semi-sweet gravy was so incredibly delicious, I had it again for breakfast the next day. I can’t wait to see what he does with the fish and chips…

And his triple chocolate mousse…. Don’t even get me started on the triple chocolate mousse. This is possibly my all-time favorite dessert ever (along with crème brulee). I have eaten it in many restaurants in many cities all around the world, and Chef Val’s is about the scrummiest I have ever had anywhere ever. I had it 3 days in a row before Trevor forbade any more due to expanding waistline concerns.

Don’t get me wrong, Oscar’s still has a range of dishes to suit everyone, including our traditional British fare, but now it comes with that little bit of extra panache!

Anyway, the point of all this rant about divine food is to say WELCOME CHEF VAL! You are an angel sent from heaven to delight our taste buds!

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Project AWARE kids day

February 18th, 2010

Yesterday, TSD was proud to receive word that we have been awarded the 2009 PADI Project Aware Environmental Achievement Award for “exemplary efforts to conserve aquatic environments through education, advocacy and action.”

This is hot on the heels of our recent visit last week to the local school to hold a Project Aware Kids event. As part of our ongoing effort to protect the local environment, we have an outreach program for the local kids. Our island is very small with only one junior school and one high school. Many of the kids that attend are the children of our employees, but many are also the children of local fishermen. No matter what their parents do for the living, most of them depend on the health of the local reefs to survive.

We believe in change through education and also in providing alternatives to fishing. By employing almost exclusively members of the local population we hope to help alleviate the burden of local parents to feed their families by fishing. Through education we hope to change behavior to protect the local environment, both above and underwater and we need to work with the next generation of Malapascuans as well as the current.

Project AWARE were kind enough to send us a huge box full of goodies for our event. Their fab kids materials include stickers, activity books, and teacher’s guides. The books are chock-a-block with fun facts, information and ideas to promote environmental awareness.

Armed with these materials, our intrepid team headed off to the ‘barrio’ (village). Head of the charge was Mike – our soon to be resident Course Director – along with TSD’s Filipino DM JN, interns Sanna and Liz and general helper-outers Jason and Carley.

We chose the age group of 12 and 13 years olds for our first classroom presentation, as the school teachers thought they would be the most receptive.

We handed the books out and talked though each section, told them about Project AWARE. The colorful books were a big hit.

JN led the classroom session as he was born and bred on Malapsacua and of course speaks the local language. Although naturally shy, he soon warmed to the role and the kids obviously loved him – he is a well known face on the island and it is seemingly every Malapascua child’s dream to grow up to be a Divemaster! They discusses many aspects of conservation and underwater life, including various local marine life and of course our thresher sharks – their importance to the local economy and their place as apex predators in the food chain. Sustainable fishing methods were also discussed, as well as the trash problem faced on the island and our regular cleanup events.

Next off we handed out Project Aware stickers and gave each child an activity postcard. They were instructed to take them home, complete the conservation-related word puzzle on the back, and return it to their teachers the next day so we could post them to Project AWARE for their recognition certificates. Amazingly, out of the 57 distributed, all 57 were returned the very next day!!!

As trash is a big problem on the island, and things tend to get thrown away wherever and whenever they are no longer needed, Sanna had devised an inventive game. She distributed wrapped candies to all the children, then they had to throw the wrappers into a trash can from a distance. Whoever, got the wrappers in the trash can got another candy. Pavlov, check out Malapascua

It was a very successful day. The kids loved it and were all very interested in what we had to say, and they hopefully took some of it in. Of course we do not expect miracles overnight, but we hope with a continued effort we can make a difference.

Thank so much to Project Aware for all the materials, the kids and the teachers loved them!

And for anyone who is thinking about doing any PADI course or wants to replace their cert card with a shiny new Project AWARE version - be sure and give a donation to Project AWARE to receive a special certification card, the money really does go to a cause.

Tags: awards, Project AWARE
Posted in Environment | No Comments »

TSD’s 5 Year Anniversary

January 20th, 2010

It’s hard to believe, but December 22^nd was the 5^th anniversary of Thresher Shark Divers. We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has visited us, dived with us and supported us over the years. We hope you have enjoyed your time on Malapascua Island as much as we have enjoyed having you.

We can’t believe how quickly the time has gone. The dive shop has changed a lot since we first opened – back at Christmas 2004, Trevor and I were working 20 hours a day to keep the dive shop running with only 4 members of staff in a tiny little space.

Although we have grown up a little, Malapascua has changed surprisingly little during out time here. It has become a little busier and a few more businesses and resorts have sprung up, but we are thankful that we have so far escaped mass commercialization.

Staff from 2005

Today we have a new, much bigger space (though somehow still too small) and we employ nearly 40 full time staff. A big change, and thankfully we get a little more sleep these days.

We are very lucky in that we have been blessed with amazing staff. Particularly our dive staff, most of whom have been with us for most of if not all of these 5 years. Our divers always comment on the excellent boat crew and DMs and we are proud to have worked side by side with them for so long.

Old Dive Shop

New Dive Shop

And last but not least, Oscar’s, our new restaurant and bar upstairs has been a welcome addition and has quickly become one of the more popular places to chill for happy hour and get some great food afterwards.

Old bar

New bar

And last but definitely not least, the reason we are all here - the diving remains amazing. Thresher sharks are still around in significant numbers and sightings of mantas and hammerheads have improved dramatically. (It’s still a secret, so shhh don’t tell anyone, but there is even talk of whale sharks migrating nearby, but that is something for further investigation.) Its great news these days to hear of INCREASING shark numbers, rather than the worldwide dwindling populations of which we hear so much.

So our fifth anniversary was a big celebration. We had our traditional staff party, with wives, husbands and children along. Also attending were customers, interns and of course our instructors. Lots of silly games were played, secret santa was a big hit – its amazing what we managed to buy for P100 (USD $2). I got a lovely snowdome with a tiger and gold snowflakes, thank you Secret Santa.

And then after the tables were cleared away it was time for our local Bayut troupe of firebreathing ladyboys. Always a big hit!

The Mid-Air Splits

Here’s to the next five years!

More photos on facebook.

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First Female Advanced Nitrox Diver at TSD TEC

January 12th, 2010

We would like to warmly congratulate Natasha Green who today became the first female to certify as an IANTD Advanced Nitrox Diver at TSD TEC!

I first chatted with Natasha on New Year’s Eve in Oscar’s Pub, at which time although she was the antithesis of a technical diver adorned in pink feather boas and a tiara, she was getting very excited about the course which she had planned for a long time.

Natasha in her feather boa. OK, you've got me, it's not Natasha, it's Rich

Natasha, Sian and Clare, the terrible trio from England, have been a delight to have around the diveshop ever since and certainly gave Mike a run for his money when they took the PADI Thresher Shark Diver Specialty Course with him last week.

But due credit to her, when it was time to knuckle down and take things a little more seriously, Natasha came through with flying colors.

She sailed through the academics in one day. “Circle T?” she asked, “Is it that easy?”

The second day brought the first confined session, after which Trevor decided it was about time he retired.

But that afternoon, they both got straight back on their respective horses– or should I say straight back into their twin sets – and the dive was a complete turnaround.

Nat and Trev at the Tapilon WWII Wreck

Her first two deeper dives were on the Tapilon WWII Wreck and another on Monad. Her skills improved with each dive and after an eternity of practicing SMB deployment, valve drills, gas switches and gas shares more times than either of them cares to remember, she was finally ready for her last dive, which she performed perfectly.

As if that wasn’t enough, it was a great dive at Monad that afternoon with 2 whitetips, 3 breaching thresher sharks, a school of massive tuna and dolphins!

Big BIG smiles when she got back.

Technical diving

Congratulations Nat!

Next up for Nat – Hammerheads on Thursday!

Tags: IANTD, tec diving, Thresher Sharks, wreck diving
Posted in Cool Creatures, Technical Diving | No Comments »

Palau Trip Report

December 28th, 2009

Palau has been the dream of a lifetime for me, and so when I was offered the chance to do a liveaboard on Big Blue Explorer I jumped at the chance.

Palau is very close to the Philippines and is a perfect destination to combine with your next Malapascua or Philippines visit.

This trip was particularly exciting for me as I had been invited aboard a never-before-run trip, encompassing the ‘Best of the North and South of Palau.” This is the blurb I received about the trip:

Palau

‘A year ago, the Big Blue was chartered by the Nature Conservancy for scientific research in the northern portion of Palau. Our dive professionals found dive sites that blew their minds. ” Think Blue Corner with Silver Tips…”   This area is still largely un-explored but we have come up with an itinerary that combines the best of the most popular and well loved dive sites such as Blue Corner, Blue Holes, Ulong Channel, German Channel with the upcoming stars of Kayangel. We are working closely with the Governor of Kayangel to develop this attraction in hopes that income from the dive fees will make a significant impact on their efforts to preserve their marine resources.’

A few months ago, I met the Divemasters who were onboard the scientific expedition when they were diving with TSD and they attested to the amazing diving. The excitement was unbearable, I had to go…

Palau is just a short hop from the Philippines, I didn’t realize it was only a 2.5 hour flight from Manila. The flights are reasonably priced at US$550 round trip, all inclusive, with an almost unheard of 46 kilo luggage allowance.

Big Blue Explorer

Soon after reaching Manila airport, I met up with some friends, some of whom were pleasant surprises. So it promised to be a fun trip.

We arrived in Palau at 2am, but yet were still met by bright eyed Boat Manager, Terry and Divemaster, Dave. This is Terry’s SEVENTH season on Big Blue in Palau and so he was our ideal host for the week long excursion.

I was in an elite dive group that included famous photographers and underwater journalists. I had left my D200 at home as I did not know about the enormous luggage allowance, and felt rather embarrassed to bring out my tiny Olympus point-and-shoot in front of them. I am not worthy, I am not worthy…

In my dive group, unusually, 7 out of the 8 of us were of the female persuasion, and poor Carlos was mercilessly teased all week. But he took it on the chin as did Terry who had to manage our rowdy bunch.

My dive buddies in Palau (by Yvette Lee)

We had an easy first day’s diving on the Iro WWII wreck and the Lighthouse Channel wreck. These are located in the bays near Koror – a whole fleet was sunk during WWII and for you wreck aficionados there are endless wrecks to explore. I was amazed at the coral coverage on both wrecks.

Lighthouse Wreck

Later in the day was the famous Chandelier Cave which is a very unusual series of 4 caverns containing stalactites, and open air spaces. You can pop up inside each one to breathe fresh air.

Palau also had a mandarin fish dive, but as I have seen a million mandarin fish in Malapascua (at least a million…), I skipped the dive in favor of a cocktail and relaxing first evening lounging on the deck.

Day 2 was the day we had all been looking forward to as we headed up through the North Passage into (‘DUH-DU-DUUH!) undived territory.

We had two full days of – as I call them – CAPTAIN KIRK DIVES – to boldly dive where no man has dived before!!!

How exciting to dive this way in one of the world premier dive destinations.

The first dive was incredible. We dropped down and within a few minutes saw whitetips, grey reef sharks, and SILVERTIPS!!! All at once! The reefs were just stunning, incredible coral growth and amazing fish life.

Grey Reef Shark

For the next two days, we explored different parts of Kayangel and Velasco Reef. There was not another boat in sight, and why would there be? No one else ever comes here. Yet…

The dives were variable. Some were amazing, others were not so great. But as this was an exploratory trip that was to be expected. All the dives were all enjoyable as this was all new stuff and there is no such thing as a bad dive.

For our fourth day we headed south. Finally it was time to dive the site I have been hearing so much about ever since I first became a diver. Possibly the most famous dive site in the world. Can you think of one more famous? Answers on a postcard please.

BLUE CORNER HERE WE COME!

School of Barracuda

Blue Corner was everything it was promised to be and more.

For those of you unfamiliar with Blue Corner, it boasts ripping currents which bring with them incredible numbers of pelagics includes sharks, sharks, and more sharks. It is also the dive site that reef hooks were invented for.

The Hookers on the Corner

We were carefully briefed in advanced of reef hook use and I assured by Paul that I would be an Expert Hooker by the end of the week (ba-boom). I had never used a hook before and it was a novel experience, but once I had go the hang of it… what a great idea! You hook onto a piece of rock (not coral!) which is attached to a rope which is attached to you. Pump a little air into your BCD and BINGO! You are floating motionless over the reef, facing into the current – at the forefront of the shark action. Prior to coming here I could not imagine how there was any reef left at Blue Corner with the daily onslaught of divers hooking on, but that is not the case.

Once the hooks had been sorted and I was sure I would not be swept away in the current, it was time to take my bearings. Goodness me.

Me and a whitetip at Blue Corner (by Yvette Lee)

Just me and the whitetip sharks at Blue Corner (by Yvette Lee)

Whiteip sharks, grey reef sharks, Napolean wrasse, bumphead parrotfish, turtles, barracuda, tuna, spanish mackerel… the marine life just kept on coming at me. I put aside my camera for the most part and just enjoyed the show.

All too soon our no-deco time was coming to an end. We let loose our hooks and drifted towards the point of Blue Corner. Barracudas and schools of jacks were waiting for us as we made our way up to the surface. Great dive, and all the better from a liveaboard as our early morning start meant we were the only group there.

The rest of the day brought on more of Palaus most famous sites. German Channel (aptly named for the Germans who blasted through the reef in the Second World War) is a manta cleaning station. After waiting patiently and getting a manicure from a cleaner shrimp myself, the manta came in for his own turn and swooped right over my head. Always awed by the sight of a manta, I forgot to take any photos.

Blue Holes was a beautiful series of openings into a giant cavern.

Blue Holes

Inside was my absolute favorite marine creature of the trip. DISCO CLAMS!!!

DISCO Clam!!!

I had never heard of such a thing. This is not the best picture in the world but you can get the idea, and kind of see the electric running though the Venus Flytrap type opening.

After a little research I have found that it is actually more commonly known as an Electric Flame Scallop but was unable to find out much more solid information.

The first chance I get in Malapascua I am going straight to Gato Cave to see if I can find any. They were SO COOL!

There are a load of other sites and there were not enough hours in the day to fit them all in. Ulong Channel is another famous site with a hook on area for sharks and the largest terrace of lettuce coral in the world. Pelileu Express was one of my favorites due in part to the fighting turtles that materialized mere inches from my nose. And there are many more…

Turtles fighting

Last day, flying that night and sadly the diving was done. But there was still some snorkeling trips to do and we headed of first to the famous Jellyfish Lake. The thinking is that this slightly salty body of water was somehow isolated from the sea and the population of almost only jellyfish grew and grew, and without any predators they gradually lost their sting. They now feed from the xoothantehellae algae that live inside them and photosynthesize in a very similar manner to those in corals.

During our briefing Paul tried to explain what they are like and eventually reverted to base “It’s like swimming through a huge vat of silicon breast implants…” Nice. But a perfect description.

Spitfish

We jumped in at the pier, that is home to one of the handful of other species that inhabit the lake – cardinalfish, known locally as ‘spitfish’ – you literally spit in the water and they dart over to devour your saliva!

After I had finished with the juvenile amusement of the spitfish, it was time to find me some jellies. I started the snorkel and could see one or two here and there, and in a few minutes I could see literally thousands. I simply could not believe how many were there.

PA300330

Jellyfish lake (by Yvette Lee)

Our final stop was in Clam City, an area which has a colony of cultured Giant Clams.

And after a beautiful speedboat ride around the amazing formations of “Rock Island” including a stop of at the famous arch of Palau, it was time to head back to the boat for a last meal and head home.

Arch of Palau

As well as the diving, everything about the trips was excellent, I can’t think of one bad point. The diving was well organized and the guides were all superb. The food was incredible and just kept on coming. It was a variety of mostly Western, Filipino and Chinese food. As this is a Filipino owned boat, the crew were all Filipino and everyone was amazing. My personal favorite touch was the dude who made sure he wrapped a warm towel around me immediately after each dive. Even at the end of the trip when I went to wash my kit, I found it had already been done, even my SMB taken out of my pocket, unrolled, rinsed and dried.

It was a wonderful trip. I did some incredible diving, met some great people, ate (too much) yummy food and took some pretty poor photographs. But I have Carlos’ photos to remember it by as well. Can you believe we were seeing the same things??? I guess that’s why he gets the big bucks.

I plan to return as soon as I can.

If Palau has always been YOUR dream of a lifetime too, Big Blue Explorer is great way to fulfill that dream.

If you are interested in a trip like this, just let us know. We can book the whole thing for you including the flights from Manila. More details here.

Tags: diving, liveaboard, palau, scuba
Posted in Diving trips | 1 Comment »