Jesse comes to Palau!

The pillbox
Jesse, Me, Rubak

It’s been a while, I know.   I scared my parents with the last entry, which resulted in a stern lecture about sailing outside the reef, and something about “knowing better than that.”  I agree, and I promise mom and dad, I will be staying far inside the reef from now on, although mostly because I’m “risk-adverse” and not because  you said so.  

My very dear friend Jesse came to visit Palau the first week of May and arrived just in time for the sun! It rained a lot before then and it's rained an awful lot since then, but Jesse got sun almost every day she was here, and we had a blast.  While we accomplished a lot in the two weeks she was here, the most memorable were our three day trip to the deserted beach of Ngerbalas, getting to see some very well-trained dolphins, and taking a kayak tour of the islands with a personal palauan tour guide.  

I had been to Ngerbalas before, but only very briefly.  The waters surrounding palau's northernmost island, Kayangel, are absolutely breathtaking and consist of more hues of blue than you can imagine.  we camped, and ate, and for the most part made the difficult decisions about which hammock in which to nap.  On the third day, I made everyone play beach olympics.  Events included hit and spin paddle ball, the machete toss, coconut bocce ball, and a driftwood obstacle race.  Mihnea came in first place overall, and sang the Romanian national anthem for us.  It was a glorious end to a glorious weekend. 

During the following week, Jesse and I got a free trip to dolphin's pacific.  A trainer here rescued seven dolphins from japan, where they are hunted for food.  He has since trained them and raised them next to several rock islands here.  Dolphins have never really been my thing, but i was really impressed by how smart they were, and how well they could be trained.  Considering that I can't get my cat to stop biting my achilles tendon when she's hungry, I was amazed that a small hand movement could yield a very large backflip from the dolphins.  Here's something interesting I learned: dolphins can't digest leaves, and they eat them all the time.  the trainers have to catch them about once a week, hold them down and stick their hands down their throats and into the dolphin's stomachs to take the leaves out.  gross, but fascinating. 

THe next day, Jess and I took a day-long kayak tour of the islands.  We had our own power boat driver, and our own tour guide.  we were plunked down in some of the most gorgeous little lagoons between islands and learned so much about palauan history, biology and chemistry.  ONe stop we made was to an island that had on it a "Japanese Pillbox."  These were little, roughly 8 x 5' cement structures that Japanese soldiers made for the war.  They have one tiny hole in them for their guns, and one smaller hole for a flashlight.  We stopped at this one box where we were told that a chinese soldier was held captive for leaking information to the U.S.  He wrote a note home to his family in three languages (korean, mandarin and japanese), but unfortunately died inside.  I was amazed at how well preserved the pillbox was, and that the writing (which appeared to be in charcoal) remained untouched.  People can walk right inside, but unlike in other parts of the world, the structure could remain tamper-free.  

Palau continues to amaze me.  I am amazed that I never even knew this country existed before last year, and amazed at how few people have come to soak up all that it has to offer.