Done Diving / Swimming with the Jellies!!!!

[Sorry for the long delay, I've been very busy: early mornings, late nights, and tired of trying to remember everything that happens. Bear with me, Mama.]


OMG OMG OMG Most EPIC day of my life. Ever.

So, yesterday we had bfast and were in vans going to the marine lab at 8:30 AM. It was the day of our last group dive on the Guam/Palau trip. This makes me very sad, along with everyone else. There was a sadness in all of us that not even the beautiful weather could suppress.

We chilled for a little while before everyone was organized, and I went over to the dock to play around in the water. Because it was high tide, the water had come up and over the side of the dock! It looked like we were walking on the ocean. So weird.

Soon it was time to go to lecture. David's colleague from University of Guam talked to us about the ecosystem around Palau, the geography and geology, and about the marine lab. They have an aquarium set up in order to educate the public on preserving coral reefs, as well as to have an income, but it's not working and that makes me very sad. It was a good talk, though, and he gave us all free textbooks on coral reef biology in Palau! Every single one of us was thrilled. Wow, are we nerdy or what?

After our brief lecture, we jumped in the boat, this time with only 17 air tanks because we only had one dive planned. We were told the boat ride would be a long one and it was. I loved it. I feel like a dog when I'm on the boat because I just want to sit in the front or pop my head out the side and let the wind blow on my face. It's wonderful!

We made it to the dive site, what should be the best dive yet. What a grand finale it was. I was partnered with Christine and I was laying the transect line at 20ft. Flipper stopped me right away and redirected me to follow the contour of the reef (swim in zig zags and stay at 20 ft.), rather than just swim straight ahead, because the reef was very three dimensional. I tried to lay the transect tape in interesting places, like nearby giant clams, etc. Then we started counting invertebrates, followed by fishies on the way back. I was so focused on my counting that I realized about halfway through that I was not really looking around at the reef or appreciating it.

So I decided to look around.

And

I saw

a

SHARK!!!

It was a black tipped reef shark, nbd. So cool! Prolly like 4 ft. long and just making his way around the reef, 20, 25, 30 ft. deep. Thus is was right at my depth and just having a grand old time. I reached out for Christine (underwater, moving is painfully slow, especially when you want to get someone's attention right away). I pointed at the shark and she saw it too. We watched it swim around for a bit until it disappeared, putting our scientific work on hold. Nice! I also had no broken coral incidents. Yessss. After our taking down all the information we needed too and rolling up the transect tape (I guided, Christine wound, and it work perfectly, yeah!), we wandered off a bit. It was really cool diving here, because the reef was extremely three dimensional, and you can swim up and down and look through lots of things, etc. However, the deal with Jerry was that we could stay down for a whole hour (oh wait, Squirt and I have done that before on another dive, hehe oops) as long as we don't go any deeper than 40 ft. I flirted with 40 but didn't break the rule! Flipper and DanK motioned us over and I saw a fish that looked like... a crocodile?! It's called a stone fish I think and it changes colors to blend in and resembled the head of a crocodile, no joke! So cool! We spotted a massive, MASSIVE humphead wrasse, this kind of big 'ol grey fish that we had been looking for four our data this whole trip. He swam right up close to us too, no problem. At 54 minutes underwater, we decided to head back to the boat line to surface. It hit me then that this was our last dive of the trip and I started to tear up a bit, no joke. How sad! I never wanted to leave. I glided around the reef on the way back, kind of taking my time, but the stupid boat line snuck up on me suddenly, boo hoo. ;[

Back on the boat, we headed for a rock island with a beach and tables for lunch. Mariah talked with some people from Ireland, etc. maybe Australia too? And when Mariah talked to them about Maui, her home, the lady was rude and said that the diving was "eh, ok," there. That's not very nice! Mariah was a bit upset. We ate Bento boxes, of course, om nom nom. There was a really cool tree there, some kind of monkey tree? Idk but I had an urge to climb on this one particular limb that was low and horizontal to the ground, a perfect little seat. Mariah joined be and we climbed up a bit higher to take a picture. On the way down I scraped my belly a little, later finding out that I must have gotten bitten or reacted to something as well. It's ok, just itchyyy.
Here's the good part.

The boat guys claimed that low tide was approaching quickly, and they had to move away from shore right away. So, while we were all mid-thigh deep in water, the drove way far out. Chloe was freaking out and realizing the severity of the issue: we have to get back to them eventually. I was relaxed and told her it's ok, we should be able to walk out to them because of low tide!
But the storm clouds were moving in.
Jim was walking away. Bhaha. We were waiting for him because he had the USC flag that we wanted to take a group picture with. It was starting to drizzle and Jim was moving slowly. Hurry! Mariah had a shirt and hat she wanted to keep dry, the storm cloud was closer and closer, and it's drizzling. AND someone's camera was sitting out on the boat where I had put it, so I felt responsible and I wanted to get to the boat asap. Jim made it and the drizzle turned to a light rain as we snapped a picture.
Then, downpour!
We all start yelling and laughing and freaking out and I made a run for it towards the boat. Well, not run, but slosh, then swim. Then BAM.

Coral.

100% coral cover. Ouch! I was trying to swim over the coral, but I could not see in the water at all and, even with a frog-like swim, I ended up scraping my foot up, getting a bit of coral stuck in it, and scraping up my right thigh a bit. We all got some cuts from the coral. The other Bridget was screaming and saying hilarious things, which wasn't helping me concentrate on avoiding the coral because I was laughing so hard! I looked back to see if anyone else had a better method of getting through the coral mine field but I just saw strained faces. And it was hard to see through the downpour. Bhaha! I was laughing and freaking out at the same time. People were making noises, I couldn't not laugh, but the coral was hurting me so bad! I made it back to the boat first and ran to put the camera away (it's ok). Then I was safe and relaxed, so I grabbed my camera and took a picture. ! ! ! So funny!

On to jellyfish lake!
Some Scuba guys stopped to take the tanks off of our boat, and as they left I yelled "tank you!" No one really heard my joke though...

JELLYFISH LAKE!!!! It's a tourist spot now, so they had a dock (David said it did not use to be this way). Lots of Asian tourists. We had to wait for some of them to leave. We were told not to touch a certain kind of tree because it would give us a rash like poison ivy. We climbed up a steep hill, then down the other side, emerging at a large lake with a dock. At first, I didn't see anything. For some reason, I because worried that the jellyfish wouldn't be as amazing as I had hoped, and that human interference may have contaminated the lake. Boy, was I wrong. I hopped in a started snorkeling towards the middle of the lake when... BAM a jelly! Let me note here: the jellyfish of jellyfish lake have stinging tentacles but do not sting, or at least do not sting enough to harm humans. Instead, they gain energy through photosynthesis. Yes, these are plant jellies!!! So coming upon my first jelly, I was a bit cautious. I reached out tentatively and touched the top of the round part and squealed. So cool! So so so cool!!! The top of the round part is kind of firm and squishy, like I imagine silicone boobs would feel like. They have loose floppy squishy stuff around the round part that flaps and undulates. Then they have the tentacle thingies hanging around and looking all intimidating, but I know they truth: they can't hurt me! And they're sort of translucent, with white branching structures inside the round part. Some of them have freckles on their head part too, so cute! I looked for the smallest one and pulled it close: "I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine, he shall be my Squishy." Hehe. I kept swimming towards the group and found that there are more and more jellies, until it was so dense with jellies, I couldn't swim without kicking one or pushing one with my hand. I
left late
back to the boat, rinse off feet
dropped off at hotel, shower, ready to eat!!! ate some fresh coconut yummm then to "The Drop Off" for dinner. Blackened sashimi, rice, and pina colada life is perfect! It was a fun place too.

. . .

Friday

Ready by 8:30 AM. I think? I don't really remember, oops. Oh, and it was raining ew. OH. And I woke up at 5 AM and couldn't go back to sleep. I ended up getting up at 5:30 and sitting on the dock, trying to watch the sunrise. But that was difficult because it was raining. So I got drizzled on for a bit.

Headed to Sam's Tours for a guided hike to a waterfall. We drove in a bus for a while, stopping to look at an old Japanese airplane that had crashed, as well as a beautiful tropical river, where our guide Jayden said that crocodiles sometimes hangout out EEK! It was really pretty, we saw a big 'ol froggie and started to get dirty in some nasty mud.

We made it to our waterfall hike starting point. We were told to wear water shoes because things might get messy, and boy was it messy. The rain earlier as well as currently as we were hiking just meant mud, mud and more mud, and no avoiding it. I started to just walk in the mud rather than try to avoid it, because I was pretty filthy. We had cool walking sticks and I felt very much like Gandolf. We were on some steep steps, and I knew my legs would be burning, especially my quads. And, oh yes, they do hurt.

At one point, we came to a wooden bridge and old railroad tracks that we suspended over a place where the land had collapsed and slid down the slope. It was so cool! Right away I had to ask everyone: remind you of Donkey Kong video games? Yes! Continuing on, we came to a railroad car/choo choo train/whatever you want to call it. It was all rusted and cool. Backtracking our steps, I was trying to walk on the old tracks like a balance beam, rather than walk directly in the mud, but it started to rain, and then it got harder and soon I was putting my camera in my dry bag and trying to keep my bag wet, while I was getting drenched. So fun! Oh, and the noises in the jungle sounded just like something you would hear on the "jungle" track of a CD. For real! It was unbelievable, I just wanted to stay put and listen to the sounds, of cicadas, rain falling on big waxy leaves, then the patter of drops on the soggy ground cover, birds singing, feet squishing around in the mud, etc. etc. I was filthy.

We jumped into little pools on part of our walk. It was river that was kind of like waterfall. Fun!

The waterfall was HUGE, with pounding water if you stood underneath. It felt really good though, like an intense massage! Asian tourists were everywhere around us. Hehe.
My ankle started to hurt real bad :( it's the same one that I hurt senior year of high school, so I know that it's going to be swollen and hurting for a while, because I have a full year of experience dealing with it. Ack, stupid ankle.
Jennah (Mama Fish), Sabrina and I took hair flipping pictures. Nice! I never realized how much water my hair can retain and then flick all over the place as I flip my head back, hehe. I was falling all over the place during the photo shoot too, because it's hard to tell where the water is deep or not. Ouchh

We backtracked to the top of the hill. I bought a coconut for $1, and it was amazing, best coconut deal yet. I drank it then had it split open so that I could eat it. Yummmy! We stopped on the side of the road on our way to another place. There were a lot of local fruits, etc. on sale. We had fried banana, tapioca plant (kind of like yucca/potato), fish balls, and grapefruit that had some stickiness about it and tasted like butterscotch yum!

We ate lunch on top of a hill: bento boxes again! Luckily I'm not sick of them yet, but I think other people are getting bored of the same diet. These ones were in nice wooden boxes, unlike the plastic ones we had been having, and the fish was really good.

Next was the stone garden: big stone structures, some with faces, are laid out where buildings used to be, or were supposed to be. I think people aren't sure whether or not the construction was ever finished. And then there's the legend of the stone garden: Beings that were part human, part spirit were building a house together. They all went to dinner and forgot to invite one guy, who became angered. To get back at them, he lit a coconut on fire and threw it towards them. It turned into a red rooster, which made the sun come out and turn all of the spirit/men to stone. Thus, there are stone faces all over the stone garden. And Red Rooster is the national beer of Palau, and a mighty a fine beer it is! Hehe. I also saw an endemic bird here that looked very much like the Guam rail, and in fact it is a cousin I think. It's called a megapoda I think.

We drove up to the top of a hill where there was a ruins of an old Japanese lighthouse that was bombed. A big hole in the ground was from a bomb, and the ruins were almost fake looking they were so cool. We had a few "America's Next Top Model" photo shoots around the ruins, so funny. I also propped my camera up on the ruins to get a good picture of the group, it kind of worked! The view of the rock islands, jungle and the ocean was fabulous and I just could not stop taking pictures. We decided to try betel nut. You split the areca nut in half, scrape a little seed out, pour lime in (like from stone) and wrap it in peppermint leaf. You chew it on the side of your mouth and spit out the red spit until your saliva isn't red any longer. I decided to try it because: I'm on the island of Palau at a lighthouse ruin, when will this ever happen again? Oh, never. It was kind of fun to spit because I was good as making the juicy squishy noise as I spit. But I wasn't a big fan of the whole process, and I burnt my tongue pretty good with the lime. Ouch.

Back in the bus and off again, we headed to the Capitol building. I only had a pathetic shirt on that would be too inappropriate to wear in a government building, as did Squirt, so David let us wear two of his shirts. It fit us like a dress and was kind of hilarious. The government buidlings are pretty sweet here: they have birds and fish and cool geometric designs all over, like nothing you would ever see the U.S. doing. And I took a picture of a picture of a government official and his buddy sky diving with the Palauan flag. Cool!

Our last stop was the stone village. There is a man's house here, exactly like the ones the local people have been building for many years, where the chief has is office, I guess you could say. It's this long building structure made of wood, beautifully painted with meaningful animals, people, and shapes all around the outside and inside, and a roof painstakingly made of palm fronds. We did not walk inside out of respect I guess. There is a painting of a fruit bat just above the square opening that is meant to remind you to bow your head before leaving or entering. Intense... We checked out the rest of the site, and our guide showed us how to easily open a coconut using a sharp stick. Now I know! Also, I know there are three types of coconut: the hard ones on the ground, the soft green ones in the trees, and the kind that are sitting on the ground and sprouting new leaves. These ones are cool because there are filled with a spongy coconut inside. I don't think I've ever seen this before! And it's pretty good! Our guide Jayden showed us how to climb up a betel nut tree I think it was? using a T shirt tied around your feet for leverage. I was kind of like Mulan, how he inched up the tree. Mariah tried it and was good at it! Jayden says that he climbs up one tree, collects the nut, and hops to another tree top. He makes a lot of money by stealing other people's crop.

This was the end of our tour, and we headed back to the hotel to shower and go back to The Drop Off for dinner and fun. They know who we are now! But it's just sooo good. David joined us, and I had this absolutely delicious fish called milkfish I think. It came out as the whole fish split in half, even with the eye ball eek! DELICIOUS. We met some guys with accents, one from Northern Ireland, one from Scotland, and one from South Africa. I told the Scottish guy about my mom's maiden name, Stuart, and he got excited and started going off about the different spellings of Stuart, and all the Stuart's he knows, and how I'm undoubtedly related to all of them. Hehe.

Ok, I need a break from blogging. I'm still a day behind, I'll try to finish it right now after I eat something.

Stay thirsty my friends,

B