Palau Dive Diary Part Quattro

Back from my hiatus to continue the amazing experience that is the Palau Dive Trip. Since we have been doing this for four days already, it became almost routinary to receive amazing dive days, and so the we were expecting major finds for our final 3 dives.

As always, we had to load up on breakfast, note the overloading on dairy (chocomilk, Kraft Singles, Shmearrrr) and vitamins (fruits galore!)

It was another beautiful sunny day, and we were more than happy to soak up the rays!

The weather was so good, even our DM's (dive masters) were all smiles!

So was Flava Flavin, our Captain/Sushi Chef/ Saviour of yellow caps (more on that tom)

Dive #10: Blue Holes

 Blue Holes is a deep negative drop from a little hole, which boasts of amazing ambient light and 4 huge openings. It was almost like being in a sea of blue, literally. Note DM DA sitting at the edge of the left. Hahaha trying to be a good boy since he was getting on the hotseat with one of our guides.

Saw a ton of these Sweetlips

And also a cute turtle, but what's new? We see them everyday. Lol

During our surface interval, or the 40 something minute break between dives to rid the body of excess nitrogen, BL took out her Poi, tennis balls encased in some nets, and did a little rave dance. Hahaha it reminded me of those trannies in Boracay who danced with fire! Those 40 minutes flew by so fast when you are laughing your ass off and enjoying the company.

Next up, we wanted to hobknob with more action, so we ended up somewhere jampacked with adventure...

Dive #11 New Drop Off 

A lot of people said that New Drop Off is the new Blue Corner, so we were excited at what we could find. By reefhook or by squatting on corals, we would find a way to watch!

There was a lot of big things again, just like Blue Corner from Day 2 & Day 3, but the schools of different fishes just blew me away!

Of course we saw the sharks again

And again we used our reef hooks

Which meant that, while surfacing, everyone on the boat would be practicing self-crochet aka. The Daisy Chain. We were so enamored with our chain making, that we didn't realize it was lunchtime.

We found the perfect lunch spot. How is this even fair?

On (soft) land, we anchored and readied our feet for some sand therapy. It was just as fine and white as Boracay sand, but there was nothing but sand on the little islet.

This is our sorry attempt at a jumping group shot. At least LP was successful.

This would be me unbelievably happy with my no-Spam sushi set, Mr. Brown Blue Mountain coffee, and sand happy butt.

And here is hottie NC and DM Shirley with the wonderful water and Whaleshark. Talk about hot mommas! I didn't pop out Jimmy Choo... so I don't count.

Here we headed to our last dive of the day and of the trip.... Dive #12: German Channel

Now we were really excited about this final dive, because German Channel is known as the Manta Feeding and Cleaning station... I think I was one of the few who saw a glimpse of the manta ray, but Was able to spot other things such as:

Getting up close to a shark which, clearly, I love doing. Must remember they are deadly.

Finding a Marble Ray

 

Discovering a Crocodile fish. Don't they really look similar?

Spotting a feather-tail ray hiding underneath some sand. AMAZING!!!

When we arrived back at Sam's Tours, we were greeted by this amazing site of the sunset which promised that night would be a GOOD GOOD NIGHT.

And by good, I mean, good fooood....... at The Rock Island Cafe

Rock Island Cafe was well recommended by good friend DM Marco, who lived in Palau for a while. The cahsier reminded me of an old school diner. All the servers were, again, Filipino. Feels like home!

The Menu was EXTENSIVE! We wanted to order everything in sight, but settled for a few good picks. Obviously, it's still Lent, which meant I could not partake in anything that moos, clucks, oinks, or doesn't live underwater.

Buffalo Wings - I really wanted to try this

Cheese Nachos... My order!

Was almost convinced to order fries because of this...

MORE Tuna Sashimi... and I thought I had enough

Meatstravaganza Pizza (clearly NOT my pizza... but so tempting...)

DM DA ordered the Tacos from the "Spanish" menu (lol). Three tacos, a heaping of red rice and beans??? Gone in 5 minutes. SHEESH! I REALLY wanted to try this but good thing DA inhaled this quickly before I had the chance

Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce... should not have ordered this because...

Our personalized Garlic, Mushroom, Cheese & More Cheese Pizza was absolutely delicious! I could have eaten the entire pie if only I wasnt' sharing with 3 other people, and didnt' eat so much from the other dishes.

And to top it off... I had it with Garlic Powder & Chili Flakes ala NYC style! DELICIOUS!!! The crust was so chewy and tasty, it must be the saltwater!

This was EXACTLY what we needed.... a departure from Poke and other things we got a little tired of during the trip. And because we had one more day, albeit non-diving, we had to celebrate the four days of absolute diving bliss.

the finale of the trip unfolds soon!