Palau — Above water adventure

After three full days of diving, we had to spend the last one above water…or at least not SCUBA diving, since we flew out that night. So, we decided that a tour of the islands from the perspective of a kayak was the way to go. We again went through the dive shop who supplied us with the boats, a guide and all the equipment we needed. 🙂
Here is the first of many secluded coves we stopped in:

Anna as a professional kayaker

As we paddled through the islands, we also stopped at historic sites. For example, we went to this Japanese pill box, which served as a machine gun nest guarding the passage. There was even an old helmet inside that’s presumably been there for 60 years.

Here we are, outside the bunker:

After inspecting the inside, we decided that the water looked very inviting from our vantage point, 40ish feet up the hill. So, I decided to get a closer look…

Once I found that it was indeed worth getting a better look at, Anna, jumped right in after me.

After a morning of paddling, we found a nice sheltered cave to have lunch in. We stayed in our boats for lunch though….there weren’t many places to sit in the cave.

Anna emerging from the darkness of the cave.

Yet again, I decided that high ledges and deep water are a good combination.


After our lunch break, we paddled over to a lake called Disney Lake. It’s so named for the array of colors in the underwater seascape. To get there though, the tide has to be low enough to open the passage way. We went through and there was about 2 feet of clearance…to pass through we laid back in the seat and pulled the boats through to the other side. Once there, we were treated to a very colorful snorkel spot.


Here are a few of the colors that make this Disney Lake:

We stopped by several other spots…for a little snorkeling, hiking and caving.
Here’s another stop we made:

Another cave to explore:

After we finished the official tour, our guide gave us the option of paddling all the way back to the shop. We decided that sounded like a pretty good plan, so off we went. About 2 hours later, we finally got back. It was a great workout and a great way to end the water portion of the trip.
That night we went out to eat and found another excellent restaurant (every place we went for dinner was really good). So, before we went in to eat, we watched the colors of a tropical sunset along the main thoroughfare of Palau. 🙂 A fitting end to the day and trip.
–Jim