Our trip to the Republic of Palau (in the South Pacific, east of the Philippines, west of Guam).
Click on photos to enlarge them.

After about 30 hours of flying and layovers we arrived on the tail end of a tropical storm; rain and wind.
It rained for the first few days. We flew Continental Airlines, who have a brutal near-monopoly on flights to Palau.

Our first three nights were at the Palau Pacific Resort - it was only at the end of our stay at the P.P.R. that we
saw the sun for a while - but the resort was still a beautiful place to stay as you can see in the pictures. We
spent a few days diving with Sam's Tours - they were fantastic and the office staff and divemasters were really
fun. We joined their award winning photographer Kevin Davidson for a dive to see chambered nautilus, normally
found only in 500+ feet of water.

After the P.P.R. we boarded the Eclipse. The Eclipse is a 48' Cal sloop, a wonderful sized boat for sailing and motoring
in the Rock Islands. John and Charlie run the Eclipse - he captains and she cooks. They are masters at their chosen
roles. Stefan joined us after a day as our divemaster.

The Eclipse

Charlie and John

Stefan

The Eclipse had some sea kayaks on board which we were able to use to visit nearby beaches and other sights.
The kayaking was great fun - a great way to explore the beaches, inland waterways and some amazing lakes
that are only accessible through tunnels via kayak when the tide is low. We encountered a solo kayaker (Alison)
who was in the middle of a solo paddle around Palau's Rock Islands for a few weeks; her trip had been
coordinated with Blue Planet Sea Kayak Tours and they were provided her with periodic re-provisioning.

The sights and scenery from the Eclipse was amazing.

Two manta rays that visited the Eclipse for a short while

Sunsets were amazing - the final one in this sequence is the one from our last night on the Eclipse and was the
best of the whole trip.

At one point Kim established her own (temporary) independent territory on a sand bar at low tide.

Republic of Kim

This page was last updated on 02/09/05