We traveled to Palau on a C-130. This was my first time on a military plane of any sort, and Burr's first time on a C-130 as well. It was piloted by a Navy crew and I have to say, while it was a cool novelty, I wouldn't rank it among my favorite ways to fly. Mainly, it was very loud and slow. But, let's keep in mind, it was a free flight, so how can you go wrong?
The flight arrived at night, so we weren't able to tell much about our surroundings Friday evening. Our suprise at the beauty surrounding us was great when we stepped onto our balcony Saturday morning. The water and the landscape was among some of the most beautiful that I have seen anywhere on earth. Ever.
We stayed at the Landmark Marina, Palau. It was a great place, right on the water with it's own dock, boats, and restaurant. On Saturday we signed up for an all-day tour of the "must see" spots of Palau. The tour was given by the hotel and we got on the boats there at the dock around 9 Saturday morning and returned around 4 that afternoon. We had five stops on our tour and each spot we got to get out of the boat to snorkel. It was a great initiation for our new snorkel gear! (Oh, we also learned the hard way that when snorkeling, it's important to reapply sunscreen to the back everytime you get out of the water.)
Our five snorkel stops were: "Shipwreck" (a sunken fishing boat), "Cemetery Reef," "Jellyfish Lake" (it is exactly what it sounds like), "Giant Clam Reef" (I don't think that's the technical term...), "Shark Spot" (we swam with 3-4 foot long black tip sharks), and "Big Drop Reef" (I felt like I had been put in "Finding Nemo!")
Saturday night we were beat! We dined in the hotel's restaurant and called it an early night. Well, first we had to get a ride into town to buy aloe gel to cool our backs, but THEN we called it a night!
rmf
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