Alii from Palau!

What a day! It started out gloomy and turned into ahhh! This was one of those days that of we were home or in one place for a while, we could have seen staying in and watching movies, but we’re really only here for two days, so we don’t want to miss it.

We’re glad the rain didn’t stop is because we didn’t stop! Museums, aquarium, waterfall, monoliths, oh my!

Let’s start with the Prisoner’s Carver. This is where the jail used to be, it’s since moved and now, you can visit the Prisoner’s Carve, it’s a shop not easy to find. All the carvings are what’s known storyboards.
They select a well-seasoned piece of timber, stroke its grain, and start carving ornate “storyboards” depicting ancient Micronesian legends that have been handed down through the generations on Palau, a group of small islands with a population of 15,000.

Isn’t it amazing! The turtle is the one we are bringing home with us. It’s the story of how the technique for natural birth was developed, all because a spider god fell in love with a girl. Sigh…

After the Prisoner’s Carver, we went to the Etpison Museum. This museum displays history, fabulous storyboards, carvings, the celebration of childbirth, craftsmanship, stone money and so much more!

After the museum, we went to the Palau Aquarium. This was great, not your traditional aquarium, but an immersive experience. Each ‘exhibit’ was as close to their natural habitat that you could get without actively being in the exhibit!

We start with mangrove trees and see grass.

Then we move on to what lies beneath. This included a nautilis, a spotted garden eel who came out to say hello and a stone fish, so cool!

We end with coral. Simply stunning!

What an amazing experience, if you’re ever in Palau, I recommend it!

Next, we stopped at a park you admire yet another stunning view and stopped at a hotel for lunch, which didn’t happen, we drooled over their lagoon, can you blame us?

After lunch we stopped at a visitor’s center and asked about things to do. One of them we decided sounded interesting. Stone monoliths.

On the way to the monoliths, we passed a sign that said “Waterfall” ooh, let’s do it! Joe long is it to the waterfall? Not long, about 20 minutes walk. Ok, sure.

The steps were tough, lucky there was a rope handle most of the way down, it was mostly dirt. We passed the men working to rebuild the steps, rebar, planks, more dirt. It will be great when they’re done!

After the steps, rocks and water, falling, because that’s the way it rolls, downhill, but that wasn’t the waterfall. Keep going…suspension bridge, loved the sign ” Warning: Don’t jump” thanks!

The waterfall was beautiful. Like so many, it was a wonder! We played in the water, more me than PSM, I was wearing a bathing suit, didn’t stop him from getting wet!

After a bit we headed back and unfortunately, what goes down must go back up, dammit! KR, my trainer, would be very proud, he might have thought about it, always trying to kill me!

At the top, a treat! A fresh coconut! Cut it open put in a straw and ahhh… fresh coconut milk! Yum!

Now… where to next? Stone monoliths! Let’s go! Back in the car, hoping the downloaded maps work! Our network doesn’t work here, only WiFi in the hotel lobby. Paper maps it is!

We found the stone monoliths! Just as we got there, it started sprinkling, not a bad thing, they gave us umbrellas. But how will I grow if the rain doesn’t water me?

So, the story behind the monoliths… they were being built by two demi-gods who were friends who only worked at night in secret and one felt it was going to slow, so he played with the sun and created a rooster out of an egg to trick the workers into thinking it was day. The workers didn’t fall for the trick and left and there the stone pieces sit.

We also made a friend, Taki the cat, kind of lives there, greeted us and of course I had to love on her and then guess what happened… she followed us the entire way and each time we stopped, she required payment, a rub up against my leg! If I walked ahead, I would turn to ask if she was coming and her she came.

After the monoliths, it was time to get back into town, return the rental car, shower and get some food.

We’ve been looking for some local food, as we do everywhere we go and someone told us about the restaurant at the hotel behind ours. Apparently, they offer fruit bat soup. PSM was excited and I was intrigued until they said it was the whole bat, fur and all. He was still excited, me, not so much. So sad to say… no shipments of fruit bats came in. Whew!

So it was taro soup for me and local fish soup for PSM. Quite tasty in fact.

And that folks, is all she wrote for today! Tomorrow, our next adventure begins!