Good morning from Chuuk!

Today… We snorkel! Yesterday, we finally got in touch with the Blue Lagoon Dive Shop. They answered the phone!

That’s part of the reason we didn’t stay with them to begin with, we couldn’t get them on the line, maybe they were out diving. We couldn’t ask the dive folks at the Hilton questions, they were out diving!

We took a taxi to the Blue Lagoon, about a twenty minute drive to the other side of the island and wad I mentioned yesterday didn’t change, it was the same type of housing and markets. There is even a guard at the gate of the Blue Lagoon.

Here was the interesting thing! As we are driving, the driver drove very slowly, which was good, the road was not paved that well and lots of pot holes. He was saying hello and nodding hello to people along the way and one time stopped and someone got in the front seat, no words were spoken until almost the gate at the Blue Lagoon, I think they were friends, or related, as most people are on Chuuk!

Then, and this is an actual taxi, the styrofoam board said so in black marker… We got to the Blue Lagoon and he could not make change… the shop didn’t seem to have change either, funny enough, had change when we paid for the snorkeling… so, with the driver we tried to arrange to have him come back at three when we were done. With very little English, what do you think he did with our $20? Yup. We knew what we were doing…

We settled in for an adventure… paid for our snorkel adventure, got our equipment and we’re off! Private boat, just us, our guide Rocky and the driver, I do apologize, I can’t remembr his name.

I believe I mentioned yesterday that Chuuk is known for its WWII wreckage, that’s what we saw! Planes, boats, subs, bombs. I met a diver, before we went out, who showed me pictures of the betty bombs, bombs that spelled out Betty, we couldn’t get down enough to see those, but we saw some spectacular sites!

Luckily my phone got some decent pics! It’s just amazing to me to see these implements and machines of war and destruction with coral and new life growing on them.

After two more stops of amazing, we stopped for lunch at an island in the middle of… nowhere. It was fabulous! There’s a cabin you can reserve for the night, no internet, but there was electricity. There are two boys, well, young men, who stay on the island for two weeks and then two more come out and so on, well take care of the island and the people who rent the cabin, cooking meals, things like that. Oh, they also take care of the two dogs who guard the island, so to speak. Two short legged stumpy dogs who just want to say hello.

We sat there, eating, contemplating, enjoying the view, weather, company, can you blame us!

After a while, we decided to snorkel around the island, especially after seeing the reef sharks! Can you see him? The tips of his tail and fin are black.

When we were ready, one more place to snorkel, this time a plane, upside down, PSM even touched some of the wrecks!

Then it was time to head back in and head back to the hotel. Guess who didn’t show up… it’s all good, someone who works at the dice shop drove us back to the hotel and we got some food, chilled out, packed and got ready to get some rest, we fly out at 145am!

We’ll get the shuttle back to the airport, we have an eight hour layover in Guam and then head to… tell ya soon!