(5/5/09) 7:00 pm Palau | 3:00 am LA
Day 8 in Palau

Tried to walk around the track today, but only managed to do 2 laps (.5 mile). Something has bitten the top of my foot over one of the bones; it's in the area where the foot creases as your walking. I tried to wear the sandals I've been walking everywhere in, but after 1.5 laps I felt the sandal digging into the skin under the ankle bone. By the time I made it to the bleachers, it was bleeding. Now I had 2 areas on the same foot to worry about.

I came back early, taking pictures on my way back, then took my cold shower to cool down. After we had taken our showers and gotten lunch together (thank you Shauna) we went to pick up Lani and Fuanes and then took off for the marina. There was a misunderstanding about the boating situation, but I actually liked this smaller boat better. The whole way over to our first spot I kept thinking that this
must be something like flying in a bi- or tri-plane just above the water. I was in "7th heaven".

We got to our first spot, Blue Corner, and got in the water. It was almost like swimming inside an aquarium with the coral and fish 2-3 feet below us. Such beautiful and vibrantly colored fish!! During this time I saw part of a turtle and then a while later a big turtle swimming below us; we were swimming out over the deep area with the reef to our right. I'm not sure how long we snorkeled in this
area but we did make it to the area where we wanted to get to.

The boat came and picked us up then we headed to one of the other islands/ beaches to have lunch. I took some video of that area. Fuanes was cracking us up with his story of how he got a lighter to work when no one else could. Rachel and Shauna had been there so they were calling him on it and teasing him pretty good; even his "wife" was laughing at him.

After we ate lunch we headed back over to where we had snorkeled earlier then kept going until we hit Big Drop Off. By this point the water was pretty sloshy. I was so thankful to have a life vest on as it was one less thing to have to worry about. It has never occurred to me what might happen in the water as the waves come up and over a reef, well I got to see first hand...the smaller fish get so far,
then as the wave comes they get pushed backwards - almost to their starting point - then they swim forward until the next wave pushes them backwards. Almost like "one step forward, two steps back". It was also somewhat harder to keep from getting pushed in towards the shore, but we all did a good job of staying in the area where we were.

After a while of sloshing about, the belt started to feel like someone trying to give me the heimlich maneuver...but in the wrong area. I felt like I was getting a wee bit nauseous. Luckily it was close to the time when the others were ready to get back in the boat and head back. We made a stop at the beach where we ate lunch at the last time we went out snorkeling. Fuanes went and scrounged up
some food to feed the fish which would then bring the sharks...not the killer, weird looking kind; these are nurse sharks, or something like that, they're almost cute looking. I saw three of them swimming around and waited until they passed before walking back over to the boat.

Thought we were now heading back only to find out there was one more stop...the milky way! My flip video wasn't working at this point so I couldn't get any video, so I'll try and describe it. A cove with high limestone walls with lots of green plants growing from them on 3 sides. The water a light turquoise color with milky white sand, or clay, at the bottom. Fuanes took a container down with him
and brought some up for me. Rachel had me put it on my legs and face and I put some on my arms. It felt like an oatmeal scrub. Shauna got a video of the whole ordeal then took a snapshot of my face for my facebook profile picture.

The only way to get it off was to get in the water. I got brave and jumped off the side of the boat...more like halfway jumped off the side and got a good nose full of water. When I got it all off it was back in the boat and now we headed back to the marina.

I discovered that I love riding in a boat and totally understand why dogs love to stick their heads out of a car window. Oh yeah, the ride between Big Drop Off and the first beach we had eaten lunch at I saw with my head down on my lap and watched the water race by me. It was so very cool.

After we got back to the marina Shauna drove us over to Dolphin Pacific so I could pick up my CD with the pictures I had taken with the dolphins. From there we took Lani and Fuanes home. We all got cleaned up and then headed to The Taj restaurant to have dinner. When we got there we found out it was closed for the evening due to a private party. We ended going back home and Rachel and I had veggie burgers while Shauna finished off the enchilada pie that we had last night. Rachel also made some tasty potatoes and we topped it all off with a vegan chocolate chip cookie.

I'm heading to bed soon as I'm very sleepy.