Palau October 2012 Day 2

10/16/12

After a very filling breakfast at the buffet here at the hotel we all met up at the dive shop at around 8:15 for our first day of diving.  After everyone made sure they had all their gear we headed out for our first dive--coral garden.  This was a good easy dive that gave everyone a chance to test out their camera gear, make sure they were weighted properly and make sure everything was working properly, etc.  This was a very beautiful and easy dive.

After everyone climbed out we headed toward our the next dive site--the famous Blue Corner--one of the top dive sites here in Palau.  On our way to the dive site we came across a large pod of very playful dolphins.  Our boat Captain, Ricky, ran the boat around and around so that we could get the dolphins to bow surf and jump for us.  It was really great.  The dolphins were having a lot of fun playing.  Several people got some really good video.  

Then we made our way to Blue Corner.  After Fabio, our guide, checked the current we proceeded to get in.  The current was not overly strong but we had a lot of surge so it probably was not the best day to hook in at the corner, but Fabio had fun watching us all sway back and forth and try and hang on.  We did see quite a few sharks and several schools of different types of barracuda and MANY large Napoleon wrasse.  At the end of the dive we came across several really big Napoleon wrasse and three or four white tips hunting something in a coral head.  The white tips were going in and out of the rock and the wrasse were chomping down on stuff.  It was a real feeding frenzy.  Everyone really enjoyed watching the whole scene unfold.  

Unfortunately, that was the climax of our dive at Blue Corner and it was time to get out.  We then head to a nice white sand beach to have our lunch.  After lunch then we headed to German Channel to see if we could find some mantas.  We were told when we arrived that the mantas have been pretty scarce so far this season, but they should start coming in right about now.  After we all got in the water and dropped down we got really lucky and Fabio pointed out a young manta that ended up swimming around us.  We also saw several types of tuna and some other large schools of fish.  Everyone was just amazed at the numbers of fish everywhere.  Unfortunately, we had to get out eventually and then we headed back to the dive shop.

We made plans with Fabio to join us for dinner at The Taj.  Fabio called the owner of the restaurant and had him send a van to pick us all up.  We had heard a lot about Taj when we were here before but never went.  We were not disappointed.  The food was amazing and everyone had a great time.  Several people wanted to go back again tomorrow night.  By the time we all got back to the hotel I think most everyone was exhausted and went straight to bed.  Tomorrow we are doing our Nautilus dive, so it should be really fun.