Cabin Island and beyond

The following two posts cover our weekend trip to an outer rock island. We have covered the events by day, two days covered in each post. I (Jason) wrote about the first two days, and Larissa wrote about the last two days. Thanks to those of you who have been posting comments, it is nice to see that people ar reading. We are hoping to reply once in awhile. Please feel free to give us suggestions like "keep it shorter," "need pictures of . . .," "Need more humor," etc.

Day 1 (Thursday)
We met Sherwin (the pastor who took us to see his relatives a week or so ago) this morning and went off to meet the people that were allowing us to use their boat, and stay in their cabin. We met them at their home, which had no walls and a tin roof. This is a typical home in Palau. Tarps are draped from the roof during heavy rains to keep the home dry. Inside and around the home there were 5 or 6 people were sitting around chewing beetlenut. For those of you who are not familiar with beetlenut chewing (as I was not), it goes somewhat like this: Take a beetlenut, split it open with your teeth, put some lime powder on it, wrap it in a leaf, and then chew away. The leaves that are used taste like a spicy mint leaf. This combination, when chewed, turns red. Thus, a naive person assumes that chewers have nasty mouth injuries. The locals have a good time with this, and have made many a visitor very concerned. Unfortunately, chewing beetlenut is not good for one's health, nor one's teeth. Many people around here are without most of their teeth because of continuous chewing. Anyway, we hung around for awhile listening to Sherwin and his friends talk in Palauan. We knew we were part of the conversation, as once in awhile we were pointed at, and other times Sherwin translated for us.
The fact that this family is big on beetlenut chewing is relavent to why they have a cabin on a remote rock island. The lime powder that is used in chewing comes from "cooking coral." On their island, called cabin island, they have a worker that spends his time processing coral to yield a fine lime powder, which is sold around palau for use in chewing beetlenut.
We mentioned earlier that we may be going to the bungalo of a chief. It turns out, that the chief's bungalo is on this same island. When Sherwin contacted the other family to see if we could borrow their boat, they offered for us to stay in their cabin.
So, we loaded up their boat and headed out to the rock islands with a planned spearfishing/snorkeling stop along the way.
Neither of us had ever spearfished before, and didn't really like the idea of killing such beautiful fish. At first, we just got in with the others and watched them spearfish (we were accompanied by 3 others whose names I cannot spell, and whose connection to Sherwin or anyone else would demand a wordy explanation). It didn't take long before both of us were itching to try our hand at shooting fish. We were told that there was to be a fish barbeque that night, and that one way or another some fish would lose there lives for it. That was all the excuse we needed. I tried first. I didn't know if there were any specific species that we were going for, but I chose to go for the drab colored, uninteresting looking fish, thinking that it would be easier on my conscience. When I was handed the gun, I proceded to load the spear as if I knew what I was doing. Sherwin left me alone to my own devices. I was surprised to find out how much strength it took to pull back the bungee, to load the spear. I had a moment of anxiety as I considered that I may need to ask for help. This provided me with an extra burst of strength, and I loaded the gun. I found this easier over time, probably because of improved technique. Anyway, my first few shots were close, but yielded nothing. Then, I speared my first fish. I proudly took my squirming little surgeon fish back to the boat and presented it to the others. They acted excited and made me feel like I had really achieved something. Then Larissa took the gun. Unfortunately, there were no fins around that fit her, so she was not a big threat to the fish. She made 5 or 6 shots, and almost killed a couple of fish before she decided to give up. I could tell that she was disappointed. After I speared for awhile longer, we headed off to Cabin island, in pouring rain.
By the time we got near the island, sky cleared, and we caught our first glimpse of the place that we would be calling home for a few days. It is a beautiful island that is quite flat, and quite small. As we moored the boat, we were impressed with the beauty of the island, and somewhat taken back at the sight of the cabin in which we would be staying. The first picture, showing the beachside part, shows the sleeping quaters on the left, and the kitchen and storage area on the right. In this photo, you can see the rainwater collecting system and the backdoor. To the right there is a solar panel, which is used to charge 12v car batteries used for a cabin light, and a car tape player rigged up with some home speakers. We were shown our bedrood. This is a convenient room as the floor and the bed are one in the same, a plywood platform a few feet off the ground.
While it turned out to be a functional building, it is not much to look at, and did not fit the idealized pictures we had dreamed up. It actually looks a lot like many of the homes in Palau, so I don't really know why we expected any different. Anyway, we were pleased to be in such a pretty place, and happy to get the experience of living in a Palauan cabin.
We were introduced to Leo, a Filipino who is responsible for cooking the coral, and watching over the place. We found him to be friendly and helpful. He showed us the work he had been doing, explained the process of making the lime powder, and introduced us to his pet fruit bats. We had envisioned that the coral was harvested from the reefs around the island. Fortunately, there is no need to even go near the water to get plenty of coral. The island is covered in it, which, as a side note, took a toll on my sandals, which are still functional (barely) but not even close to pretty. Larissa was hinting at my getting a new pair. I will resist as long as possible.
Sherwin took us on a short tour of the island. We walked down a very nice trail, by two other cabins, on our way by the Chief's cabin (which was quite nice and well kept), on our way to the beach. For much of the walk, we could see ocean on either side of us. The beach was pristine, and our spirits were lifted. On our way back we met the curator of the chief's property, we think his name is Aldren, but every time we asked him, or Leo, they said it so fast that we still don't know for sure. He lived in a nice, well-kept area of the island, and had a few roosters on a leash. Both Leo and Aldren, as we came to find out, raise these birds for cock-fighting. When they return to Koror every couple of months or so, they bet a portion of their paychecks on the fights. Leo admitted that when it comes down to a fight between his and Aldren's birds, Adlren's birds come out on top.
Upon our return to our cabin, Sherwin and the others decided to take off so that they could get a little more spearfishing in before going back to Koror.
Larissa, being a very loving wife, immediately started making some food on the kerosine stove. She made Ramen, which we ate, in true island fashion, using leaves as plates. Because of the natural feel of this practice, and the fact that there were few dishes to do afterword, we continued using leaves as our dinnerware for the rest of our stay.
That afternoon we were itching to get out and see more of the island. It was hard not knowing it's shape, or how long it might take to walk around it. So, at as the tide was near it's low, we started a trek around the island. For this first half of the hike, we were mostly on beautiful white sandy beaches. I had a hard time keeping a good pace up, as Larissa was distracted with collecting shells. She had noticed on our ealier walk, that there were many hermit crabs around that, in her estimation, had insufficient homes. She made her mission to find beautiful protective shells to bring to them. Before I knew it I was supporting her endeavor, both hands and pockets filled with shells. Sooner or later, the beach ended, and we were walking on rocks and coral. This was tricky. It was made even trickier by the fact that we were carrying so many shells. Larissa would hear nothing of the suggestion that maybe we should leave some behind. "What about the crabs?" She said.
Larissa found part of a Chambered Nautilus, which aparently is a rare find as they live in deep water. We also came accross many brittle stars, sea stars, and eels. The following picture shows Larissa 's reaction to the first brittle star we found. It took us around 2 hours to get around the island, which was larger than we thought. We barely made it back before dark. It turns out that the part of the island where we could see ocean on both sides was just one small penninsula. Nevertheless, it was a very small island. We settled in that night on our plywood beds, content with our new home.

Day 2 (Friday)
Thursday night was tough on us. It rained all night, and it seemed like we were going to be taken by a Tsunami or a hurricane at any moment. There were a lot of unfamiliar noises, and a lot of bugs that seemed interested in making a home in our sheets. Unfotunately, the weather was not to clear up anytime soon. During the morning hours we sat around reading. Larissa mostly read a magazine called "True Stories" that Leo had sitting around while I read our Vietnam travel book and tried to learn some fish names from our tropical fish book. In the early afternoon we came to the conclusion that we'd better not let the weather decide when to get out and do something. We made an attempt at snorkeling off our home beach. There wasn't a reef there, so we didn't see much besides sea cucumbers. Cold and wet, we returned to the cabin. Feeling a bit defeated, we remained in the cabin for the rest of the day. Leo came over and chatted with us a bit (he graciously yielded his place of residence for us, and moved to a smaller cabin nextdoor). We found out that he had been on the island for over 2 years, and signed a contract for another 2. We were surprised to find out that he is married. His wife has not visited him, or seen a picture of where he is or the work that he does. I offered to email her some pictures, but he was not interested. Unfortunately, I never got a picture of Leo. We are planning to start putting pictures of more of the main people we meet so that it is easier to follow along.
Filipino workers are common around here (Aldren too is Filipino). They come here for a few years and make what is a fortune in the Philipines.
That afternnon we bid farwell to Leo as he went to pay Aldren a visit. This was just before the brunt of the storm hit. We wished he was around as we tried to figure out how to tack down the place. As we tried to go to sleep, rain was blowing in from all directions. I went out in my poncho (which, as it turns out, and I think Larissa will mention later is not actually a rain poncho, but a wind breaker) to let down the tarp walls. This went smoothly, but unfortunately the window nearest the sleeping area was without a tarp. We managed to move our bedding far enough away from the spray to keep from getting soaked. The wind was blowing everything that was not securly fastened, inside and outside the cabin, all around. During the night I heard some rustling over the wind noise, and found that one of the dogs, Mikey, who Larissa had befriended, was eating our bread and had stolen our Ramen. The other dog, Rex, had taken our pasta to Leo's house as we would come to find out. I was angry at the dogs. While making threats that I didn't really mean, but helped compensate for my sense of loss, Larissa assured me that it was okay, the poor things were hungry. Many of you know that Larissa holds dogs in extremely high regard. I understand that dogs always come first.
It is these kind of nights that get me thinking that I, we, could use more gear. I am glad that there is not an REI nearby, I hear they have waterproof sleeping bags. Heck, they might even have waterproof ponchos and portable dog screens.