Jellyfish Lake

We were fortunate enough to be invited out to the rock islands by a local business family which is involved in the church. This is the family that owns the major grocery store on the island, which offers vegetarian selections from Loma Linda, Morningstar, and others. They also own the major road construction company if we understand it right. Therefore, there is no road construction happening on Saturdays.
The man is a native Palauan, and he is married to an American. He started his business success on Palau with a dive operation. Therefore, he knows the waters of Palau.
The pastor of the Koror church, who arranged this outing, and his family also joined us.
On the way out to our first main stop, we stopped by a natural arch in one of the rock islands. This is one of the postcard landmarks of Palau.
First we went to a private beach where we had lunch, took some photos, and played with what most of us guessed was a monitor lizard.
Then we went off to Jellyfish lake, which was predicted to be the highlight of the trip. Jellyfish lake is one of many marine lakes within the rock islands of Palau. It is unique because it has a very high population of Jellyfish that have lost there need and ability to sting. This makes them nice swimming companions. Snorkel gear is all that is needed. Fins are not allowed. The jellyfish migrate to the most sunny part of the lake, as they depend on a symbiotic relationship with a photosynthetic organism. The swim to the main jellyfish concentration took 5-10 minutes. Along the way we encountered some stragglers. These guys are very fragile. Both of us killed a few with misplaced swimming strokes. That is why fins are not allowed. Eventually we got to the jellyfish population center. Amazing and eerie! The lake is very deep, and not very clear, so all you can see is jellyfish fading into a dark abyss. Jason took this photo of Larissa by sinking down a ways and then shooting up. You cannot help but rub up against these guys as you swim along. As we got into the midst of a lot of them, we just used our arms to swim. This is a truly unique and sureal experience that is highly reccomended. Jellyfish lake was indeed the highlight of the trip.
We also got to visit a place called the rose garden, a snorkeling spot with clouds of fish. Some of us just stayed on the boat and watched the fish rather than get wet. Then we went to a spot called the cemetary. We assume it is given this name due to the large population (dead and alive) of giant clams that reside here. These clams, the largest in the world, get over 500 lbs. By chance, our anchor landed slightly on one of these clams, in about 20 feet of water. The clam then closed around part of the anchor. We spent most of our time at this spot trying to dislodge the anchor (which was not heavy enough to kill the the clam) from the clam. The plan that worked was to have two people try to open the clam while the other took out the anchor. We are not sure why this worked, because the clam is stronger than we are, but it did, and for that we are glad. These clams are incredible, and not actually all that boring. They have bright and variable colored soft parts, and open and close enough to be fairly entertaining. After we dislodged the anchor from the clam, Larissa was concerned that it had been moved on top of two other clams. So, she set out to move it back to its original location. This clam was probably around 150 lbs. but light enough to budge underwater. As she went down to move it, it closed, which startled her. The shell of the clam was apparently sharp, as she sustained a wound to her finger. Luckily, our host was quick to fix the situation by cutting a piece of his T-shirt and wrapping it around the bleeding (but small) wound. Larissa did move the clam, but it rolled back to its position atop the others.
Our last stop was eventful in that we saw about ten black tip sharks and a sea turtle.
We Are excited about the coming week, and hope to keep you posted on its events. We plan to go diving on Tuesday. Also, the chief of one of the states of Babeldaob, the largest island of Palau has invited us to stay at his personal bungalo on a private island. We plan to take a boat there with another pastor from the church next Thursday. Cross your fingers that this will work out, as it has a whole lot of fun potential.
On a different note, some of you have been wondering what we have been eating. Our staples are rice, pasta, potatoes, and pizza. It is odd to have a kitchen supplied with only the foods that we like. Larissa asked this evening, Jason, what should we eat tonight? He replied, It doesn't really matter, we like everything that is in the kitchen. Larissa made pasta, peas, and steamed carrots. We have eaten out twice, once at a very good indian place called the Taj, and another time at the Rock Island Cafe, where we ate pizza. We are well fed here, but we need to watch our food budget a little more.