Diving in Palau

Boston-based Indagare member Laura Caputo and her husband, Brian, recently spent four days diving in Palau on their way home from a trip to Tokyo. She sent us this postcard about her diving experience.

Seasoned divers with hundreds of outings under their belts will tell you that Palau is one of the great diving destinations in the world. The reefs are healthy and varied and the marine life is exceptional: manta rays, sharks, sea turtles and dozens of varieties of fish. For those at the top of their game, Palau has it all, including corners where the reefs meet the open sea and the currents let you clip in and watch sharks find their prey. Deep blue holes and drop-off walls allow Nitrox divers to explore the very deep.

But I appreciated how accessible Palau’s underwater wonders are to the novice as well; many sights can be seen in just 30 or 40 feet of water. This is a distinct difference from some of the other places my husband and I have dived, like Belize and Hawaii. Belize has some gorgeous underwater canyons to explore, but its signature Blue Hole was beyond our abilities, a jewel for the truly experienced.

In contrast, the islands of Palau offer not one or two but more than thirty well-established and spectacular dive spots. Under the guidance of the very capable instructors from Sam’s Dive Tours, we saw several of the most famous over the course of three days, doing two dives a day. We had two different dive masters and both were that great combination of being both highly competent and marvelously relaxed. They were ready for anything, like the experienced wrangler putting you on a well-mannered horse and saying, “Just don’t lose your hat.”

They read the conditions each day to determine the best locale based on visibility, currents, tides and weather. The major sites range from wreck dives and limestone caverns to drop offs, blue holes, deep channels and fish cleaning stations. Each day we’d arrive at Sam’s, gear up and head out for the dive sites, weaving between the lush, heavily forested islands. The salt water cuts into the limestone along the shores, creating holes, caves and a landscape unlike anything I’d ever seen.

My favorite dive was called the Blue Hole. We started by dropping down a circular reef that was about 20 feet wide. As we went further and further down, we would look up and see glittering blue above us where the sunlight hit the water. Silvery barracuda glinted in the light. About 60 or 70 feet down, it opened into a big cavern. We followed a wall and came to a coral garden of incredible variety, with lots of hidden nooks and softly flowing anemones. At one point, we were gazing at a great school of moorish idols, with their long dorsal fins, snout noses and vivid stripes of lemon yellow and black, when we realized they were being trailed by dozens of reef sharks. We later learned that Palau is known for having one of the first shark preserves. The locals take wonderful care of their ecosystem, which is one reason the region has stayed so unspoiled. Despite being so close to the sharks, we weren’t afraid because they seemed to ignore us. Amusingly, our dive instructor told us that, in his opinion, the manta ray is the most dangerous to humans, because it’s so intimidating and utterly fascinating that people become completely transfixed and forget how to dive. They are so focused that they tend to stop breathing, or drop a fin or do something careless.

Our dive instructor encouraged us to consider the layers of history in everything we were viewing: ‘Think about what it takes, geologically speaking, to create a mountain,’ he said. ‘Then think about how many centuries it took for a river to cut into its side, then for that mountain to slowly sink into the ocean, then for the coral to grow up and cover it this way. On a smaller scale, that sea turtle over there is more than 100 years old, while this tiny fish here was just born, and you are somewhere in between.’

Each day, we would ride for an hour, dive for an hour, then eat a bento box lunch on a deserted beach and swap stories with our fellow divers before heading back down for a second dive after lunch. We arrived back home tired and happy each day, ready for sundowners on our deck.

Not all of our excursions were under water. We spent one afternoon at the famous Jellyfish Lake, a salt-water lake, which is open only to snorkelers. Years ago, it got sealed off from the ocean, which enabled the jellyfish there to evolve without stings, since they had no natural predators. Today there are hundreds and hundreds of these wacky looking translucent orange jellyfish with clear blobs on top and feathery legs coming out the bottom. You swim among them and can reach out and touch them without fear. Some are the size of your hand, and some are the size of your pinky and look like they’re swimming at double time to catch up. They are ethereal, mesmerizing and altogether other-worldly.

On our last day, we swam with dolphins with an outfit called Dolphins Pacific. You would hold your hand out and they would encourage a dolphin to swim in your direction. As it swam by, you would grab onto its dorsal fin firmly with one hand, then slowly bring your other hand across its smooth skin until you were riding on its back. It was completely amazing. Their movement is so smooth and powerful—what incredible creatures. The lagoon they are in is surrounded by trees that drop small leaves into the water. The trainers were worried that the dolphins would try to eat the leaves, thinking it was food, and become ill, so they trained the dolphins to retrieve the leaves in exchange for fish. It was a hilarious sight to see a dolphin swimming up like proud puppy and wait patiently for a treat with this tiny leaf in its mouth.

Although we only spent a few days in Palau, I tried to mentally record every minute, because I know I will be feeding off of those memories for years to come. When I close my eyes, I can still see the rock islands and the clear, clear blue water.”

Getting There

Palau is located in Micronesia, just east of the Philippines. We flew from Tokyo to Guam (4 hours) then on to Palau (2 hours). As Americans, we found it convenient that they speak English and use U.S. dollars.

Where to Stay

is the best five-star option. We opted to stay at the more rustic Caroline’s Resort, which was made up of eight bungalows. It was a little too bare-bones, and I wished it had offered more meals than just breakfast. We did, however, love the amazing views, the soothing noises at night and the sound of distant roosters as the sun came up. Because there was a shuttle into town, we did not need to rent a car.