Weekend of Wonders

This weekend was amazing. Definitely one of the best weekends of my life. It was just filled with so much beauty. So this will be a very long and picture heavy post, because what I saw and experienced this weekend was absolutely indescribable. And even though the pictures hardly do it justice, hopefully they’ll help convey the beauty of Palau.

Saturday morning a group of us went to the beach. Palau doesn’t have many beaches, but there’s a private beach next to a restaurant named Riptide that’s about a 45 minute walk.  So a group of us spent all day Saturday there. The snorkeling was amazing. The coral and fish were beautiful and we saw so much wildlife- I can’t wait to dive. So we spent the entire day at the beach, swimming, snorkeling, and just hanging out. It was the perfect day. 

Riptide and the beach

Snorkeling at the beach

Sunday was absolutely one of the best days of my life. There just aren’t enough adjectives to describe it.

The view. All day Sunday.

Palau's Rock Islands

We spent the day touring the Rock Islands of Palau and various sites in them. The first place we stopped was a stone money quarry. Like I mentioned, the people of Yap came to Palau to make stone money, and some of the pieces of it were absolutely massive. There’s one along the path that we saw that broke when they were trying to transport it, so they just left it lying there. 

Stone money, called Rai

The next place we stopped was called Milky Way. The water was the most stunning shade of blue I’ve ever seen. We all got out and swam there. The soil under the water was clay, which we all smeared over ourselves to exfoliate. It made for a good time. 

Swimming at Milky Way

Then we went to Jellyfish Lake! Jellyfish Lake is in the middle of a rock island, and has been for tens of thousands of years. The jellyfish have no predators in the lake, so they’ve lost the ability to sting. And there are tons of them. Thousands, easily. So we hiked up and then down to the lake got to swim with the jellies. It was surreal. They just surrounded us- everywhere we moved there were jellyfish. The pictures really can’t convey it. They were so awesome to watch. We spent a long time snorkeling and swimming around them. It was incredible. 

The hike to Jellyfish Lake

Jellyfish!

Jellyfish everywhere!

We stopped for lunch at a gorgeous beach. So we sat and ate, and then swam and snorkeled. Even in just a few feet of water the reef and fish were amazing. I’m so glad I have an underwater camera and I had a lot of fun taking pictures of the fish. 

Snorkeling

Purple starfish!

Beach babes

It rained for a while. We got absolutely pelted with rain on the boat- it felt like Deadliest Catch. But our next stop was snorkeling, and underwater it didn’t make a different. The place was Cemetery Reef, where people on our boat fed fish while we snorkeled. So huge groups of fish swam around us, which was just amazing. 

So many fish!

We stopped a few more places to snorkel, including a ship wreck! 

Ship Wreck!

We also took the boat by a few notable sites to see in the Rock Islands. They were gorgeous. The water was stunning colors everywhere we looked- turquoise, teal, cerulean, Panthers blue, sky blue. Just amazing. One site had cave paintings from thousands of years ago. They were amazing. 

The red paint is cave drawings

More rock islands

Another site was over a sunken Japanese WWII plane. We also stopped by an alcove that’s just filled with burned barrels from where the Japanese burned barrels of oil during the war. 

The alcove was filled with burned oil drums

This week we’re only digging three days. Monday and Friday are national holidays here. Monday, which is Memorial Day, is actually one of the guys in our group’s birthday. And Friday, which is President’s Day here, is my birthday! So hopefully my sunburn from this weekend can heal this week! 

Getting into the swing of things

Palau is incredible. I keep having “Is this really happening? Am I really in Palau?” moments. I’m not sure I’ll ever believe it.

The dig site is so amazing. I can’t even describe it. It’s like Jurassic Park meets Indiana Jones. Right on the beach of this island, with caves and jungles all around. There are bats that fly above us in and out of the caves. And giant, creepy spiders. It’s just surreal.

The dig site

Jungle plants

I had major “is this really happening?” moment today when a bird flew into a spider web and got caught. It was absolutely crazy. It struggled for a bit, then realized it couldn’t escape. The spider didn’t even seem interested in it at all. So we interfered with nature and took a stick and knocked the bird out of the web, so hopefully it flew away.

Spider vs bird

The dig is going really well. I had a big find! While excavating I found a fish hook made out of shell- the first fish hook that’s ever been found at this site! Also, I found a shell tool on the beach. It was a shell that had been worked into a cutting or scraping instrument. It was pretty cool.

The dock and beach at the site

We had our first lecture here last night. I almost forgot that I’m taking classes here. I’m getting credit for two classes- Pacific Island Archaeology and an Independent Study, since I already received credit for Fundamentals of Archaeological Research while I was in Nevis. But Dr. Fitzpatrick lectured on the basics of the Pacific and archaeology of the region. It’s so immense and incredibly vast, I can’t imagine how people colonized these islands thousands of years ago. I’m already learning a lot- it’s a great experience.

For Palau being under US control for so long, I’m shocked that it’s not more Americanized. There’s not a single fast food restaurant here. Or a traffic light. Or any big name stores or restaurant chains. Most signs, store names, and other things are in English. Nearly everyone speaks it. Palauans are really friendly.

The one really different thing I’ve noticed about Palau is so minor, but so weird to me. When we’re at restaurants in a group, they don’t bring everyone’s food out at once. They bring it out when it’s ready. Then you’re supposed to start eating when you have your food, not wait for everyone. So when a large group of us were out to dinner, almost everyone had finished eating before two people even got their food. It’s so minor, but it’s really different. I hadn’t thought of that as an aspect of culture that varies around the world, but apparently it does. 

First day!

The first day of the dig. WOW. It was incredible.

So we’re excavating at a site called Chelechol ra Orrak, which I’m not entirely sure how to pronounce. We drove to the big island of Palau, and then the site is a short boat ride away. 

The boat ride

We’re excavating a rock shelter right on the beach. It’s amazing- stalactites and stalagmites. I’ll put up some pictures when I can. The site has been excavated a few times over the last 12 years, and they’ve uncovered a number of burials. The human remains at the site date back about 3000 years, making the site one of the oldest known in the Pacific. When it was last excavated in 2007, they found some human remains that they didn’t have time to excavated, so they carefully covered them back up with sand. We worked today to uncover those remains so that we can excavate them this field season.

The people of the Pacific island of Yap made stone money. If you aren’t familiar, look it up- it’s quite interesting. There is an awesome piece of stone money at the entrance to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The site we’re excavated was also a stone money quarry, and there’s an unfinished piece of stone money there. We also found a small piece, about a foot in diameter, on the beach today! It was a great start of the dig!

Stone money at the Smithsonian

The only place we have internet here is in the lobby of our apartments. And by lobby, it’s the back porch, which overlooks a jungle. I’m honestly sitting in a rain forest. This place is incredible.

Rain Forest. Heavy emphasis on the rain.

So everything is off to a great start! I’m excited about the dig, about diving, and our field trips. This is really the trip of a lifetime!

Made it

I made it to Palau! Wow, it was a lot of traveling! The world is HUGE!

I left for the Raleigh airport at 4am Friday Raleigh time. I flew Raleigh to Houston, which was about 2 hours. Then Houston to Honolulu was an 8 hour flight, and Honolulu to Guam was a 7 hour flight. We had a long layover in Guam, and then flew to Yap, then to Palau. I didn’t sleep much, but I did read the vast majority of the Hunger Games series, plus watched some shows. I stayed entertained, but it was a long 33 hours of travel.

We got to Palau right after midnight on Sunday Palau time. Palau is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Time. Then through customs and finally to the motel/apartments where we’re staying. Even though it was dark I could tell this place is amazing. The lobby of our apartment complex is in a jungle. Honestly, it’s incredible.

So then I finally got some sleep, at 4am Sunday Palau time. Go figure.

Palau is amazing. It’s absolutely beautiful. The tropical forests and flowers are gorgeous, as is the water. Just incredible.

the Pacific!

Today a big group of us took a long walk to the closest beaches around. We first walked to a park, then on to a beach. It was a far walk, but entirely worth it. The beach was beautiful and the water was so clear.

At the park

So I don’t have too much to say now- no big exciting stories or grand observations. I got some pictures today, but I just can’t wait to take more. I’m also excited about starting our archaeological dig, which we will be doing on Wednesday. We do have to pay for internet here, so I probably won’t be on too much. But I’ll update my blog when I can!

Getting Ready!

This summer I’m headed to Palau, a small island nation in the Pacific. I'm studying abroad on an archaeological dig. It’s actually the same program I did two summers ago in Nevis in the Caribbean. I had fun documenting those adventures (http://trowelsandtowels.blogspot.com/). I've heard that we'll have to pay for internet in Palau, but I’ll do my best to blog this summer, too!

If you missed the Survivor that took place in Palau, let me tell you what I know about it. Palau is a small country made up of hundreds of small islands. It’s 500 miles east of the Philippines and 2000 miles south of Tokyo. I think that it's 13 or 14 hours ahead of the East Coast.

The country has a population of about 21,000. After WWII it was under US control, and it gained independence in 1994. So it’s a young country, and they use US currency. English is an official language, along with Palauan.  

So it should be an exciting summer. I’m not sure anything could top my internship at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History last year. DC, the Smithsonian, Georgetown Cupcakes, and the amazing people made for the summer of a lifetime.

Summer 2011 at the Smithsonian

But Palau should be an amazing experience. It’s one of the top scuba diving destinations in the world, so I’m really looking forward to that. Plus kayaking, snorkeling, WWII historic sites, and everything else Palau has to offer. I hear it’s beautiful.

I’m leaving for Palau on Friday May 18^th. I’m flying from Raleigh to Houston to Honolulu to Guam to Palau. The trip out there will take me about 30 hours. It should be a crazy start of the trip, but I can't wait!

Hope you enjoy the blog. Thanks for reading!