Dive Palau

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Palau

Palau was my favorite dive spot so far. There is so much amazing underwater life here and some of the dives you could just do every day 3x a day and be happy. In Palau you can find Mantas, lots of reef sharks, Napoleans, Bumpheads, Octopus, etc etc. BUT other than amazing dive sites like the Blue Corner and the German Channel and UlongChannel. You also have a plethora of WWII American and Japanese shipwrecks to dive like the Iro, Teisho, and Chuyo Maru.

We went in June and the weather and water were spectacular. I did a live aboard in Palau with the Siren fleet. It wasn’t just a liveaboard it was the most luxurious ship I’ve ever been on!  As an added bonus we were accompanied by Richard Barnden and Paul Unique from Unique Dive Expeditions. They gave us a great history of the region and all the wrecks we dove. They also took us on an amazing blackwater dive. I didn’t get to go on one due to timing but Unique Dive Expeditions are known for their spanning dives, where you can see thousands of fish (like Bumphead Parrot fish) going at it. I’ve seen pictures and it’s well worth timing your trip around that!

Palau has a lot of history since the Japanese occupied it during WWII and fought the Americans like in the the Battle of Peliliu. Speaking of Peliliu we did take an afternoon off from diving to go check out the tunnels the Japanese lived in and to scope out some crashed planes and tanks from WWII.

The way you get to Palau is to fly to Guam and then take another short flight to Palau. As far as checking out Guam, that takes about 2 hours to traverse the whole island. Our flight came in at like 5am so we were pretty much finished touring the island by 7am and then had a whole morning to kill before our flight to Palau. (Same thing on the way back). So we rented a car, drove around, went to the Outrigger beach resort for the afternoon one way and just watched a movie at the mall on the way back. If you’re looking for an American diner experience you can hang out at King’s.

So rather than just talk about it how about seeing some pictures?

Blue Holes

Blue Holes

Case of Sake Bottles on the Iro Maru

Oil Drums on the Iro Wreck

Iro Maru

Chuyo Maru Engine Room

Chuyo Maru Engine Room

Chuyo Maru Engine Room

Engine Room on the Chuyo Maru

Jake Seaplane

Sias Tunnel

Shark on the Blue Corner

Tank on Peliliu