I had a great last week in Palau!  We climber a hill, and then a old metal gunnery tower to get a view of the islands.

Julia and I are pretending to be afraid of heights, while Chris is actually afraid.  We had to do a lot of peer pressuring to get him to climb the old tower

 and we caught a great sunset from the tower

 I got in some nice last boat sitting time and enjoyed the view

 I made the local paper.  Don't worry, I made lots of copies so everyone can see and remember the time that Katharine was famous.  Actually they have so little to write about in Palau that all PICRC has to do is send the paper a press release and it goes into the next addition.  Still, I like to think it's special.  I would have preferred the front page though.

 I went on my last dive, which was 2 hours and 23 minutes long (I was freezing by the end) and I found a coral recruit that my boss missed which had never happened before.  I think I should probably retire from coral recruit finding after this, I like to leave things at my peak.

Me counting things on the final dive

I left Palau in the dark, just like how I arrived, so I still haven't gotten to see the Islands from the air.  I had a layover in South Korea and was planning on seeing a few sights since I had 6 hour to kill.  However, it became apparent from a quick glance out the plane window that I had made a grave error in clothing selection for my sight seeing mission.  I guess Korea has winter, who knew?  Well luckily I am an Oregonia on my way to being a Montana and a little cool weather never stops us, so I went sight seeing in flip flops, a skirt and a long sleeve shirt.  I was proud to say that I made it out long enough to get a stamp in my passport, eat a few fried items, and walk around a market before I lost feeling in my toes.

Dad and I on a hike in the redwoods.  Notice the down jacket!

Dad picked me up Monday in San Francisco, so the Palau adventure is officially over and I already miss the warmth, islands and wonderful people.  I think I would be really sad if it weren't for adventure stage two (AKA Mexico with Katy Reed) which starts on the 9th.  I have had such an amazing 3 months and I even managed to learn a thing or two about science and resource management!  I am leaving my computer at home for the mexico adventure, so this is the end of the blog.  Thanks to everyone for all the emails and letters and for keeping me updated about life outside the islands.  I am excited to catch up with lots of you in the next month or so!  Much Love,

Katharine

Red snapper spawning!!!

In my last few weeks here I have been diving a ton.  It all started with a spawning dive a few weeks ago.  We got up at 4 am to be out in the water by 6 in the hopes of catching a red snapper spawning.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  The spawning takes place near the deep outer reefs, so there is a shelf at about 90 feet and besides that it is just open ocean.  The fish swarm in these big schools of 1000s of fish and then every now and then one fish darts out of the cluster to lay eggs and a herd follow to try and fertilize them.  It's all very frantic and dramatic and the current was pretty strong so it made for an exciting dive.  Every direction I looked there were fish. it was almost too much to take in.  During all this someone points out a big bull shark that was cruising by.  It was by far the largest thing I have yet to see under water, maybe 8 feet long and very big around.  After that I pretty much felt like if I never dove again I could be happy!

The foreigners from work, plus a few others

So I followed this amazing diving experience with a really big cultural even a few days later.  In Palau there are two big ceremonies, funerals and 1st birth ceremonies.  My co-worker sherly's big sister was in Palau from the states for her 1st birth ceremony and all the foreigners from the office got invited.  Every Palauan woman has one of these for her first baby and traditionally it was a ceremony just for women.  The woman is given a ceremonial hot bath for 10 days or so (depending on the clan) leading up to the 1st birth celebration.  The baths consist of her being  covered in oil and then has boiling hot water thrown on her.  The oil keeps the water from burning, but apparently it still doesn't feel great.  The actually 1st birth ceremony is kind of like a giant baby shower but way more fun!  Instead of presents people give money, and lots of it.  Now days men come too, and the only reason I could get out of anyone for this change was that they are still not really welcome but they want to see the dancing and no one stops them.  

Guests at the 1st birth

offerings for the husbands family.  Notice the koolaid and salt!  There was also wine, some Japanese liquor and soy sauce. 

initial dancing with Lisa, aka the lady in red
 who spear headed the singing

Yes that's right, dancing, and lots of it.  Basically the first hour or more of the ceremony is spent eating and dancing around a live singer and stuffing money in her shirt.  After awhile the woman who has just had her baby comes out in traditional dress and then stands for another hour while people dance around her and give her money.  Eventually she gets to go back inside and sit down, and by this time people were pretty drunk and then it was just a lot of dancing for the fun of it.  

Shirley's sister being walked out on grass mats

Aunties dancing around.  I think the wine was getting to them because they grabbed some fruit from the big bowls and started dancing with it on their heads and everyone seemed to think it was pretty funny.

husband and baby

The yellow color of her skin is the oil they use to keep the boiling water from burning her.  The head dress and color and pattern in her skirt are determined by family clan and rank and made by aunties usually or local artists.  The leaf she is holding is one of they herbs they use for the hot bathing.   I could not believe how long this poor lady had to stand in the boiling sun.  Various Aunties and sisters came and fed her little sips of water and the ever essential Beetel nut that everyone chews here




Once Shirley's sister went inside things got a little more crazy.  The dancing had been pretty sexual all day but it got down right dirty by the end.  Shirley brought out the foreign ladies for a dance towards at this point and the lady next to me kept insisting that I poke the singer Lisa in the side.  She just kept shouting "poke her!  Like this" and then she would poke her, so eventually I did just to get her to stop shouting and she thought it was the funniest thing that had ever happened.  You can see her in the picture below.  I'm the one in the purple shirt and she is the one on my left with the sunglasses on her head that is laughing hysterically.  I do love to entertain.  We stayed and danced for awhile and then eventually our ride was ready to go, so we left the real partying to the Palauans and called it a day.

fish on the way to blue corner

So as if two amazing days of Palau fun wasn't enough,  three days later the people at work decided to take the 5 of us who are leaving in December out for some fun dives as a thank you for our work.  We got to dive blue corner, via blue hole, which was the last spot on my dive wish list for Palau.  Blue hole is a big hole (hence the name) in some rock about 20 feet across and 100 feet deep.  You jump in and drop down this tub to a half cave that open up to the ocean.  pretty spectacular!  from there we swam along a big wall until we reached the corner, which is open ocean and a spot with lots of current, meaning lots of sharks, turtles and big schools of fish.  It did not disappoint!  At one point these two sharks were swimming around a school and corralling them and I kept thinking we were going to get to see a shark feed, but no luck.  Ah well, I guess I can't see everything on one trip!

Grey reef shark (I think) at blue corner

Well That's pretty much it.  I am just finishing up a few things at work and mainly trying to have as much fun as possible before I leave.  I went out diving 4 tdays last week and should get about the same this week, plus there is a Karaoke party Wednesday at work for all of us that are leaving, Thanksgiving Thursday and a camping trip on the weekend.  I figured I might as well end on a good note.  Hope everyone has a great Turkey day! Look forward to seeing some of you soon!

Hey Everyone!  I just wanted to let people know that I survived typhoon Haiyan.  Where I am in Koror there are lots of downed trees but nothing too serious.  The eye of the typhoon passes 15 miles north of here over the northern most island of Palau, where it leveled all the buildings except one.  Luckily that was the building all 80 residents had chosen to hide in, so everyone is okay.  Most of the damage is in the north of the country, but besides flooding, some lost roofs and a few blown down houses things are more or less okay.  I wish I had pictures of the storm to show you how crazy it was, but it came through around 3 am and my night photography skills are not that good.  All I can say is it was very loud and Palau is very luck it wasn't more devastating.  The internet is pretty slow but from what I have gathered the Philippines was not so lucky.  I weathered the storm with some friends at my house sitting apartment which has generators, water storage tanks and is very sturdy, plus we had enough food to last a week (the photo is just my portion of snacks).   Anyway, just wanted to say I am fine and thanks for those who sent emails!

Typhoon necessities

Hey Everyone!  Well it finally happened, life in Palau got busy.  I never thought I would see the day when I didn't have enough time to post a blog!  With under a month left here I am racing to finish (or start and then finish) projects at work and get out to all the sights I still want to see before I'm gone.  Here are some photos of what I've been up to the last few weeks.





Some friends and I rented kayaks and paddled out from the office into the rock islands to our own private beach. 

Last Weekend we went to Carp Island, a small Island an hour from Koror near Peleilu.  There is a tiny resort where we stayed that happens to be owned by our friends family, so we got the royal treatment thanks to our friend.  

Me with the most impressive plate of sashimi I have ever seen.

Views from Carp Island...

I did some fun diving a few weeks ago and finally saw sharks, lots of them actually, plus some turtles and big schools of fish.  I also got to dive down to a big cave that you can swim through.  From floor to ceiling it's probably 60 or 70 feet tall.  I am still hoping to get out to the most famous dive site, Blue corner, before I go.  It's a spot were a lot of sharks hang out.  I am also still hoping to do a wreck dive.  There is one we pass every day on our way to the Australian's field sites, so I am thinking of going on strike if we don't get to stop there one of these days soon.

There was a festival back in October for Koror, the state we live in.  There was traditional dancing, lots of food (including the largest cheese cake I have ever seen) and...

GREASED PIG CATCHING AND GREASED POLE CLIMBING!!!!!!!!  AMAZING!  The pig catching actually ended up being less comical then we imagined mainly because the pig wasn't really in the mood to run (can you blame her, it's hot out!), and it wasn't nearly greasy enough, so really it was more like pig tackling.  Three or Four guys would run at the pig, jump on top of it, and then fight each other for it.  Whoever caught the pig won it so it was quite the battle.  I think in the end most of us just felt bad for the pig.  The pole climbing was much more fun, and impressive.  The champion ended up being a young kid who put sand in his pockets and carried it up to the top of the pole to de-grease the final stretch of the pole.  Smart kid!  

Watching the spectacle with friends.

I didn't have time to get the photos from Halloween from my friend, so you all will just have to wait.  There is a US Army civil action team here and they had a haunted house.  The were looking for volunteers, so obviously I convinced a car load of people to come be zombies with me at the haunted house.  We got to chase people into a small mettle shed and then bang on the building and try to break in and eat their brains.  Pretty exciting stuff.  They told us it was from 7-11 pm, and we were figuring be a zombie until 9 or so and then their would be a post haunted house party.  WRONG!  We had to finally turn people away at 11 pm.  I am proud to say that our zombie crew carried the rest of the zombies, who were in need of a zombie break by 8 and not excited for another 3 hours of zombie fun.

So that's the update.  I'll try to post at least once more before I leave.  Hope everyone is having a happy November and that day light savings isn't getting you too down!  Talk to you soon,
Katharine

The view from my vacation home on a grey afternoon.

My time in Palau is officially half way over, and I feel like there is so much I still want to see and do.  I have been house sitting for the last few weeks for an Australian couple that has gone on vacation for the month.  They live in a very nice western apartment with all the accouterments (AKA an oven, cable, couches, AC, hot water, lots of dvds from the Philippines, and less bugs).  I have been calling it my vacation home since I mostly go there on weekends and it's fancy.  It's a little out of town (3 miles or less) and up a small hill, and in this heat it's way too far to go after work on my rusted out bike.  So I live Like a Palauan during the week and a rich westerner on the weekends.  I have spent the last few weekends hanging around my vacation home baking things, doing yoga, reading books and watching storms roll past.  It's been very nice but I was starting to feel a little stir crazy so this last weekend I decided rain or shine I was getting out of the house.  I rented a car from work and convinced a few friends to come adventuring with me.

Swimming Hole

 When I got to work on Sunday and turned the rental car on I was greeted with concerning noises.  For anyone that has ever driven in one of my old crappy cars (sticky, the red tank, rhinetta) you will understand that if I am concerned by the noises coming from a car then they are some pretty bad noises.  Mainly it sounded like the engine might explode at any moment.  Luckily the speed limit in Palau is between 10 and 40 miles an hour, so the car didn't have to go too fast.  We rumbled off to find some waterfalls with a set of directions scribbled down that included such details as look for a dirt road going up a hill...perfect.  We actually found the place pretty easily and "hiked" 15 minutes down through the jungle to a beautiful river with a bunch of small waterfalls and deep pools.  We were the only people there and spent a little while discussing how likely we thought it was that the creek had tropical parasites before jumping in.  We decided that the risk of parasites was worth being cool for once!

The capitol, straight out of Washington.

My favorite decoration at the capital. 

From the waterfalls we headed to the beach via the countries capital.  It's really weird.  Your driving along enjoying the jungle view and out of no where Washington DC appears on the distant, jungle covered hills.  On closer inspection the place turns out to be modeled after typical DC architecture, but constructed Palauan style.  All the impressive stone pillars are hollow and made of plaster and the big colonial lamps are all plastic.  The locals call it Disneyland DC because it looks like the fake cities they build in Disneyland.  Apparently the windows don't open because the place has AC which normally works out okay.  Unfortunately during the typhoon last year they had to use the capitol as a rescue shelter and since the power was out from the storm it was really hot with all those sealed off windows!  My favorite part were the decorative birds on the walls that are shown both eating and pooping, or at least that's what it looks like.  Very ecologically accurate.  We left the capital and spent the rest of the day at the local beach.  It was also empty, and the first sandy spot I have been to since coming to Palau, which for being a topical paradise is seriously lacking on beaches.  We found some hammocks, a lot of shells and coconuts and a swing made out of a buoy.  Such a great adventure and well wroth the risk of the exploding car.  It's easy to forget that you are on a beautiful tropical island when you are at the office in the "city".  Always nice to be reminded that Palau is an amazing place!

The beach at Melekeok.

Besides our weekend adventure I haven't been up to too much lately.  Work has been unusually slow the last week.  I haven't been going out to dive because the Australian guy that I usually go with had his boss and some coworkers visiting so there was no room for me.  They have finally decided on projects for me now that I am half way done.  I am compiling seagrass data (done!) and then analyzing it (I have no idea how to do this) and writing a report for them. They also decided that I can do a small project with Chris (the Australian) so hopefully we will start that next week.  We are going to collect corals and then release the coral's palups into tanks and test the chemical vs. physical affects of a certain algae (which is common after disturbances) on the settlement and growth of the corals.  SCIENCE!!!!!!  Should be interesting and a good chance for me to help get a paper published and see an experiment from start to finish.

Headed into the rock islands for some shark wrangling.

 In the mean time I have been doing a lot of slow internet research, picking classes for next semester back in the real world (yuck!) and looking out the window a lot.   Yesterday the aquarium guys let me come out on a shark catching mission.  After a week stuck in the office and a lot of bad weather it was great to be on a boat again.  They need a new baby shark for the aquarium and they can always use more hands to try and herd whatever they are trying to catch towards the their nets, so I got to tag along.  We saw 2 small white tips (about 2 feet long and maybe 6 in wide) but weren't able to convince them to get caught in our nets.  It was a great time anyway, and we did find a seahorse so it wasn't a complete bust of a trip.  Plus now I can say I went shark Wrangling!

Putting out the net for the sharks.

That's about all I've got for now.  I went on 2 amazing dives on Thursday after the shark mission.  We dove to over 100ft (35m my deepest dive to date), and saw a bunch of big sharks (6ft grey reef sharks), a few turtles and some big schools of fish.  I will get photos from Johanna and post them next week!  I miss you all!
love Katharine



P.S.  The following pictures were requested by my dearest brother Jeffry, here they are as promised!

The new astroturf on the boat.  Makes it less slippery but also less comfortable for lounging.

My bottle fenders.  So Classy!  Notice the front is a shampoo bottle.

The presidents house.  (I still haven't met him).

My new Home.

My room

The Evil Rooster

Hi All!  Well I finally moved into my new home last week with my host Maria and her 12-year-old grandson Maidesile.  Both are very kind, and the place is across from the presidents house so if I need any sugar I am sure he can help.  Maria and her grandson are gone on the weekends at their family property in the North, so I get the place to myself a lot.  When they are around we cook dinner together sometimes and watch cartoons.  Maidesile knows all the words to all the cartoons on cartoon network, very impressive.  My first morning there I woke up to a very horrible sound and it took me a minute to realize it was a rooster outside my window.  The evil creature kept letting me fall back asleep and then would sneak back under my window and crow again.  Unfortunately Mr. rooster did not realize that he was dealing with a professional sleeper and I am now happy to report that I have accomplished the task of sleeping through his morning shouts.  I have also taken to throwing things at him whenever he is near my window to try to deter him from hanging around.  The other fun find of my new house are the cockroaches.  I hadn't seen any the first few days I was there and then I went into the kitchen late at night and flipped on the light to find 6 roaches staring at me.  They didn't scurry away or anything, they just sat there.  I think they were a bit confused why I was infringing on their allotted time in the kitchen, which apparently is after dark.  I have since learned to avoid the kitchen at night or bang a few times on the wall before I turn on the lights.

Me and my amazing new bicycle

I got a bike last week, so I am not mobile.  No one rides bikes here for some reason (maybe because It's horribly hot all the time and rains constantly) so the used bike market is pretty nonexistent.  I managed to find this gem, an old american mountain bike with working breaks and shocks and decent tires.  Only down side is it doesn't really shift on it's own so I have to pick a gear before I head out based on how many hills I will be encountering.  I have spruced it up by adding some "fenders".  They don't sell them here so I had to improvise.  After much internet research (well really not much, just small amounts of very slow internet research which made it feel like much) I zip-tied various sizes of plastic bottles onto my bike.  Now not only am I the weird white girl on a bike (a strange enough sight), but I have bottles all over it to boot.

Yummy Palauan lunch

 My first task on my new bike was to head to the local fish market.  I had been meaning to go, but it just seemed so far by foot.  I had no idea what I wanted and the guy just kept opening up coolers and taking out really huge fish.  We finally got to the small size bracket and I ended up telling him I wanted something for sashimi (raw fish eaten with lemon and soy sauce) so he would pick the freshest fish.  Whatever I was given was amazing!  I am going to get them to write down the name next time so I can try all the different fish and see which I like best.

cops patrolling at the boat races just in case things get crazy.

Nice view from the top of the bridge watching the boat races.

October 1st was Palauan Independence day so we had the day off work to celebrate.  The main attraction of the day are boat races and eating.  How can you go wrong?  The boats raced by engine categorize so it started with souped up fishing boats and ended with the richest of Palau showing off some fancy and expensive toys.  Most of the drivers wore life jackets, some wore helmets and all of them were borderline crazy.  My favorite was the guy who flew out of his boat when he hit a wave too fast and then managed to swim back to it and hopped back in before the rescue boat could show up.  He finished the race, going even faster then before trying to catch up even though he had no chance at all.  He was awarded the most cheers from the crowed however, who only got excited when people flew out of their boats or looked like they might roll their boats.  As he did both he was definitely the winner in the crowds eyes.  The other highlight was a race between the two richest families in Palau who between them own just about everything here.  One has a red boat and one has a blue boat so they call them Superman and Batman and people talk about it the whole next year.  Superman won this year and people seemed pretty excited, I think he's the favorite.

spectator at the boat races

superman vs. batman

RAIN!!!!!

That's pretty much all the exciting news I have.  It's been raining like crazy.  This morning while I was having breakfast I was pretty convinced a coconut tree was going to fall on our house.  It didn't, but there's always tomorrow!  I keep telling myself it can't last forever, but we are going on week 3 now. Sometimes it seems like it's going to be a nice day and then I leave my rain coat at home and it turns on me.  If it does ever clear I am going to be so appreciative of the good weather!  Hope all of your Octobers are off to a good start and you all remembered to say rabbit rabbit!

love Katharine