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).