{"id":547888,"date":"2010-04-30T10:30:42","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T14:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.epa.gov\/blog\/?p=2686"},"modified":"2010-04-30T10:30:42","modified_gmt":"2010-04-30T14:30:42","slug":"reveling-in-palau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/547888","title":{"rendered":"Reveling in Palau"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"reveling-in-Palau\"Each dive in Palau was magnificent. It\u2019s not every day you come eyeball to eyeball with creatures appearing to wonder; \u2018just what are you doing with that funny contraption on your back?\u2019 Such was the case when my dive instructor signaled me to turn around on our safety stop. To my surprise and glee, there was an enormous manta ray staring right at me. I could have touched him, but out of respect I held back as we gazed at one another. That is, after spinning my head around motioning and gurgling \u201cHOLY MOLY!\u201d My instructor proved that you can in fact laugh while scuba diving. I\u2019m hooked.<\/p>\n

The biodiversity above and underwater was captivating. Kayaking was a perfect way to catch both along the craggy limestone. Before departing on our carefully planned, 7 night kayaking, camping expedition, we took a day to paddle out for some snorkeling, and practice navigating with the waterproof expedition maps that Planet Blue provided. With countless, similar-looking, uninhabited islands you would too!<\/p>\n

Putting our kayaks into the deep turquoise water, surrounded by jungly trees and mangroves, it occurred to me that if I were a salt water crocodile, this would be top notch. So I asked our friend who helped us launch, \u2018just out of curiosity \u2013 should we keep an eye out for those wily reptiles?\u2019 He grinned, \u201cIn Palau? Always Crocodile!\u201d<\/p>\n

Super!<\/p>\n

\"Reveling-in-Palau-2\"Vines swooping to the water provided kayak parking as we snorkeled, and I looked behind, below, all around us for croc eyeballs \u2013 at which point it would be too late anyway, so why bother? The corals were a vast array of colors, shapes and textures appearing preserved since the dawn of time.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll never forget though, the eerie feeling that also hung in the air that day. It was especially prominent, listening as our paddles interrupted the buzzing, ringing sounds of the birds and insects. I couldn\u2019t help but wonder what it must have been like for soldiers surviving in hiding for years, or decades in the caves. What it must have been like not knowing if the war was over, if it was safe to come out at all. How explosions must have shattered the stillness that now hung in the air. You could feel it, you could just feel the suffering and fear that had once dominated this beautiful place.<\/p>\n

About the author: Jeanethe Falvey, EPA New England, on detail, EPA\u2019s Office of Web Communications.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each dive in Palau was magnificent. It\u2019s not every day you come eyeball to eyeball with creatures appearing to wonder; \u2018just what are you doing with that funny contraption on your back?\u2019 Such was the case when my dive instructor signaled me to turn around on our safety stop. To my surprise and glee, there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6809,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6809"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}