Chris' Dive Experiences: "Blue Corner", Palau, Micronesia (Part 1)

Photo Courtesy of Lesley Alstrand

After an overnight trans-Pacific flight, our plane touched down after midnight in a torrential downpour. Even if we could have kept our eyes open during the bus transfer to the resort, we wouldn’t have been able to see anything through the rain. It was not long before we reached our destination of the beautiful Palau Pacific Resort (often referred to as PPR). After being greeted and checking into our rooms, our heads thankfully hit our plush pillows.

We awoke later that morning to the ringing of the phone. It was Rod (owner of TDS) wanting to know if Lesley and I were ready to go diving. We couldn’t wait!

This was my first time out of the states, and I will never forget my initial feeling as we went to meet up with the rest of the group for breakfast. I was so impressed by the peace and quiet, the scenery of the island, and the beach. It was everything you would imagine when you think of an exotic and tropical location! Now on to the best part - the diving! If the view from the resort was considered beautiful and exotic, the boat rides to the dive sites would be described as absolutely stunning!

Palau is made up of over 200 rock islands. For me, the closest thing that I can compare these islands to are the floating islands in the movie Avatar. Your dive boat speeds in and around these islands on the way to your dives, and if you aren’t careful, you could fill your camera's memory card just on the way to your dive site with the topside scenery. As we neared "Blue Corner", one of the world’s top dive sites, we sped through another great dive site, "German Channel".



Photo Courtesy of Liz Tuttle

"German Channel" was an access channel created by the German military for their ships during World War 2 by dynamiting through a shallow reef. As we approached this channel the first time, all you could hear were ooh’s and aah’s from all the divers on the boat. The water displayed every single hue of blue, green and turquoise you could ever imagine as you cruised along this very shallow to deep dive site. It is just impossible to fully capture the channel's beauty in pictures. This is another one of those things you just have to see for yourself at least once in your life!