unsere kleinste hat einige wochen aufgebracht, um den panama/malpelo-urlaubsfilm zu schneiden, aber ein virus namens “lsass” (nein! ich habe nichts damit zu tun!) hat den großteil des beinahe fertigen films zunichte gemacht. nachdem bini ein paar tränen verdrückt hat, haben wir uns zu zweit an einem verregneten nachmittag zusammengesetzt & einen kleinen teil wiederhergestellt.

dieses mal gibt es aber keine unterwasseraufnahmen zu sehen, sondern ilse, die auf hoher see einen apfelstrudel zubereitet. hmmmm, der war lecker, das kann ich euch sagen! schade, dass es keine geruchs- & geschmacksfunktion gibt.


apfelstrudel

Sabrina, Ilse und Gerhard von der Divingfamily, waren im September/Oktober  2006 auf den Galapagos Inseln, eines der schönsten Tauchgebiete der Welt. Wir hatten 46 !!! Walhaibegegnungen. In Palau trafen wir 2009 einen Engländer der war genau nach uns im Jahr 2006 auf dem gleichen Schiff auf der gleichen Tour und der sah gar keinen Wahlhai. Eine Woche später!!!!! Er konnte damals die Erzählungen nicht glauben, die wir ihm 2009 leider bestätigen mußten.

So ist halt das Glück auch immer mit dabei. Wie lachten darüber, und unser Glück rächte sich postwendend. Nach Palau waren wir auf Yap, berühmt für Mantas.

Wir gehören zu den wenigen Tauchern die in Yap keinen Manta sahen. Zum Glück kamen wir am German Channel in Palau vorher mit Mantas auf unsere Kosten.

 

Gerhard

Weihnachtsfeier vor dem Weiterflug nach Palau.
Highlight war im Shangrila  das Weihnachtsessen. Eine Stadtrundfahrt und der Besuch bei den “smallerst waiters” waren vor dem Abflug am nächsten Tag auf dem Programm.

Hier gehts weiter zu den Bildern: (more…)

Palau ist bekannt dafür, dass man die Gelegenheit hat eine Nautilus lebend zu sehen. Diese leben normalerweise in sehr grossen Tiefen. Um die Begegnung zu ermöglichen, werden Käfige mit rohen Hühnerfleisch, das liebe die Nautilus – scheint ein Festessen zu sein – versenkt. Diese Käfige werden auf ca 20m heraufgezogen. In dieser Tiefe fühlt sich der Nautilus noch wohl. Nach 20min Betrachtungszeit werden sie wieder in 50m ausgesetzt.
Das war für uns die Begegnung der besondern Art. Schweren Herzens verabschiedeten wir uns wieder von diesen feaszinierenden Geschöpfen.

Sabrina 2009 Palau – mit Nautilus

Hier gehts weiter zu den Bildern: (more…)

I got really very lazy with writing. Acuatlly I wanted to write an entry about each single day, however, days have passed by with no single word been written….I wonder if that was a correct sentence….

Anyhow, let’s start with my impressions about the capital city of the philippines. Mostly, it’s crowded. Around 19 million people are living there, more than the half of them is poor. They live in houses, which look like they are self-made. For us unliving conditions.

In the heart of the town are heaps of malls and hotels. We stayed, as you know from the entries before, in the shang ri la. I felt like paris hilton. Honeslty. I think that explains the look of th room and the other facilities the best. Unfortunately, they served shark fin soup in one of the restaurants. It’s such a shame. We had our christmas dinner at the redrestaurant. The only bad thing I can think about is that it was freezing! We felt like in a frige and the waiters even offerd scarves. I#m wondering why they don’t turn the air conditioning a bit higher. What is the sense behind giving the guests scarves in the size of plankets? Nevertheless, the food was incredibly. And so much. My stomach and my appetite had a hard and cruel battle. In the end the appetite won, which made my stomach really angry at night, so it didn’t let me sleep.

And now to the girls-heaven: when you left the hotel shopping malls in each direction. The closest one was maybe 10 steps away. We crossed some during the search for tabes for our camera, which was already more broken than working. But the only one where we spent some time was greenbelt. This was huge. You could live in the mall for a week and still don’t know every place. Incredible. There was greenbelt 1-9, I think. The numbers discribed differnent houses. The houses again had maybe 5 levels. And so great shops. Mümü and I felt like in a wonderland. After wandering around for hours, without buying anything….big mistake….huge mistake….we went back to our palast. Daddy totally exhausted, Mum was already home- mean jetlag, and I was still amazed and angry about the sudden wonderland-ending.

The last day in Manila we did a city tour. 60 bucks per person, absolutely too expensive. We learned a bit about the history, esspecially about the national hero, who got executed- unfortunately, I forgot the name already. We spent the time wandering in parks, the museums were all closet. The strange thing was, our guide explained that the tour costs that much, because it includes all the entries, she made a discout of 5 dollar because of ONE museum that was closed, so why did we have to pay for the other ones, of which she also knew that they would be closed? Do you get me? That’s kind of weird, isn’t it?

At the end of the trip we went to the red light district, where my father had lived for a couple of days when he was here the first time, 1979. His eyes had the momories-of-the-good-old-time glance when we went to the hobbit house. It’s a nice place with saids-so good live music.When we were there, it was actually closed. However, our luck was that the driver was an expert in negotiating. So, we got beers and coke and daddy a suitable place for his memories.

After finishing the drinks, changing some dollar to pesos and buying a hobbit house t-shirt and, of course, making some pictures, we headed to the airport.

There I got my diving-bracelet for the right food. (Each country, where I was diving- one bracelet) We had some wierd palauan style burger with sweet bread- the taste is indiscribable (place for memories again)

After 4 checkings (bags as well as shoes and body) we were allowed to take a seat at the gate