Need Info on Truk Lagoon / Palaus

[doxiepb]

You will definitely enjoy diving in Truk! My recommendations would be to do the Shinkoku Maru as a night dive. It was absolutely beautiful at night! Another suggestion if you want a deep dive would be to do the San Francisco Maru. When we did the dive there was a school of thousands of jellyfish in assorted sizes and colors. The school started around 60 feet down to the wreck at 160 feet, the entire wreck was engulfed in them. It was like being inside a video game trying not to touch them. You just kept your arms crossed and slowly descended in a zig zag type pattern, very surreal. A couple divers got stung but nothing too bad. It was a fascinating sight and I look at the video often just to remind myself how much fun this dive was.
Another wreck to dive would be the Betty Bomber. This is a shallow dive and good to do for the second dive of the day.
The Sankisar Maru was a good one for fish life and bullets. There's also trucks onboard.
The Kensho Maru is a good penetration dive. You can go through the engine room and galley areas. Excellent dive!
The Nippo Maru is a beautiful ship, mostly intact. You can look at china cups and plates, footwear, gas masks, old telephones and many other personal items that have been collected and gathered into piles. She is mostly intact and lots of good history to look at. There's also a huge lionfish that makes it's home here.
The Fujikawa Maru is good for soft corals and many other exotic fish.
Don't drink the water, we didn't need bug spray even on our treks through the jungles. If you get a chance to go to shore and take the hike through the jungle to see the Japanese bunkers etc, do it. It's a fascinating place to see and visiting with the local people and seeing how they live is interesting. We also got to see the Red Cross in action giving the local children their yearly vaccinations in the school house. If you see little plants that look like soft ferns, touch them and they instantly curl up, fun to watch.
Keep in mind that this a very much third world country and you are not going to have the amenities available that you are used to. If you walk downtown and have a digital camera, take pictures of the kids then show it to them. They are fascinated seeing themselves and will follow you for more. Watch out for the dogs that run through the village on Moen, they will bite! A diver in our group, which was a doctor, got bit just walking by one. He called the states and there are no known instances of rabies on the islands, so you don't have to worry about that, but infection can be a major problem there.
If you want more information, feel free to write me and I'll tell you what I can.