Comments on Palau?

Could anyone report on their Palau experience? I am not talking liveaboards
but land accommodations and quality of diving and snorkeling. Any bad
coral bleaching? Any input very much appreciated!
Nelius.

"Nelius Britz" <nbritz@iafrica.com> wrote in message
news:3fa9ed01.0@news1.mweb.co.za...
> Could anyone report on their Palau experience? I am not talking
liveaboards
> but land accommodations and quality of diving and snorkeling. Any bad
> coral bleaching? Any input very much appreciated!
> Nelius.

While there are plenty of signs of coral bleaching, the fish count seems to
remain very healthy and on dives like Blue Corner you won't be spending any
time looking at coral, I can promise you that. I'm not sure that any of the
reefs we dove would have been snorkelable. Jellyfish Lake is a definite
must for snorkelers and there's stuff to see amongst the rock islands in the
lagoon, but hardly what the divers will experience. AFAIK, the Palau
Pacific Resort has the only beach. They do have a "house reef" for
snorkeling/shallow diving, but it's pretty dead. Land accomodations range
from clean motel-like (the Desekel chain), to traditional (the Carolines),
to luxury beach resort (the PPR).

Thanks for all the info so far. In the Maldives I have also experienced that
the fish numbers have not diminished despite the graveyards of shallower
corals. On the contrary, I think! Deeper corals and sealife are as good as
ever in the Maldives. Good to learn the same about Palau.