Ever swam with Jellyfish?

Lucky for me I have access to a brand new computer with fast internet here in the hotel. When I say new computer it was put in two days ago. I had tried getting online on the other one to just check my e-mail. Before I gave up the internet closed on me six times and the computer shut down on me twice. After all that I still didn't get to check my e-mail. I just have to say that traveling with my cousin while she is doing work is an exceptional privilege. Okay I may have to sit through a meeting or two every day but we have been to places tourists pay hundreds of dollars to go to along with places only researchers know about. Not only do we get to go to these places but the people who are in charge of these areas are taking us to these places and showing us everything. I have been taking lots of pictures underwater and above and spending at least half of my days on boats or in the water. There are so many unique things about Palau that are found no where else in the world. One really neat place here in Palau are the rock islands. There are hundreds of these islands that range in sizes and shapes. The rock islands along with much of the land through Palau has a mushroom shape where the rock meets the water. Many people believe it to be erosion solely from the waves washing the bottoms of these islands away. Its much more complex than that. Although the waves have a slight effect on the erosion most of it has to do with the acids from the plants and algae. The acids break down the rock and then the waves wash that rock away, it's called bio erosion. There is much more unique to the rock islands such as nesting areas for sea turtles and the largest reptile the salt water crocodile. After getting seasick from too much time on the boat I scuba diving at a location called blue hole. One of the neatest places I have adventured to in my life. You start off in water about 5 feet deep with lots of corals and fish around you and all of a sudden there is a hole. The hole descends down around 70 feet into a very large cave. As you descend down you can see many different kinds of corals anemones and fish. We decided to exit the hole where most people do down towards the bottom on the side. There is a large opening on the side of the cave which opens back up into the ocean. It is a very strange feeling when you get to this point because it is a sheer drop of hundreds and hundreds of feet with nothing in sight except this wall descending down. As we swam along the wall we were able to see some sharks along with huge fish and a sea turtle when we ascended back to the coral flats. While we were down the tides had changed and as soon as I reached the surface where it was much more choppy than before I threw up a few more times form the motion of the waves, it was worth it. Well after that we went to a location called jellyfish lake. This is a saltwater lake that is on one of the rock islands which has been separated from the ocean for many years. In this lake there are jellyfish which over time have lost their ability to sting. The lake is maybe 2-3 acres, not very big at all with a depth of around 100 feet. Yet in this lake there are 13-15 MILLION jellyfish. They range in sizes from 1/2 the size of a penny to a little larger than a softball. It is like nothing else to swim with millions of jellyfish. There is so much more that I could say but it would take all day to type it. Mangrove crab is a delicious treat but I have not yet tried fruit bat. The fruit bats here are huge I thought it was some kind of raptor the first time I saw one flying. I have been told they can have a wingspan up to 6 feet. Yes, people do eat it here and no I don't really want to try it. On the other hand I do want to eat it just so I can say that I have. Oh that picture of that building up there is not from my school field trip to Washington D.C. that is the capitol building here in Palau. Yes it is outrageous and twice as big as it needs to be but the government of Taiwan built it for them. It is simply a waste of money when you travel about the rest of the country. Well it has been an interesting adventure so far to the Republic of Palau and tomorrow morning at 2am I will be landing in Yap. Yap will be the third state of Micronesia which I will be visiting and unless something changes I will not be going to Kosrae the last state of the FSM. Off I go to enjoy my final day in Palau.