Our first stop on our Rock Island tour was the Micronesia's natural spa, the Milky Way Lagoon...
A tiny, shallow cove off the Ngeruktabel island, the Milky Way is a living dream for all those desiring to look at least 10 years younger, as Leiner mentioned jocularly...
This serene location has calm and cool waters with fruit bats and birds flying above us. The water in the cove is a bluish-milky tinge that comes from the weathering of the limestone rock. The unique shape of the cove protects it from the waves ensuring that the limestone sediment doesn't flow away...
We anchored our boat in the center of the Milky Way and Leiner dived into the shallow waters, scooping out the muddy white clay and putting it in a metal tray for all of us to apply on our bodies...
The lovely blue hues...
Some in our group dived in to try out the wondrous limestone mud themselves...
Leiner told us that till a few years back, the Japanese used to import mud from here for packaged beauty products, some of which were sold onboard Japan Airlines flights. All that stopped when the Palauan banned the export fearing an irreparable damage to the ecosystem here...
More boats come in...
And more tourists enter the water...
That's Michael, getting his mudpack...
With our beauty treatment done, it's time to head out...
The azure blue of the southern reef lies around the corner...
And we head to another unique spot in Palau's ecological heritage...
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