Palaus

R Viejo-Sobera; M Palaus; A Valero-Cabre; E M Marrón.

Travelling Palau

Tomorrow starts at 8:30. They will be collected by the personnel and taken to the Fish'n Fin' diving docks. The tide and your experiences will determine whether the voyage starts from the harbour or from a near Dorfdock. Canoe through the maze of emerging Rock Islands and enjoy the magic and tranquil world.

Get to know the peculiarities of the sea live in the Laguna and the animal and plant species above it. View the indigenous orchid, fern and beautiful Palau tree population. Eavesdrop on the coo of the Pigeon, marvel at the fan-tailed fan, and watch the flying mice.

Snorke in the tranquil waters of the Laguna and see the wonderful coral and small coral that use it as a children's room, as well as tortoises and babiesharks passing by. To a certain extent, this is a kind of combination journey both for relaxing in the countryside and for training.

We will have lunch next to the wonderful Rock Islands and you can wait for your return in the afternoons.

Culture, Heritage & Human Resources

Palau, land in the Pacific Ocean. There are about 340 volcano and kyushu palau island. Palau (also called Belau or Pelew) is located in the southwestern part of Micronesia, with Guam 830 mile (.330 km) in the northwest, New Guinea 400 mile (.650 km) in the northwest and the Philippines 550 mile (.890 km) in the northwest. A vast system of barricades, which is fractured in the westward and eastern parts, surrounds most of the islandipel.

The main island are Babelthuap (Babeldaob), Koror, Malakal, Arakabesan and Peleliu. Kayangel Island just outside Babelthuap and the higher Kayangel Island Angaur, Sonsorol, Pulo Anna and Tobi just outside the barriersystem. He was a member of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, founded in 1947 and managed by the United States.

While the US administration disbanded the trust in 1986, successive actions to gain the necessary assistance for a free association pact between Palau and the United States remained in vain until 1993. On 1 October 1994, the Republic of Palau became an official state. Situated 628 meters southwards of Babelthuap, the main town and former capitol is the town ofor.

Melekeok, on Babelthuap, became the capitol in October 2006. With the exception of six islets, all are located in an extensive lake surrounded by a barriere coral cliff that extends for almost 115 km from northeastern to southwestern. Babelthuap, the biggest isle ('396 sq. km), is vulcanic, consists mainly of butesite and is bordered by dense mangroves, sometimes interrupted by sand shores on the eastern part.

The Babelthuap is mainly a hilly highland, partly grasslands and partly jungles, formed by streams into a well constructed draining system of three streams. Babelthuap has experienced significant soil degradation despite the sturdiness of lateritic soil, clay and bush. It rains about 3,800 mm a year.

Palauan practices of incinerating highland grasslands during the drought period have helped to erode the landscape. There is a metal footbridge connecting the Babelthuap and Koror isles. The island of Koror is connected by a dam to the island of Malakal, the site of the deep sea harbour of Palau, and the island of Arakabesan. There are three smaller connected archipelagos covering a total area of 18 km2.

But, starting next to southerly Babelthuap and eastward Koror and stuffing the vast Laguna for 28 mile (.45 km) of Peleliu are more than 300 green "rock islands". Several of the rocky islets are large and tower about 180 meters; they can have inner brackwater ponds containing singular creatures that are linked to the Laguna through underground canals.

The vegetation is dense on the rocky islets and, together with the effects of the chemicals of heavy rain fall, has shaped and fractured their surface, resulting in razor-sharp ridges and tips and fractured boulders. Calcareous stone islets are high in phosphates and the more easily reachable ones have been mine. Peleliu's populated Kayangel Archipelago is located on the Kayangel Archipelago, 25 km (40 km) northeast of Babelthuap and Angaur, 6 km (10 km) S. of Peleliu.

Sonsorol, Pulo Anna and Tobi, all with an area of less than 1 sq. m (2.6 sq. km), are 180 nautical leagues (290 km) south-west of the Palau Arcipel. Palau's climates are tropic. From December to March there are north-east trade wind, from June to October the south-west monsoons. Dominant ocean current off the coast are the North Equatorial Current and the Pacific Equatorial Current.

From a geological point of view, Palau is located on the Philippine ocean plate only 48 km due to the 26,200 foot (7,990 meters) Palau trench, the westerly border of the rising Pacific plate. In spite of its closeness to this area, earthquakes are rare in Palau. Palau's maritime surroundings are home to a wealth of wildlife, compensated for by a wealth of rural wildlife.

Its wealth results from its closeness to Indonesia, New Guinea and the Philippines. There are more kinds of aquatic organisms in Palau than any other area of similar dimensions in the whole wide expanse; coral, pelagic animals, snakes, mussels, gherkins, starfishes, sea echinoderms, jellyfishes, squids and dusters are abundant.

This underwater environment has made Palau one of the best dive sites in the whole wide open water area. Palau's bird population is plentiful and colorful, and many move to or through Palau twice a year. Some reptile and amphibian breeds are found in Palau, among them a singular newborn.

Between 3,000 and 2,000 years ago, the island was populated by consecutive seas of Malays from Indonesia, Melanesians from New Guinea, Filipino Aborigines and some Polynesians from remote Polynesia in Micronesia. Southwesterners, who differ from the Palau people in culture and language, are the only minorities; they come from a group of surviving one or more canoeists driven to Sonsorol by the Ulithi Atoll, north-east of Yap.

It is a highly complicated foreign tongue, with many anomalies that make it hard to formulate grammar and encyclopaedic regulations. Another mother tongue, Sonsorolese-Tobian, is used on the southwestern isles. Paleauan, Sonsorolese-Tobian and English are the main English speaking countries of Palau. Christianity suppressed the local Palau faith of the mighty ancestor and natural spirit and sent it along by evangelists.

From a historical point of view, the people of Palau have tend to move more than other Micronesians abroad. Guam, Hawaii and the west coast of the United States have a number of important Palau towns. The most important employers in Palau since the end of World War II have been the U.S. Navy, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and the Palau state.

Nevertheless, in the countryside outside Koror, there is a subistence farming. Fisheries on the coral canal are based on small businesses and small businesses, but do not bring any significant public revenues. Off-shore off-shore pole-and-line fisheries with international ships provide a small part of the public revenues from the sales of licences.

It is Palau's denomination of the US Dollars, which has no Federal Reserve. We are heavily dependent on the United States for funding. After it was claimed in 1999 that Palau was involved in an illegal cash raid, the administration set up fiscal supervisors at the beginning of the twenty-first century and tightened banks' rules.

Foreign nationals, especially from the Philippines and Taiwan, represent a rising proportion of the workforce in Palau. Whereas the Constitutional Treaty provides for the creation of trade union organisations, there were no such organisations in Palau at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The Koror has a system of cobbled streets. Babelthuap has cobbled streets, and in the mid-1990s work began on a two-lane 85km motorway.

Well-known as the Compact Road, because its building was a concept of the Compact of Free Association, it was finished in 2007. Transport between the isles is usually by sea or air. From Koror to Peleliu and Angaur there is frequent commuting, and excursions by fast patrol boats to the seaside towns on Babelthuap can usually be made in a few hour.

Babelthuap has an internatonal airfield. Palau introduced a president's system of governance, which was introduced in 1981. Palau's judicial system is composed of the Supreme Court, which has both the procedure and the appeal bodies, the Court of Justice for joint actions and the Regional Court. There are no military units in Palau; the United States is in charge of the protection of the state.

A few Palau people volunteered for the U.S. Army. Primary and higher education institutions are either state-run or privately run, and classes are held in both English and Palauan. The Palau Community College (1993), which offers professional and academical classes and is open to all Micronesian undergraduates, was established in the 1920' during the time of the Japanesian government as a professional university.

Though there is no university in Palau, there are state grants for young people from Palau who want to continue their studies at foreign university. Medical treatment is provided by the Koror Hospitals; pharmacies in the fields and a small number of privately owned hospitals complete the offer in isolated parts of the state.

In Palau the incidence of psychological diseases, suicides and alcoholics is higher than in most states. Palau's population is characterised by pragmatism, continued prosperity and competitiveness. The Palau people have adjusted to a hundred years of encroachment - in Spain, Germany, Japan and America - seeing the real world as something external, something you have to adapt to quickly if you want to manipulate it.

Nationalmuseum Belau (1955) in Koror has a small but educational artefactarium. Etpison Museum (1999), also in Koror, has photos, cards and artefacts of art in its holdings. A lot of sport is concentrated on the water and the beach of Palau. The large terraced slopes, countless rock remains and Megalites on Babelthuap bear witness to a lively civilization before coming into being.

Palauans' first comprehensive contacts with the Westerners took place after the East India Company's antelope package was shipwrecked in 1783. The 1788 George Keate's An Account of the Pelew Islands, who spoke of the Palau affair and great adventures, was used to stir up the legends of the precious wild and paradise of Europe.

At the beginning of the First World War, the Japonese Marine drove the Germans away, and although the Japans were commemorated as a phase of economical growth and order, the people of Palau were a minor group until 1936. During the Second World War, Japan was defeated by Palau in a fight that was destabilising and bewildering for the people of Palau.

In 1947, after a brief time of U.S. Navy management, Palau became part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands under U.S.dministration. In 1982 Palau ratified a Compact of Free Association with the United States, but the necessary number of electors did not survive the 1993 referenda.

While the treaty demanded that the United States retain responsibility for foreign affairs and defence and that it grant Palau funding, conflicts have arisen over the constitutionally banning the use of ships and aeroplanes carrying atomic power or atomic arms in the Palau area. In accordance with the provisions of the Convention, the United States has reserved this right and the right not to certify or disavow the existence or non-existence of such arsenal.

A number of efforts were made to amend the Constitutional Treaty, to amend the concise treaty and to obtain Palauan's consent, and the United States disbanded the fiduciary system in 1986. The way was thus clear for the Treaty to be approved in 1993 and Palau became fully autonomous in October 1994 under its conditions. Mr Palau acceded to the United Nations the following December.

However, at the beginning of the 90s, the political situation in the city had stabilised. September 1996 saw the collapse of the link between Koror and the Babelthuap archipelago, costing the lives of two and destroying the state. Secluded from Babelthuap City' s main city, the Babelthuap hub was insulated from the outside and outside worlds, and telecommunication, electricity and running was disturbed for the majority of the city.

In Japan, the goverment has provided around $25 million for the building of the Babelthuap-Koror substitute viaduct in the form of a suspended viaduct and not a reinforced boom like the first one opened in 2002. He supported the US-led alliance during the Iraq war, in which Palauian forces were part of the US war.