The New North: Exploring Palau by Open Road

Tim Rock · Issue 46, Jan/Feb 2009 · pp. 45–49

Drive and Dive in Palau? There’s a new road on the second largest island in Micronesia and with it is a new path to possibilities. Caribbean isles like Bonaire are popular places for divers to get in a car or truck and head to the dive or snorkel spot. While Palau’s extensive reef may preclude this, it is possible to now get to places that were difficult at best prior to the new highway that spans the island of Babeldaob. The Palau islands are without a doubt one of the prettiest places on Earth. Spanning more than one- hundred miles from one tip of the archipelago to the other, this region features an amazingly beautiful atoll, a high island that is second only to Guam in Micronesia landmass, 700 Rock Islands and two southern limestone islands. Babeldaob holds what many feel are the unexplored attractions in Palau both on land and along the outer reefs. With the new 53-miles of “Compact…