Up early again to dive. The first dive was outside the reef - great visibility, but nothing exciting. The dive master was pretty bad, it was almost as though she were afraid of the coral - I'm pretty sure she never dropped within 30 feet of the coral. We didn't see any big fish - the first dive I've ever done in Micronesia where I didn't see at least a reef shark. A lot of the coral was pretty badly damaged (El Niño?), though it seems to be coming back. The visibility and the topography made for a nice dive, but nothing like what I'd hoped for. The second dive was another manta dive back at Goofnuw Channel. The same big manta from yesterday's second dive (10 to 12 foot wingspan) was back and hung out for most of the dive. He did a lot of flybys and swoops for us - one time he passed just inches above my head - I could have easily reached up and touched him - He was big! It was an excellent dive to finish off diving in Yap.
After lunch we hung out for a while then set off down the beach to walk to Bechiyal Village - a culturally traditional village that lets tourist poke around. It was low tide so we could easily walk the entire way (a few miles) on the beach. The village itself was pretty disappointing. From the guide book and talking to people I thought it was a real lived in village, but it's not - it's a few run down traditional buildings in a well manicured park. The community house, men's house, and women's house were all pretty nice - thought definitely in need of some repairs - and the beach and park like setting were very impressive, but the shoddiness and need of repair was a little depressing. That didn't stop us from sitting above the beach for a couple hours though. We walked back on the road (stopping for ice cream!) After dinner I was exhausted, I just couldn't keep my eyes open and ended up falling asleep in my close before nine. I was so knocked out that Stacy and Sue couldn't even wake me up.
