In Korror

I am sitting in the lobby of the hotel we are staying at, the Green Bay Hotel (no relation to the Packers...), listening to rainfall in the jungle, typing away on my computer. A mosquito keeps buzzing around my head, reminding me that I did not reapply my bug spray after my shower. I'll end up with malaria on my last day in the Pacific, just watch. 

I am going to post the entries that I have been saving in word document form in just a bit. I thought I would attempt some form of reflection about the last few days. Peleliu was amazing for many reasons. The island is beautiful, the people are friendly, and there is WWII stuff EVERYWHERE. Many of the caves still have yet to be explored. I am sitting here, trying to digest everything I have seen and done in these last few days (not to mention last few weeks!). 

I am ready to go back home, if only just to sleep in my own bed. I am looking forward to a shower in my own shower, the ability to drink from the faucet if I so desire, sleeping in my own bed, and even cuddling with my annoying, stinky kitties. While I am anxious to get off of this island, I think the distance from this trip, both in time and in location, will only magnify the trip in my memories. I will tell of the awesome treks through the jungle to see the tanks and live ammunition and neglect to tell of the killer mosquitoes and fear of cave crickets. I will regale friends and family stories of the magnificence that is the Pacific, ignoring the fact that I would never chose to live here for any length of time. This is definitely a place I would love to visit again, but I don't believe island life is for me. (That's because I live a pirate's life...). 

We rode back on a boat today from Peleliu to Palau. I used to think "azul" was the prettiest word for the color blue. It is no match for the blue of the ocean here around the islands. The words breathless, gorgeous, beautiful, fantastic, magnificent, stunning, inspiring, and amazing could be thrown into a verbal blender and whatever cool word concoction they made all together would not describe the beauty of these islands. I think I want to learn how to scuba dive and will make my way back here one day to see the beauty that exists under the water. 

But that is the future. So for now, I will enjoy my surroundings, look forward to the time I will get to spend in my own bed, and fold the memories of this trip up to stick in my mental pocket and carry with me forever.