Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Jellyfish Lake


We wandered off to Jellyfish Lake today. It's basically the most terrifying thing I've ever seen in real life. But also amazing and fun. I was very conflicted over whether I was supposed to hate or love the experience so instead I just tried to act like it was a spiritual thing for me so that others would think I was mature. But really inside my head all I could hear was screaming and "WHY IS EVERYTHING TOUCHING ME?!?!"

Jellyfish Lake is a small lake buried deep in the jungle of one island in Palau. And it is COMPLETELY full of Jellyfish. Apparently these Jellyfish are not preyed upon by anything in this lake so over hundreds of years they evolved to lose their stingers, making them totally harmless and angelic. And PLENTIFUL. 

I had heard there were a lot of Jellyfish in this lake but I had no idea there would be as many as we saw. We snorkeled into the middle of the lake after one of our Palauan friends took us out to the island on a small boat. And suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by five billion of them.

And, ok. It was pretty awesome.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. (I also took some videos but Palauan Internet is straight from Hell).









~It Just Gets Stranger

25 comments:

  1. wow...amazing, isn't it? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. AHHHHH!!! Worst, as the the WORST nightmare of mine to be surrounded by jellyfish. You are a brave soul Eli. I would have had to have been heavily, heavily medicated to snorkel in that lake.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh.My.Goodness. Jellyfish are the main and only reason I do not go into the ocean. My heart was beating so fast scrolling these photos. I need to go lie down......

    ReplyDelete
  4. What I want to know is, why didn't you and Krishelle jump from jellyfish to jellyfish like they did in Finding Nemo?

    ReplyDelete
  5. That. Is. Terrifying. But, hey....love the pic of the jellyfish on your head! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh my goodness! That's incredible! I mean, part of you is scared bc it's jellyfish... but the other part of you is in awe bc it's jellyfish!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Why is there a huge crowd of people behind you?? I would have been more nervous about that than the stingless jellies...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Why did I expect them to be pink?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did too... must be the Finding Nemo nightmares

      Delete
  9. I would have been Christ like running across the top of the lake.

    ReplyDelete
  10. That is gorgeous! I go to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy (which is moving to Draper soon), and I can sit there forever and watch the jellyfish. I find them so pretty the way they move and swim! It sounds scary but when there are no stingers, that would take the fear away. Jealous of your experience!

    ReplyDelete
  11. That's is amazing that they evolved to not have their stingers! I find that so interesting! My question is, how to you know with the thousands of jellyfish that not ONE of them has like a mutated gene or something that causes them to keep their stingers??? Sounds like a good sci-fi movie. By the way, Sharknado is on this Saturday... I'm totes DVRing that.

    ReplyDelete
  12. That looks so amazing. I would have been freaking out, but probably still would've jumped in too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yep. This is definitely a nightmare of mine, as I am allergic. I had an anaphylactic reaction when I was 16, and then again after getting into jellyfish larvae (who knew there was such a thing?) while diving about 10 years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thank you! That made my day!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am terribly jealous. I have always wanted to snorkel in that lake!

    ReplyDelete
  16. That is the coolest thing I've ever seen!!! At first I was confused until I reread that they lost their stingers. I am definitely adding that to my bucket list!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Fascinating. Nature is truly a magnificent thing.

    ReplyDelete
  18. You are very brave. I got stung when I was twelve years old and I am still terrified!! Haha. Great pictures :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. I did the same thing. But on my island there's a lake full of great white sharks and Leotrix'...also thwarted by mother nature's hands of time so they are completely friendly.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I can't decide if that's the creepiest thing I've ever seen or the most awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I think it looks like one of those weird bubble sodas that have little bubbles of tapioca or something equally creepy in them.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I laughed soooooo hard at the picture of you with the jelly fish on your head! Super funny.

    ReplyDelete