Palauing

I always wanted to come to Palau, but can't explain why.
I can however come up with two possible answers.
One, the most probable, is that I discovered that Palau existed in 1994, when it became independent, and I found intriguing that countries could still, 5 years after the Fall of the Wall, be under a UN Trust administration dating back to the end of the II World War. It seemed so anachronic back then -I was younger and naif, and was yet to discovered, for instance, that XIX literature can shed light on, and explain, many of our deepest problems. After then, several other new countries have appeared on the maps, but in very different ways.
The second answer is that my grandmother would have mentioned "las Palaos" at some point, when talking about her father, a captain of the merchant navy, who would ordinarily make the return trip from Havana to Manila in the 1920s. As a matter of fact, I like to think that my fascination for the South Seas comes from listening to her stories about him, although I might have to look elsewhere -I only have am adult's recollection of my grandmother's stories. Although I would prefer to establish that link, as I'm the fourth generation of a family of migrants and travellers, I might have to blame just myself.
Whichever the reasons, the fact is that I'm in Palau and I find this mere fact exhilarating. It feels far and remote (the patchy Internet connectivity helps a lot to that -uploading pictures or embedding videos is out of the question).
Not that everything is good.
I'm staying at a jaded modern charmless hotel, full of Japanese and Chinese tourists and a group of noisy Spaniards.
Koror might have the attributes of any nation's capital: a "capitol", where the national assembly meets; a few ministries here and there; a judicial centre, where the Supreme Court seats (at a rather intriguing Japanese building from the 1920s); a national museum (its exhibition showing clearly a preference for Japan among the 4 former foreign administrations). However, Koror seems to be little more than a few streets around the main north-south drag (practically jammed during the morning rush hour, as the road from Petionville to Port-au-Prince was).
In many respects, there is very little that makes this place different from any other of the tropical nations I know. Maybe, the main distinctive characteristic is that the Western/American influence is rather nicely balanced by the subtle pleasant order of the Japanese.
However, theselukewarm first impressions changed once I jumped on a boat and navigated through the labyrinth of the Rock Islands. It's just magnificent and beautiful -worth the 4 flights I took to get here.
Then, in just 2 dives, I crossed turtles, manta rays, grey reef sharks, tunas, tiger fish and shoals of fish -and swam in a land-locked sultry lake with about 5 millions stingless golden jellyfish.
I still can't explain why I wanted to come, but I'm very happy I came.