On day three during our time on Jeju Island we once again had a full day of activities planned that we wanted to hit. Our driver was awesome and figured out the best itinerary for us, and we really had a marvelous day! That was one thing about Jeju Island – there was never a lack of amazing things to see. We seriously could have spent weeks there just exploring all the different parts of the island!
Our first stop of the day was to Haeyeo – which is a memorial of sorts for the women divers that once were seen in abundance on Jeju island but who are few in numbers now a days. These women divers were amazing and made most of their living diving for seaweed, clams and Abalone and did it all without the help of equipment! Thats right folks – simply by holding their breath. The average woman diver would hold her breath for around 2 minutes! Pretty amazing. And it was considered a great fortune to have a diver in the family. In fact most men didn’t even have to work if they had a wife who dived, because she could easily support the family with the haul she brought in from diving. Pretty amazing stuff!
We had a great time taking pictures with all the statues and exploring the beautiful beach. And a great shot of the island Udo behind us. We unfortunately didn’t make it out to Udo, but it too is known for being a very beautiful place and highly rated on trip adviser.
I think this may be the only picture I have of our driver, so I’m going to post it. Here he is studying the list of places we wanted to see – and trying to figure out the best way to hit them all.
Here are the statues of the women divers. As you can see they wore masks and wet suits and then would carry packs to put the items they found from the sea.
