The coolest thing about Guam, at least for us landlocked Idahoans, was being right on the ocean. The beach was right outside the hotel doors, and so the main thing we did there was swim and snorkel.
And when the kids got tired of the ocean (I'm not sure how you do that, personally, but anyway), they enjoyed swimming in the pool (which was also right by the ocean).
The kids found quite a few hermit crabs, like this small guy
or this even tinier guy:
In addition to snorkeling, we also tried "snuba" one day.
Snuba is basically the same thing as scuba, except that instead of carrying your own air tank, there is one air tank for the group, and the tank stays on a raft that move around with you.
This keeps the group together, and also limits how deep you can go (not that depth was an issue where we were, because the water was only 6-8 feet deep anyway).
For these reasons, I guess, snuba is considered to be safer than scuba, and you don't need to have a license or anything to do it.
You just wear regular snorkeling gear, strap on a regulator and weight belt, and that's it.
We spent about a half-hour underwater, looking around and feeding the fish.
Tumon Bay has three pretty distinct underwater terrains -- bare sand, sand covered with seaweed, and coral. You can see small patches of all three types of terrain here.
We learned that the coral areas had the most fish.
The water conditions were quite variable depending on the tides, and what you could see also depended a lot on the lighting. When it was overcast, you couldn't see very well. But when the sun was out and the water was clear, visibility was really quite good.
Many kinds of fish would kind of keep to themselves in schools, following each other around the rocks and coral formations.
These blue guys, for example, always hung out in large schools.
Others, particularly the larger fish, were more solitary, and some even didn't mind mingling with others.
We probably saw two or three dozen distinct varieties of fish. This one was really cool, with almost glowing blue polka dots.
These black and white ones were pretty common.
These larger fish were more rare.
Here's a trio of angelfish.
These skinny translucent fish usually hung out in large schools near the surface. They were rather aggressive if you fed them.
Most of the fish could be enticed to come close if you gave them food.
But some were really shy, and didn't want to leave the protection of the coral even if you tried to feed them.
These triggerfish like hot dogs.
They had about the most interesting and bold color schemes.
We also came across some more bizarre creatures, like this sting ray.
This flounder had amazing camouflage. It was very difficult to see when it wasn't moving. And when it would rest on the bottom, it would wiggle itself and settle into the sand to blur its edges and make it that much harder to see.
This clownfish was hiding in the anemone, ducking in and out just like in Finding Nemo.
Anyway, it was really, really cool. A whole different world!
1 comment:
Cool Pics! That was probably one trip your family will always remember.
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