Octopus's Garden

Guam, part 3

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!

Rock Islands

Guam, Part II

One day we drove about a quarter of the way around the island to near the southern tip in our (mostly) trusty (rented) steed.



On the way we passed a couple of military bases, lots of jungle, and the beach where Magellan is said to have landed when he discovered Guam on his first circumnavigation of the globe, on Andrew's birthday in 1521.

We took a ferry to a small island called Cocos about a mile off shore. Cocos is a small island about a mile long and just a couple hundred yards wide.



The center section of the island has been turned into a day-trip resort.



As you would expect, the island is covered with coconut and palm trees.



Mostly it's kind of a typical tourist-trap resort area, with a variety of activities like jet skis, parasailing, and banana boats.



And, of course, a long stretch of nice beach and a nice view of the ocean.



We were excited to be there, but not coordinated to express it all at the same time...



The far side of the island has a rocky beach, and then nothing but ocean for about 1400 miles until you hit New Guinea.



We had a fun day playing in the sun, but some people got a little burned.



When we got back to Guam itself, we found ourselves stranded because I forgot to put the car key in the locker, and instead left it in my pocket. Yes, it was an electronic key, and no, it was not sealed, so of course the water trashed it.

While we waited for the car rental place to bring us a spare key, the kids amused themselves on the beach by making a race track and having hermit crab races,



listening to music,



just chillin' out,



or just hanging out on the dock looking at scenery.



Speaking of scenery, here are some photos taken waiting for the key to get to us.

Sweet and Innocent

Some photos from Regan's baptism...

love the island

Guam, part 1

This summer we visited Guam for a few days.

Here we are on the train on the way to the airport. Guam is about a three and a half hour flight almost directly south from Tokyo.



And we made it!



Guam is an interesting place. It's an American territory, and everyone seems really proud to be part of the United States. Signs often say "Guam U.S.A." instead of just Guam, and there seems to be a lot of intentional emphasis of their American-ness. Their offical slogan is "Where America's Day Begins" -- being the westernmost U.S. possession before the International Date Line, Guam sees the sunrise before any other U.S. territory. Anyway, they seem to be trying really hard to emphasize their American-ness.

Guam was actually a U.S. possession before World War II -- we took it from the Spanish as part of the spoils of the Spanish-American war -- unlike the other islands in the Marinas, such as Saipan, which we took from Japan during the war and never gave back, or Okinawa, which we took but then returned decades later. Guam had been owned by the U.S. for about 40 years before the war, and then was invaded and occupied by Japan for a few years, then taken back by the U.S. We were there the week before Liberation Day, the anniversary of the U.S. invasion in 1944 that was the start of the U.S. taking back the island. It's a big holiday in Guam, with parades and celebrations. Stores carried Liberation Day t-shirts, and radio stations were giving away their own specially-designed shirts.

On the other hand, being so far away, Guam feels really remote from the U.S. Based on my very limited sampling of listening to radio news and glancing at a couple of newspapers, all the news seemed to be local. There was nothing at all about U.S. politics, no mention of Pres. Obama, no talk about health care or any of the other major topics that were in the news in the continental U.S. in July. As near as I could tell, all the political news was about Guam's governor and local (the island and to some degree the other Marianas islands) events. Which makes sense -- they don't vote for president, they don't have representation in Congress, and most U.S. policies just aren't applicable.

That said, a large percentage of the island (about 30%) is taken up by U.S. naval and air bases. Guam is also home to the some of the very few B-2 bombers not stationed in Missouri. We didn't see any, but saw quite few military helicopters, fighters, and flights of B-52s like this one.



The bases are all fairly remote to where we were staying, though. We drove past the entrances to a couple in our travels, but I didn't see any servicemen/women. In fact, I think the only white guy I saw in three and a half days was myself in the mirror. Everyone else were either natives or tourists from Japan (mostly), Korea, or China.

Guam is definitly a tropical island. Everywhere is covered with coconut trees, palm trees, and other jungle vegetation, except where it has been cut back to build on. It's kind of like Gilligan's Island, with hotel chains. We stayed at the Marriott.




The Marriott is right on the beach, near the western end of Tumon Bay. Here is the view from our hotel room.



Here is a beach-level view from just outside the hotel. There are hotels all along the bay, up until the rocky cliffs on the other side. The whole bay is very shallow, not more than maybe eight to ten feet deep at high tide. There are a lot of coral formations and tons of fish, making it a great place for snorkeling. Stay tuned for snorkeling photos later.



Here's a close-up of the rocky cliffs at the far end of the bay. There's a wedding chapel up there, and a lookout where you can walk out and looks straight down. We didn't go there.



Speaking of wedding chapels, they are everywhere. All the major hotels have them, in addition to the stand-alone places. Japanese people love to have Christian weddings in fancy places (maybe other Asians do too), and Guam is a great spot for a destination wedding. We saw two or three wedding parties just at the Marriott in the three days we were there. Here is a really cool-looking chapel that was next to our hotel.



On Wednesday evening we went to an outdoor festival they hold every week. There were tons of little booths selling crafts, souvenirs, food, etc. Here we are getting some Chamorro barbecue. Unfortunately, it started pouring down rain while we were there, so we didn't stay very long.



Lots of stores and restaurants specialize in Chamorro barbecue. Here we are having lunch at a local hamburger / barbecue restaurant. Most of their burgers were also kind of bizarre Guam-style combinations of flavors.



There were also lots of wild tropical flowers blooming everywhere.







In short, it was a very scenic place.