So, in May of 2000, after getting royally screwed on taxes due to my company's payroll service only with holding half as much as they should have, being in desparate need of a vacation, I travelled to Guam. Why Guam? I was asked with great frequency. Well, I've been wanting for a long time to travel to a Pacific Island, and with all the instability in the Pacific these days (East Timor, Philippines, Fiji etc.), Guam seemed like one of the few stable places left to visit. It also doesn't have any special entrance requirements for US citizens, nor any special requirements in general in terms of vaccinations and the like.
What follows is a day-by-day journal style thingy. I don't generally make notes of time of day for each paragraph, though usually each paragraph was written only after some amount of time had passed. I'll have to do better next time...
I'm putting this up here simply because there isn't a lot of information, at least that I could find, about the tourist experience on Guam. Here's my experience. It isn't tremendously detailed, and my enjoyment may not come out very well, but it is truly a wondeful island, and I have even been considering moving there permenantly. Anyways, here is my feeble attempt at expository writing on Guam:
So, here I am in Guam. It seems completely insane that I should be here, yet it is so beautiful that I hardly want to leave! But, to begin at the beginning: the plane flight. For those who have flown overseas, you know well enough usually it is tedious and dull, and this was no exception. The Houston to Honolulu flight left so late that I had only time enough to go the bathroom and already they were boarding. And that same flight was charging for the movies (well, technically for headphone rental), though I wasn't very interested in the movies anyway. I did manage to read through an entire book (Virus Hunters - what a great choice on your way to a tropical destination!). The next leg from Honolulu to Guam, however, actually arrived a good 45 minutes early, though I suspect such large paddings are not unusual on overseas flights. And this time the movies were actually free, and since I was too tired to read and I prefer not to sleep on airplanes, I did end up watching the selections - "Bicentennial Man" and "Anna and the King". Between the three flights that made up the trip, I had five meals, and these were real meals, not just peanuts, so I was quite ok for food on arrival in Guam, which is just as well as I was so tired that I just wanted to go right to sleep anyway - I had been up continuously for nearly 30 hours by the time I arrived at my hotel! It was interesting to note they had a canine unit at the airport baggage claim, sniffing at all the bags.
And by the time I did arrive at my hotel, around 6pm, it was already starting to get dark. I suppose, being so close to the equator, they get close to 12 hours of sunlight, so sunrise should be around 6am - this is probably an island that is early to rise and early to bed...
When I was checking in at the hotel (the Hilton on Tumon Bay), a small horde of sailors came in, each one with a native woman on his arm. It looked like they were going to a dance somewhere. Quite a sight, though I suppose not an uncommon one here.
The room I have is really nice, the balcony overlooks the bay and I have a nice view of the sunset. And given that the sunset is off to my left, I can only assume I will also get to see the sunrise to my right! The Hilton in on the west end of the bay, and this part of the building faces north, no doubt by design. But this is the special, expensive [Magahaga] wing - there is a much larger wing that faces east-west, so those people don't get the nice view of the bay :p This hotel is the last one on the bay, so there shouldn't be much traffic or noise, and I am on the top floor near the end of the hall, far away from the elevators (I didn't ask for such a room location, I just got lucky).
Since it is already early evening, and I am not terribly hungry but am horribly tired, I just go right to sleep after getting my stuff organized and settled into the room.
I woke up around 6 am reasonably well refreshed, and figured since it was a Sunday and little would be open, I would just walk around the capitol a while and get a feel for the island. But first, on either side of Tumon Bay, there are peninsulas that are quite a bit higher elevation than the beach, so I will hit the one closer to the hotel, which is also in the direction of the captiol, Agana. So, by 6:30 I was off. I passed a small, simple shrine right by the hotel dedicated to St. Grace.
It took a lot longer to reach that peak than I expected, as I couldn't go just straight up, but had to go all the way to around some fences and shrubs and then back up the length of the promontory. It turns out there is only an abandoned mental health institute there, but it is easy to imagine the point being used for lookout in WW2 and earlier times. But, not finding anything of interest, I then headed off to town.
There was quite a surpringly large number of cars on the road for so early on a sunday morning. It is quite obvious from the walk just how americanized the island is, from Wendys and Taco Bell to Payless Shoes and Ace Hardware. A lot of the buildings look quite run down, but I still felt quite safe anyway. I have no idea what the safety factor is at night, and I don't really care to find out, but at least here on Sunday morning everything seems ok. Passed by a small park dedicated to a bishop, and later arch-bishop, of the Philippines and Micronesia, quite a few small beach parks (only several hundred feet long in most cases) and finally arrived in Agana. Despite being the capitol, it appears to be basically a one-road village (Route 1, also called Marine Road), which is really surprising to me, as I did expect something a little more urban for a capitol.
I walked over the St. Anothny Bridge (the Agana River used to flow under it, but it got diverted after WW2 so now it is a bridge over nothing...) and over to the Dulce Nombre De Maria Cathedral Bascilia. Considering how long the spanish controlled the island, there have been very few remnants, aside from names, of spanish culture and/or architecture so far. This Church is the biggest such leftover from the spanish era, and while fairly large in size, it is actually fairly simple, there being no gold or marble on the island. I did pass a mexican night club, but that is new, not a leftover so doesn't count :p
Then, constantly expecting there to suddenly be something more urban and fitting of a capitol, I kept walking south. When I finally hit Asan around 9am, I turned around and headed back. The entire way, I found it necessary to stop every couple of miles to get something to drink - despite being so early in the morning, it was still very hot and very humid, and very sunny. I drank 100 oz. of liquid during that four hour walk alone! I actually managed to avoid a sunburn, but got about as much sun as possible without burning. And that is just in the early morning sun!
I also noticed these little (2-3 inches long) lizards (newts?) *everywhere*. They move really fast and can jump really far! Fortunately, they always run in the other direction so I don't have to worry about being swarmed by them.
Given how footsore I am from this walk, I don't actually plan on doing much more today, which is just as well since not much is likely to be open on a Sunday anyway.
I must have been too tired to notice yesterday, but the mattresses here are entirely too firm to be comfortable - it felt like I slept on a rock :p But, I experimented a little this morning and discovered that if I leave the bed spread on the mattress and use the other one to sleep under, it is tolerable.
Plans for today: explore the centreal third of the island, including the university, and the villages of Barrigada, Mangilao, Sinajana, Ordot, Chalon Pago, Asan, Mongmong, Toto and Maite. Sounds like a lot, but it is a fairly small area, and anyway I expect them all to be one-road villages as was the captiol. Plus, the tourist guide I have doesn't list all that many attractaions for this region, so while it sounds like a lot, it probably won't be.
War in the Pacific National Park, Asan Beach. This is one of seven parts of this park. It is quite interesting as you can see the battle from both sides - the marines storming the beaches and the island defenses of the Japanese. To imagine what, if I were the commander on either side, I would have done. Which seems to be pretty much exactly what was done - the marines didn't have a lot of choice, being jungle mountains for most of the island, they just had to slug it out with mostly frontal assaults and lots of engineers, while the Japanese, faced with superior air and naval power, dug into the ground, or rather, forced the natives to dig caves for them. And it is easy to see even today the effects power of allied air and naval power - looking up at the mountains from the shore, you see dense jungle all along the mountains, expect in the area directly behind the invasion beach, which is still just grass and shrubs - I wonder just how long it will take before the jungle reclaims that part of the mountain.
Well, it took a whopping three hours to cover the central part of the island. You are driving along through the jungle, see a couple of buildings peeking out of the trees, maybe a McDonalds or a Pizza Hut, and that's a village - a minute later you are again completely surrounded by dense jungle. There are the occasional dirt roads which I'm sure lead to residential areas, but they are well hidden. There are several "big" attractions I missed this morning, but I obviously have plenty of time to go back and pick them up this afternoon, most notably the University. I suppose I will also visit the Micronesian Mall as well, since I am guessing I will have plenty of time. In the newspaper there are three big stories: 1. lack of construction workers, 2. the US Navy accusing the local government of illegally tapping into naval water mains, and 3. the village of Ordot finally being connected into the Public Sewer System. Mmmmm, septic tanks...
A hot topic here does seem to be statehood - they are voting in November and the propaganda is already gearing up - everywhere you go you see signs for or against it, mostly against. I wasn't even particularly aware it was under consideration. My feeling, based on external factors and being ignorant of local politics, is that Guam should remain a territory and avoid both statehood and full independence. Our only real interest here is the military bases (naval and air force), yet without these bases, the local economy would almost certainly collapse (as did the economy in Panama after we pulled out). Or else the Chinese would move in to occupy the bases, which would be an absolute disaster both for the US and for the Chamarros. Anyway, that's quite a topic for another day...
Mall of Micronesia: pretty much exactly as any typical, small mall in the US - nothing to make it feel exotic or special or Micronesian. Ah well :p
The university was quite small, maybe only a dozen or so academic buildings that I could see, although the design of the buildings was really neat - Sort of U-shaped with a courtyard on the inside of the U. The classrooms were accessed from the inside of the U as well - the doors actually opening directly onto promenades and catwalks facing in towards the courtyard. Each of these buildings had three stories to them. And yet, there was no "college town" surrounding the university - the university bookstore was the only shop I saw in the area.
I hope these insects bites don't turn into something nasty like malaria or yellow fever - I didn't need any special vaccinations to get on the island so I should be ok.
I am really glad I got an ocean view room at the hotel - the view is really quite beautiful and offers a chance to put my college learnings on coastal geomorphology to the test looking out into the bay.
But as nice as Guam is in terms of the land and the weather, there really doesn't seem to be a lot to do here. I am thinking next year I will probably do Hawaii. Or Bermuda, depending on the financials. But I can say that I do want to live by the sea when I move on to another job.
Ok, I am going to Two Lover's Point to finish the day - but first, lunch at the Genji, a Japanese Bar and Grill that is one of the, oh, *five* or so restaurants associated with the hotel. It was actually quite reasonably priced for lunch ($15) and decent quality. It was run by Japanese women (dressed in traditional garb), so walking in I felt like Gulliver in the land of Lilliputians... I was there after the lunch rush, so there weren't a lot of people, but they had this one middle aged japanese couple sitting down the grill from me, with no one else in between, so they could observe me as I probably broke every single Japanese dining taboo in the book :p They also had some traditional Tatami rooms available, though I'm sure they reserve those for their Japanese guests only - heck, there are entire *hotels* here reserved exclusively for Japanese visitors...
So, on my way to Two Lover's Point I passed what has to be the biggest satellite dish I've ever seen in my life, owned and operated by AT&T. You're just driving along through the jungle and suddenly there is a huge clearing dominated by the dish, then just as quickly you are back into the jungle. Very strange.
I suspect that every culture has a "Romeo and Juliet" type story, and Two Lover's Point represents the Chamarros version. A Chamarros princess and a Spanish Captain were supposed to get married, only the princess didn't want to marry a spaniard so she came to this point (several hundred foot drop to the rocks and water below) with her Chamarros lover and they tied there hair together and jumped to their deaths rather than she should marry the spaniard. The legend also says that the father could see their hair floating in the water afterwards, but given how little water there is and how many rocks, it seems instead he would have seen their broken bodies shattered on the rocks. But still, it is a nice little legend. This is also the first place I've been so far to be packed with Japanese tourists.
Hmm, my left leg is getting a bit stiff, especially around the area or a prominent bug bite on the quadracep. While probably nothing, having just read "Virus Hunter" I am a more paranoid than I otherwise would be...
TV at the hotel: half the stations are in Japanese, and half of the remaining seem to be running repeats from this morning already! Fortunately, they do have the Discovery Channel. Did you know that horseshoes crabs have blue blood, due to the presence of copper instead of iron?
There is, along the way to my room, a number of windows looking out the south side of the hotel, and many of these windows are covered by swarms of black butterflies. They don't seem to be on the north side of the hotel, which is a good thing, but it is interesting to see black butterflies at all, and I mean they are a 100% completely, solid black and they are present in very large numbers.
Today I will cover the northern part of the island, which while very large in terms of area, has few villages: Yigo and Dededo, which suites my stiff left leg and blisters on my feet just fine. I also noticed a sign for a zoo right here on San Vitores road - I had been ignorning the road as the tourist trap it is (90% of the major hotels are on this one road), but since the north end of the island will probably go very quickly, I will spend some time here to see what is available and of interest.
You know how hotels always have a copy of the Bible in each room? Well, here it just the New Testament only, although there is also a copy of "The Teaching of Buddha".
It is perhaps not very surprising given Spain's 333 year occupation of the island that many of the natives have a slightly hispanic look to them. The men in particular often have a distinctively cuban type look to them, of all things, although the women retain a more distinctive islander look.
For some reason, I just now realized that I have not seen any ants yet on the island. I'm sure they must be around, for ants just love the jungle, but I haven't seen any yet...
So, Ritidian Point. It seems to be the only part of the northern coast that is not owned by the Air Force. It is actually a wildlife refuge, though there is a very long public beach. I walked for a good mile south on the beach and saw only one other person the whole way - a native fisherman casting his net from shore. Which seems really odd because it is easily the most beautiful beach I've seen so far, though it is quite out of the way. By the time I walked back to the start, a couple of families had made it out here, but they were so few and the beach so large, they could spread themselves out so thinnly that they didn't have to see each other. I wanted to follow the beach to the north, but it was closed off as breeding grounds for giant see turtles! Pity I couldn't have gotten a glimpse. And there was a Fish and Wildlife Services Building right there just to make sure nobody ventured out there. And ironically enough, I saw some ants out there. The beach is actually quite typical of most on the island - a deep lagoon (on some beaches you see people wading out to fish and they go maybe 100 yards out and are only in up to their waste), lapping up on to maybe 10 or 20 yards of beach which then butts up directly against the jungle. Here there was a car path through the jungle right along the beach, so people didn't drive there cars directly on the beach, and it was on this path that I saw the ants, not on the beach directly.
So, after driving the 10 miles or so from the beach back to the main road (keep in mind the size of the island - 212 square miles, only 31 miles long and 4-8 miles wide), I stopped in the first food place I saw - a McDonald's :p I was the only person there speaking english - everybody else was talking Chamarros. So I think we can safely say this was definitely not a big tourist spot.
The two northern villages were decidedly much larger than the others I've seen (especially Yigo), but they are almost entirely bedroom communities, probably for the air force base. But other than the wildlife refuge, there is very little else of interest here in the north.
I did notice an interesting piece of trivia: the first three letters on the license plates on the cars correspond to the village the car is licensed in (ORD for Ordot, ASA for Asan, etc.) Buses and taxies have BUS and TXI on their license plates.
So I'm off to the zoo in Tumon Bay, then probably a meal at a Korean restaurant in walking distance from the hotel.
Ok, so this zoo seemed rather a shady deal - a small, fenced area behind a hotel with a "press the button for assistance". It was so seedy looking that I expected your "guide" would take you in, lead you the back of the place, beat you up, steal your wallet and leave you for dead. Obviously, I didn't go in. And I didn't see anybody else head over there either - I spent some time at a nearby beach, partly to watch if anybody else did go for the zoo tour.
But now, being smack in the middle of San Vitores Road, I decided to walk around for a bit to see what all there was. A surprisingly large number of sex shops, most of them Japanese, and quite a few "gun clubs" - not sure what they really are, perhaps a cover for sex shops, or a front for independence movements, or maybe they are exactly what they claim to be. I didn't bother to find out... [I learned later these are shooting ranges, especially of interest to Japanese tourists who can't own guns in their own country so this is probably the only chance they'll get to do some live firing.] But mostly San Vitores Road is just a typical US style shopping area. I did find an aquarium, "Underwater World", which I decided to check out. One of those "walking tubes through the bottom of a huge tank." kind of deals, but it was still very interesting. The sea dragons were particularly neat - same size and shape as sea horses, but very brightly colored in gold and red and green, apparently found only around Australia. And I am a big fan of sharks and there were plenty of them of lots of different species.
As for this Korean restuarant, it is so far the best food I've had! Ko Hyang was the name of it, whatever that means. I went rather early and was actually the first person there, so had my choice of seats. I opted for one of the sunken tables in the raised part of the restaurant that was decorated in traditional korean style. And the table had a broiler embedded in it, so my BBQ ribs were cooked right in front of me. And there were some six side dishes accompanying the meal, and while I only know for certain what one of them was (seaweed), five of them were really good. The sixth one was either squid or octopus which I couldn't eat (I don't like seafood in general) - I actually even tried a small piece and it was just entirely too disagreeable to me. But overall, the food was very good, and the price was also very good. Definitely a place to go if you ever find yourself in Guam :)
Uh-oh, overcast and rainy. I don't have any plans for a rainy day - it's not supposed to rain here yet! Rainy season starts in July...
News events: Mongmong is being evacuated to clean up some WW2 era chemcial warfare materials, including and especially mustard gas cannisters.
Well, it seems to have stopped raining, but it is still heavily overcast. My plan for the day was to cover the southwest side of the island, the villages of Piti, Santa Rita, Agat, Umatac and Merizo. Any Spanish sounding village name almost certainly is Spanish - certainly a lot of the natives have Spanish names (Cruz, Santiago, Gutierrez, Miguel, etc). Also today is the weekly market fair at the Chamarros Village in Agana. But we'll see what happens, both in terms of the weather...
Heavy rain again, and the highest waves I've seen yet in the bay. You can actually see the rain squalls over the water and watch as it approaches, rather quickly in most cases, though this time it doesn't seem like it is going to be stopping any time soon. Fortunately, I can afford to "miss" a day, although I haven't the faintest idea what to do in that case - souvenier shop I guess?
Ok, the rain finally seems mostly gone and while it is still quite overcast, I am going to head out anyway.
Made a wrong turn into Asan and discovered, unmarked in my travel guide,the last Japanese High Command Post from WWII. It is located in a stone quarry about a mile down from Asan Bay Overlook (where there is another segment of the War in the Pacific National Historical Park). It seems a bit of a strange place, I'd have thought at the overlook would be more natural, though I suppose such a point would be high priority target for aircraft (since it is such a fantastic view of the landing beaches at Asan...). There are two entrances carved into the side of the quarry, but they are both gated off so I don't get to see what it was like inside a Japanese command post. Pity, I would have liked to have seen.
Agat Unit, another of the seven War in the Pacific parks and the other landing beach for the US marines in 1944. It is not particularly obvious why these beaches were chosen, other than, I suppose, their proximity to the captiol. It is all jungle and wetlands from the moment you step off the very narrow, almost non-existant beach, although this particular beach doesn't have the mountains quite as close behind the beach. Plus a stray dog here, nothing but skin and bones. According to the newspaper, the problem of stray dogs is so great they actually have a government committee dedicated to dealing with the problem. I saw a couple on my Sunday walk, but always moved to the other side of the road when I saw any - I'm not a big dog lover to begin with so I certainly didn't want to deal with strays...
Aha! Another segement of the Agat Unit - the beach is, sadly, divided by a hotel. This one is actually quite clearly a good landing point for an amphibious invasion, a point not lost on the Japanese who heavily fortified this area using extensive caves and pillboxes, which were generally impervious to allied air and naval strikes and had to be taken out by engineers and demolition teams. Mmmmmmmm, flamethrowers... There are also a number of Japanese guns on display from an 8 inch coastal defence gun to 25mm AA guns.
Nimitz Beach Park. Not much to see here. In fact, there isn't even much of a beach here at all! Perhaps it is just high tide? Ah well, it is anyways a beautiful view of the ocean.
Drove a fair way up Mt. Lamlam, the highest mountain on the island, but you'd have to climb up the hard way to get to the actual peak. Sadly, I have not the equipment nor skills to do so, though I doubt they'd allow people up there anyway.
Sella Bay Overlook, another spot not on my map. Another beautiful view of the ocean and of Sella Bay on the south coast. It looks like there is very little development along the coast here. Turning to look inland is a great view of Mt. Lamlam, including what would be a very tall waterfall in the rainy season. Mt. Lamlam is basalt (as is the entire southern half of the island) so the water runs off instead of being absorbed. Sadly, the rain from this morning was not enough to generate a waterfall, at least not this late after it stopped. There is also a hiking trail here down to Sella Bay, but it looks like a trail that you'd want to have a second person along with your for, as well as plenty of food and especially water, and probably a radio. I have none of these things, so I have to pass, at least for now. Perhaps I can get back here on a later day.
Southern Mountain Overlook - a mountain within a ring of mountains, providing a good view of these other mountains. But it is a very tiny and obviously unused park, as are most of these parks here in the south. It looks like it may get about one visitor a month, and it isn't someone from the Deptartment of Parks and Recreation to clean it up...
A Vietnam Veteran's Memorial and another stray dog. This mountainous souther part of the island is truly very beautiful in its ruggedness. I wish I had the skills and resources to do some mountain climbing, though the mountains *are* covered in jungle which would probably make it even more difficult, and notably more unsafe. And here comes yet another stray dog :( And with that gun shot not too far off, I think it is time to move on...
Magellan Monument and Umatac Beach Park. This south side of the island is definitely much poorer than the rest, which is quite surprisingly as at the time of Magellan (1521), Umatac was the economic heart of the island, and remained so until the last Spanish Galleon on the Mexico-Manila route passed through in 1810. The beach here is especially tiny, and is more rocks and pebble than sand, though what little sand there is is actually black rather than white. Certainly not an obvious place to land compared to the many large bays and lagoons all over the island - you have to wonder why Magellan chose this spot over the others, unless he just didn't bother to search the coast for the best spot.
This area is littered with the ruins of the spanish forts and churches, although I have actually ignored most of them so far as they are generally just a few rocks and nothing else. But I have stopped for fort Nuestra Senora Soledad. This particular fort is one of four that overlooked Umatac Bay to protect the ships in the Mexico-Manila route (Guam was the only watering point along the entire route, so was especially vital to be protected). From this vantage point high above the bay, it is easy to see the truly one-road nature of Umatac village. All the rest have at least side roads leading to residential areas, but this one doesn't even have that much - about a half mile of buildings along route 2 and that's it. As for the fort, of this particular one there remains a few towers and the foundations for several other rooms, as well as three cannons. Bought some papaya here from a local farmer - hopefully it won't cause me any trouble later on!
And now we leave behind the sorry village of Umatac and move on to Merizo and its Pier Park. I'm actually not sure what the attraction is here, just a couple of very normal piers. It is the access point to Cocos Island, but that's it. But I don't see any boats available, so I will have to move on. I see that not only do the people here continue to be very poor, but they also seem to have a much darker skin color. Not sure what the portends - lack of mixing with the Spanish? Too much mixing? Simply too much time in the sun? I don't know.
Well, that's everything that is on the map, and I've just barely entered Merizo. But since I have found a number of unmarked things on the map, I will continue along anyways just in case.
Like this small park dedicated to Santa Marian Camarin. Which is really just the virgin Mary, Chamarros style. Apparently a small statue of Mary was brought to the island by two crabs, and this park is supposedly where the crabs offered it to two Chamarros fisherman. There's actually quite a lot of story behind the statue, such as how people have reported seeing the statue in different places despite nobody having moved it, and yet when it was examined after these reports, it was found to have dew and brambles on the hem. And how, after an earthquake, the church it was in at the time was basically completely destroyed and the statue was the only item therein to survive. And how after WWII, it was sent to the Philippines to be restored (it had to be hidden during the Japanese occupation as the Japanese had forbidden freedom of religion), the carpenters there started to work on it but claimed that when they tried to sandpaper it, it bled from the scratched area. After trying twice, they refused to do any work on it and sent it back (Philippinos, it should be noted, are also largely Catholic...).
Well, that's it. At least there were no fast food restraunts in the south, though that is indicitive, I should imagine, of a lack of tourism in the region, which is probably a large part of the reason they are so much poorer than the north. Although there is a US Naval Base on this part of the island, but that doesn't seem to help the local economy much.
Suddenly, I can't believe I am driving a car on a paved road through a jungle! It seems so surreal... I hope that when I say jungle nobody is thinking triple canopy rain forest - it is just a normal forest but with tropical trees, from palm trees to mahogany trees. There are occasionally coniferous trees, which I find a bit curious, but I guess they grow pretty much anywhere.
Since I will be finising my tour of the island villages tomorrow and still have several days left after that, I am considering taking a "jungle tour" of which I have seen several ads, both hiking and river boat. Other planned events, however, include the market fair tonight, the Micronesia Island Fair this weekend, and the Fiesta in Santa Rita for their patron saint (who, coincidentally, happens to be Santa Rita!). That leaves two days open, one probably on Ritidian point, the other either on the jungle tour or maybe that Sella Bay hiking trail, if I can find someone else to go with.
So, this Chamarros Village Market Fair was really not all that remarkable. Lots of local vendors set up on tables, selling a lot of touristy type junk. Quite a few food vendors, though at least they were selling local cuisine so I got my first dose of Chamarros food - it didn't seem particularly exotic and it certainly isn't spicy. Some barbecue and shishkabob, some cold chicken salad type thing (with vinegar, not mayonaise) and red rice. A couple of local bands, playing pop and rock type stuff - I had been hoping for traditional music and dancing! But there were some carabo there (that's ka-ra-bow, not like caribu - probably a spanish word...)! Mostly for the kids to ride on, they appear as though to be a cross between an ox and a cow, but they are definitely not caribu.
Well, it appears I've finally gotten a little bit of sunburn today, on the back of the knees of all places! I've been getting quite a nice tan the past couple of days, since I don't easily get sunburn, but for some reason I did so today, and in such a strange place!. Grrrr...
Looks like the best day yet, weather-wise. Only three villages left, but their provinces have twice as much land area as the five I visited yesterday! Yona, Talofofo and Inarajan.
First stop, Tagachang Beach Park in Yona. Plenty of roosters on the road to this park, which is a little off the beaten path - you have to drive really slowly down the mountain to get to it, mostly to give the chickens time to get out the way! At Umatac I heard some chickens but didn't see any, so this is the first time they've been a problem. The beach itself is fairly small in size, maybe a quarter mile long with large cliffs on either side. But it is definitely not a beach for tourists, and there weren't any there - the edge of the water is littered with boulders and there is as much rock and pebble as sand, not to mention a *LOT* or garbage washed up on the shore. And while there are no warning signs here about currents or other swimming hazards, it looks to be the most unsafe for swimming of all the beaches I've seen yet, I mean it even just *looks* like dangerous currents, and who would want to be washed up face first onto a boulder? Although there were a couple of native fishermen who waded out to the edge of the lagoon and were casting rods, but they were the only people here. I would have actually really liked this beach a lot myself if it weren't for all the garbage...
Talofofo Beach Park, the beach of black sand. Although it claims to be the only black sand beach on the island, I know from yesterday that isn't true, although it is true that Umatac Beach Park had very little sand... And the sand here at Talofofo Beach really, really, jet black. I dug down a few inches and it continued to be black the entire way, so it isn't just a surface layer. However, it should be noted that only about half the sand here is black, the other half being brown. But the beach is so tiny, only maybe 100 feet long and not more than a foot or two from water to grass, so it is really easy to miss - impossible if not for the sign. But other than the blackness of the sand, the beach is otherwise entirely unremarkable. You certainly can't set up to relax on the sand...
And I am already at the last marked tourist attraction... no wonder the south is so poor - there is little reason for the tourists to come here! Talofofo Caves, marked clearly enough on the map, but not on the road. You get a tiny sign, and then only if you are heading west. And there isn't a parking area for it, just a tiny area of gravel by the side of the road, no more than two cars could fit. And since it is dense jungle otherwise, any one else beyond that would have to park far away and hike up. Which is a bad thing, since it is quite a hike to get to the caves even if you do park right there! But, there was no one else there anyway, so it wasn't a problem for me. It's a good half mile through very hilly and dense jungle to reach the caves, and then you discover there are several of them. Which sounds really great, but they extend deep enough into the earth that you lose sunlight fairly quickly, and it is not set up for tourists (as is, say, Carlsbad Caverns), so there are no lights, no handrails, no nothing - it is definitely intended for the experienced spelunker. Not having the skills, nor the equipment, nor a second person, I didn't want to venture in any, so I didn't really get to see much. But, it is the deepest into the jungle I have gone - you completely lose all sight and sound of civilization (the road, cars, dogs, chickens, etc). I didn't see any animals (other than those newt type lizards), and don't particularly recall even hearing any animals, though I am sure they were out there. And to say you sweat profusely hiking in the late morning jungle is a gross understatement!
I finally got myself into the War in the Pacific National Historic Park "headquarters", actually located in Asan (having much free time to spare, I decided to look for it). Not very big, it described the events on Guam during the war. Some interesting relics, such as depth charge, water mines, small bombs, and a couple guns. It was interesting but not spectacular. I did pick up a deck of WW2 issue airplane identification cards, which are pretty neat. They are normal poker cards, but have silhouettes of various Axis and Allied aircraft on them as well.
Some souvenier shopping, for lack of anything better to do, including a "Guamanian" cookbook, which looks pretty good (not as much seafood as I expected, which is just fine by me), but I may have trouble getting a few of the ingredients on the mainland, such as winged beans (what the heck are they? Never heard of them before...) and achote seeds. I'll have to look at the Micronesian Island Fair tomorrow and maybe bring some of this stuff back with me.
Ironically, I am not eating all that much here - I'm just not very hungry! All the more odd since I am have been far more physically active the past few days than I am at home.
What good fortune I have today, as it will be the start of the Micronesian Island Fair, and it is taking place on Ypao Beach, which is right next to the hotel! Just walk a hundred feet down the beach and there you are. And it runs through Sunday, each day from 10 am to 10 pm, so there will hopefully be lots of things to see and do. But, since I am leaving on Sunday and want to be at the feast of Santa Rita on Saturday, I will go to the fair today.
There is also a music festival tonight in the heart of Tumon Bay, but it is all Japanese acts (Chizuru Zauma, Atsuko Sakurui, Ritsuko Shimada, Naomi Grace (there's a good Japanese name for you... ;) Eri Nitta, Junko Akisawa, Ren, etc. etc.), so it isn't really of as much interest. I'll probably pass unless I get really bored. Maybe if I get to Japan one day I would be interested in such an event there...
But, since the Fair runs all day, I am going to spend the morning at Ritidian Point. Still very few people here, but I have gone more than half way down the beach anyway just to be sure I will have some privacy when people do start arriving.
I was wading in the water and found that even just that could be difficult against the current sometimes. As tempting as the water seems, and despite the fact there are no warning signs posted against swimming, I am thinking it is probably not the safest place to swim, and since I actually haven't been swimming in forever, I think I will just stick to wading.
I just had to do it - I made a sand "sculpture", piling up the sand as if someone were buried underneath. I'm going to leave it intact after I leave :)
Just realized there are no seagulls here, or birds of any type for that matter! In fact, I don't recall seeing birds on any of the beaches. Curious...
I'm not much of a beach person, so maybe this is fairly common, but I just saw something I don't think I've ever seen before - a "backwards" wave, one that is heading *away* from the shore instead of towards it, and by which I mean a rather sizeable wave, equal in magnititude to any wave coming in. But these outgoing waves only seem to happen where there is a sharp bend in the coast, which probably has something to do with it.
It is very hard to convey in writing the extraordinary beauty and tranquility of this beach. The perfectly white sand, the crystal blue water, the dense green jungle backlining the beach, the deep blue sky, the warm sun on your body, itis absolutely wondeful beyond words. No screaming kids, no loud music, no smokey bon fires, no surfers spoiling the view of the waves, nothing - just you and the strand.
Well, a good two hours in the late morning sun and it appears I've gotten my first real sunburn of the trip! Hmmmm, mostly it's just on those parts that haven't been tanning all week, feet, stomach, back. I'll take a shower with some aloe soap and apply some aloe vera body lotion and then it is off to the fair!
The fair is actually quite small and slightly disappointing, though it is still a work day so perhaps I will head back after dinner tonight. Most of the vendors there were the same as the ones at the Chamarros Village Market Fair on Wednesday, while vendors from the other islands made up only a small number of the total, maybe a quarter of all vendors. I did get another dose of Chamarros food, and, unlike the market fair, the music and dancing *was* of the traditional native variety.
Uh-oh, my sunburn seems to be really bad. It didn't feel so bad when I left the beach but I am a really bright red on the affected areas. Even the already tanned areas hurt a little, but shouldn't be a problem. Why does it take so long for the pain of a sunburn to make itself manifest?!
And now I am suddenly very ill, I feel as though to vomit, and my face has turned a pale greenish tint even through the deep tan! My stomach is bothering me a great deal, so it is probably just something I ate at the fair, a mild case of food poisoning, but with my jungle and beach galavanting, who knows? Maybe something was bad with the bottled water I drank at the beach? I will try my universal solution for upset stomachs: saltine crackers. If this doesn't work... I'm sure I wouldn't be nearly so paranoid about this if I hadn't just finished reading "Virus Hunters"!
Several hours later and I do feel a bit better, but I think I will just go to sleep now, assuming I can given this sunburn...
Nope, my stomach is acting up again. I'm going to get something vegetarian in nature for dinner (i.e. something light). Maybe too much sun?
Back from dinner - an exciting deluxe garden salad from Wendys :p I felt a bit feverish while there, but that seems to have passed. Unfortunately, my stomach is still bothering me. Bad sunburn, bad illness, and now it looks like thunderclouds rolling in. It's going to be a rough night, if I can sleep at all :(
At least I don't feel ill anymore this morning, though I was waking up every two hours last night and considering it generally takes me an hour or so to fall asleep... And my sunburn continues to hurt even more than yesterday! Hopefully it will be better by tomorrow as it is 20 hours on a plane which would be extremely uncomfortable to face with such a bad sunburn on the back. I can actually see a couple of blisters forming here and there along my shoulders...
Nope, my stomach is starting to act up a little, though I am feeling ravenously hungry. I'm off to the buffet breakfast at the Islander restaurant - it's part of the Hilton and is very expensive ($15 for breakfast!) but I am hungry enough that I think I can eat my money's worth...
Hmmmm, I can see now blistering across the entire shoulder area. My legs seem to be ok, although my feet are still a problem, as is my stomach. I am in quite too much pain to do anything interesting today :( At least all the previously tanned areas have pulled through ok, even my nose is in perfectly good shape!
I really wanted to go to that feast of Santa Rita tonight, it was one of the few events I had actually planned on before I arrived, but this blistering is already pretty bad and doesn't seem to be stopping! For those who aren't familiar with this saint (and I should imagine most Catholics wouldn't be, and even most Catholics probably aren't, given the sheer number of saints...), she's not one you really want to ever need, being the saint of the abused, but it is good to have someone like her available if you do have the need... The ad in the newspaper runs:
"Rita, Saint of the Impossible Santa Rita is a lady who loved God dearly as a child, dreamed of becoming a nun. However, her parents forced her into marriage at a youthful age. For a long arduous part of her life, she suffered mental and physical abuse from an alcoholic husband. Her love for God, allowed her to see Him in her family despite the abuse. Later, after the deaths of her husband and two boys, she committed her life to God as a nun. Many can relate to the suffereing she endured. In a sense, she is a gift from God to those of us who suffer from family violence and abuse. Jesus suffered and so did Rita. Both of them are examples of God's kingdom at hand. Rita is there for us, to pray for the strength and patience to love our family despite hardship. Even though she suffered greatly, God used her saintly life as an example for us who would encounter abuse hundreds of years later. She is the Saint of the Impossible and an advocate for Hopeless cases."
So, all I've done so far today is go out to lunch and still the blitering gets worse. Putting on a shirt proved to be extremely painful, and driving was excruitating! Removing the shirt was even more painful, and I can see some stains on the back where blisters must have burst. I have *never* in my life been so badly burned as to have blisters, so this is quite an experience for me. In fact, I've only ever really been sunburned at all just once before, and there were no blisters involved. The right side is *much* worse than the left, though there is blistering on both shoulders. It is truly impressive just how debilitating this is! I've put some more aloe lotion on my shoulders, but it doesn't seem to be helping.
The blistering only continues to get worse, so I am going to have to pass on the fiesta tonight :( And all I've done today is just watch TV... Well, at least this happened on the last day instead of the first, whatever bit of consolation that is :p
Well, it is 2 am and it would appear the blistering has not gotten any worse overnight, but it is still going to be hell on the plane! My arms, especially my upper arms, are extremely sore and I can't really raise my arms very high at all - just showering is going to be quite a challenge! Good thing I did about 90% of my packing yesterday before all this started.
Well, showering revealed some light blistering on the upper arms now - probably why they are so sore. And the right side remains much worse off than the left. The other burned areas remain so, but at least they aren't also blistering.
At the airport now, and they are offering a $200 credit for people on my flight willing to reroute through Japan - they apparently overbooked, and have people wanting to go on standby for the flight! Why so busy? Everything is happening today - the fair is going on, there is a marathon being run, the fiesta climaxes today and lots of other stuff, as it *is* memorial day weekend. Very strange. But, I decline the Japan offer - I'm going to have a rough enough time of it as it is without laying over in Japan an extra day :p And it was some place I had never heard - it wasn't through Tokyo.
Drat - maybe I should have taken the alternate flight - I've got a couple next to me with an infant and the last thing I need right now is a kid wailing in my ear for the next seven hours :(
The movies don't seem of much interest to me, but I don't feel like doing anything else, and the movies on the leg are free, so I'll watch them anyway. "Stuart Little", a cheesy family film, and "As Good As It Gets", which was so bad I had to stop watching after about 10 minutes - I'm glad I didn't pay money at a movie theater to see that one! :p
Great - another infant a few rows up has now started crying. How many infants are there on this flight?! There weren't any on the way over...
The Honolulu to Houston leg doesn't have any infants on it, but unfortunately, they are charging for the movies (err, they are "renting the headphones"), which is a pity cause they are actually showing a movie I want to see - "Good Will Hunting". But I already paid too much for the tickets to be hit up with "rental fees" - it's the principle of the thing, so I will pass.
Well, looking in the mirror in the bathroom of the plane reveals quite a bit of staining from where blisters have burst open. I hope there is no infection from any of this... Ironically, the left side seems to be having the worst problem in this regard, even though blistering was much lighter on that side. And I still have another 13 hours to go, not to mention the drive home. So, there are two hours left and I finally decide to try and get some rest when suddenly an infant a row or two back starts wailing his head off! Grrrrrr!!!!!! The one time on the plane trip I want to rest and I can't!
Well, isn't the Houston airport interesting - you can get arrested for making jokes about security (or at least, they have warnings to that effect on the loudspeaker). No first amendment rights here in Texas! I suppose they will arrest you for libel and/or slander...
Yay, my flight arrives in Atlanta a good 15 minutes early. Considering my layover in Houston was a bloody three hours (they only apparently had only two flights all day between Houston and Atlanta, which is really lame considering Houston is Continental's hub). Ah well, at least I am finally home!
The blistering seems to have gone down dramatically. I am peeling extensively on the neck, but unfortunately with the blisters mostly gone a large amount of loose skin has fallen off my right shoulder, revealing a large portion of new, pink, very sensitive skin and it hurts like heck again. Good thing I don't have to go to work today...
Some parting notes: I really do like the island a lot and would encourage anybody with an interest in travel to go there. However, be sure you either go with a friend or three or else find a some group on the island once there, as I missed a lot of interesting places for lack of mountain climbing, diving, sailing, spelunking, and hiking partners. And there are no water fountains or other free drinks - you'll be consuming huge quantities of liquid (especially if you do any hiking or climbing) and you'll have to pay for every drop, so bring along a lot of money just for water alone.
And watch out for overexposure to the sun - I do not, as a general rule, get sunburns ever and yet still got sun poisoning after only two hours of exposure at Ritidian Point. If you *are* susecptible to sunburns, be *extremely* careful, bring tons of sun screen, and wear lots of long clothes so you are completely covered at all times and a wide brim hat to protect the face.
And be sure to not spend all your time in Tumon Bay. It is a horrible tourist trap of the first order, and there is plenty of other stuff to see and do for one or two weeks worth of vacation, especially if you are into hiking and mountain climbing and diving and the like. Or if you are into World War II, as I am.
