The last Guam blog!

Near the end of our visit, we got to see why this is such a romantic attraction, especially for the Japanese who live fairly close by. There is one very large, beautiful Japanese hotel on a beach that has a very large, beautiful wedding chapel right next to it. One spot where we saw several young Japanese couples was the memorial for two lovers. The story goes that a lovely young Chamorro girl fell in love with a native boy but was promised by her father to a Spanish soldier. Rather than submit to her father's will and to escape punishment for the young man, they met on a high cliff, tied their hair together and plunged to their death.

Statue of Two Lovers

Looking down off cliff

View to the side of cliff face

Our last day after some snorkeling, we picked up subs for dinner, went to a place where we could eat  and get a good view of one of the spectacular sunsets available nearly every night on Guam.

Panoramic camera view

Sightseeing on Guam

There are a couple of buildings together called the Governor's complex. It consists of lots of government offices and at a high point attached to a cultural center is this giant "latte". When we were there, a storm looked like it was approaching although it rains so much here that the storm approaching was not too noticeable. We wondered why we couldn't go up into the latte because it was closed and wondered if it might be because of the storm. We started noticing each other's hair standing on end.

standing by the giant latte

My hair standing on end after I had patted it down a bit

We decided that maybe there was a chance of some serious lightning due to the intense charge in the air so maybe it was a good idea we weren't going up into the latte.

Most of the sites to visit on Guam are dealing with WWII. We visited one museum that has a 2-man Japanese sub on display. It looked very tiny when you consider what it might have been like to man this sub. You couldn't have stood up inside! 

2-man Japanese WWII submarine

Memorial to Chamorro WWII soldiers- sadly not well preserved

Looking out a crumbling WWII Japanese pillbox

In the distance you can see a WWII landing site

Things we saw on Guam

Russ standing by Tarzan Falls that we hiked in to see.

Tiny shell with a tiny plant growing 

There are plenty of huge spiders here that help take care of other bugs.

This is a flame flower (or something like that).

Cane toads- LOTS of them- if  a dog licks one, it's like a hallucinogenic drug. If it eats one, it's poison that will likely kill the dog.

A full arc rainbow- a fairly common, lovely sight on Guam.

Just a regular, lovely tree on the base.

Still on Guam

Although the majority of historic sites on Guam relate to WWII, there are some older interesting things to see. On the southern tip of the island is the remains of a fort built shortly after Magellan stopped here. I have included the picture of the descriptive plaque but don't know if it will be readable in the blog. Spanish ships would stop here when traveling between Mexico and the Philippines during the 1800's so the fort was built to protect the harbor from pirates and other unsavory ships that might travel by.

Magellan fort

Tanis showing line of sight for shooting at incoming unwanted ships

view to the north through the fort lookout showing a smaller fortification on the other point of land at the mouth of the harbor

view to the south from the lookout tower

 There is a lovely, peaceful little harbor village in the background, which is where sailors in the 19th century would have visited for supplies and rest.

This little bridge was not part of the fort but was built near the same time during the Spanish influence on Guam. It is located in a town further to the north. There used to be a "river" flowing under it.

Guam #5

     At the rate I'm going, this is going to take me FOREVER!! I wish I had Victoria near by to help me figure out how to move photos around with text. I have spent so much time on these posts with very little to show for it. I have to just settle for the best I can get at a point of maximum frustration. So, on with the show............................
     One of our main reasons for visiting Guam was to celebrate the high school graduation of our grandson, Martin. He is very open about his autism and sometimes frustrated by it. He (and his mother!) have worked very hard over the years to get him through school. His graduation is no small feat and definitely worthy of the pride he and his parents felt on this occasion.

The site for the celebration was a popular base beach area with a pavilion furnished with electricity, bathrooms and a quick walk to the beach. There was another young man who had graduated so the families shared the celebration which enabled us to have the opportunity to enjoy sno-cones along with the other food. Everyone enjoyed the evening.

view to the beach from the front of the pavilion

I offered to watch over a baby so his mother could walk down to the beach.

Russ played the guitar borrowed from the young man standing next to him

The view out at the beach

Guam #4

Our most rigorous experience on Guam was the hike into Pagat Cave and on to the coast. As we started out, the walk seemed pretty harmless, even easy.

As we hiked on into the more jungle area, it was nice to get a reprieve from the sun but the terrain got more uneven and rocky.

The foliage got thicker and the ground got steeper and more rocky. Angela had wisely planned for us to walk past the cave and on to the coast where we had a lovely view.

looking down at the water

Not long before we arrived, several Air Force young men were killed jumping into the ocean here

                                                                            

We returned to the cave and started the climb down into it. It is totally dark and you soon get into water up to your knees then deeper and deeper. The light you can see in the cave is someone up ahead with a flashlight.


                                                                             

Tanis lighting my way deeper into the cave

Russ swimming in the cave

 After sharing the cool swim in the cave for awhile with some young Japanese tourists and their guide, we headed back toward our car. These are some pictures to try to show how difficult the terrain actually was. We were glad to have had the nice swim.

Guam #3- Ritidian Tour

The very north part of the island, Ritidian, is a Guam nature reserve adjacent to a restricted area that is right near a gun range and has fairly recently been discovered to be an area of several ancient village sites with several lattes (stone pillars to support hut roofs) and other ruins. We went on a guided tour with a native family group, a local nature photographer, and a man visiting here from the States.

As we trudged through the humid heat to the very northern tip, on our right was this amazing area of stone cliffs. Our guide, a US armed service veteran who volunteers, told how he climbed these cliffs as a young man with his brother. We couldn't imagine! I guess if you grow up in an area, you may not feel so intimidated by the flora, fauna, or topography.

Here is our little group as we listen to our guide and walk through a path in the jungle growth. It wasn't a difficult path but it was surely hot and humid. The guide explained some ancient rituals such as waving smoke over you as a way of removing the impurities of the world and taking in the spirit of a place, especially an ancient site such as we were going to be walking through.



He lit a torch that he had brought with him and had each member of our group draw the smoke over our heads. Then as we were about to enter the actual villages, he had a large conch that he blew as a way of introducing ourselves to the ancient site. We saw no remains of human beings or any kind of burial sites, just the evidence of villages.

guide showing us the conch shell

guide blowing in the conch shell to request permission to enter

pot remnants that have been collected 

                            In the family group with us was a young girl with a lovely voice. The guide invited her to sing and, after some encouragement from all of us, she did. She sang a fairly long song, all in Chamorro. It was lovely. At the tip of the island, we went onto the beach but had to be careful where we stepped as it was the site of several sea tortoise egg nests. We didn't get to see the tortoises but we could see the evidence of their movement through the sand and the indentation where they had dug nests.

At the north tip of Guam, hot and tired but happy- our family group here.