Hiking on Guam

If you ask for directions in Guam, be prepared to travel by local landmarks. There are limited road signs. The locals say it's because the typhoons rip them from the ground and they become trajectories. Since the last major typhoon season was over a decade ago in 2002, that excuse is losing ground, but the fact remains, Guam is poorly marked.

During our eleven days on Guam, we drove around the island extensively. Guam has jungles, low valleys, mountainous terrain, agricultural regions, small villages, and beaches. On Sunday, we wanted to hike the jungles of inner Guam so we took off for "Tarzan Falls" which is the the middle of the Southern area of the island. Visitors who hike on Guam are known by the locals as "Boonie Stompers" and it is recommended that hikers use local guides to traverse the terrain. When we finally found the entrance to the trail (a small wooden sign caught our eye), we started down the path, expecting to find the markers needed to make our way to the falls.

Note the swampy path and the tiny sign announcing the trail head.

We picked our way along the trail and noticed the only clue we had to whether we were on the right path was the survey marker tape tied to coconut trees. There was white and red tape. We learned later that one marked the easy trail and the other marked the more difficult trail. There were no more signs showing the way.

Looking out over Guam. We could see the ocean in the distance. 

This was almost to the top of the trail before we had to hike down to the falls. We packed snorkeling gear because this trail was noted on the map as a great freshwater site for snorkeling. It was about 11:00 AM when we started. Timing became everything because shortly after we finished the hike, there was a torrential downpour.

We are still happy and cool. The trip back up the hill I look like an overheated tomato. 

We don't really know where we are going so we aim for the logical direction and I began  leaving arrows fashioned from sticks pointing back to the car. We have recited the Hansel and Gretel story to each other and Bob suggested bread crumbs may work because there are few birds on Guam due to the brown snake infestation.

We listen for the sound of running water. I kick myself for not investing the $12.95 for the cheap compass at the Kmart.

Finally, we hear the sound of water flowing and head through the jungle. We come across a slow stream and a rock path across the water. The first metal sign, an arrow, points toward a slight path down to the pond at the bottom of the waterfall.

The River!

The first signs designating that the falls are near. 

We are finally at the bottom of the falls and the mosquitoes have found us! Malaria? Yellow Fever? The thought of parasites start running through our minds. 

We see the bottom of the pond. "Are there leeches in Guam?" I ask. I kept thinking of the Naegleria fowleri(commonly referred to as the "brain-eating amoeba" or "brain-eating ameba").  Sure we had snorkeling gear but we couldn't see the bottom of the pond due to the murkiness, so we agreed to splash some bottled water on our heads and start back up the steep trail to the top of the falls. 

The trail was lined with vines and I used those to brace myself coming down and to pull myself back up the slippery slope on the way back. Bob was sure I was going to grab a brown snake instead, but I assure you, that would have never happened. I looked verrrry carefully. 

We trudged back through the muggy air, up the steep red, unmarked cliffs, dodging puddles and mud pits to find ourselves back at the car. Exhausted, overheated, yet oddly proud of making the trek through the jungles of Guam. 

Once back at the vehicle, we noticed the shoes hanging from the phone lines. Dozens of shoes thrown over the wires. We speculated since they were ruined from the red mud so why not present a tribute to the trail. 

Chamorro Village Festival

The Chamorro Village has a night market on Wednesdays evenings. Last night we attended the event and it was amazing. Food everywhere. Grilled chicken, grilled pork, grilled corn, sausages, fresh fruits and vegetables, and other delights. 

I ate the chicken basted in a spicy bbq sauce skewered on bamboo sticks and grilled over coals. The vendors also had pork, squid, and octopus. I was not brave enough to eat the squid and octopus but I did take pictures. 

I tasted ice cold freshly opened coconut water. The Chamorro vendor opened the coconut as we watched.  Coconut palms are abundant on Guam. They line the streets and overhang the beaches. I don't know why but Bob and our friend David refused to climb up the 30 meter (100ft) trees and machete me down a fresh coconut. 

Opening my ice cold coconut

Waiting for a straw

Tasting the ice cold coconut water. Yum!

The tables had a variety of crafts and wares including shell necklaces, sundresses, tools, shells, food items, magnets and my favorite- coconut piggybanks. Needless to say, Abby will be getting one of these novelty items when I return. 

The Chamorro people and the Japanese are fond of soft foods. I tasted deep fried rice balls and a coconut and tapioca dish called 'Apigigi' wrapped in banana leaves and grilled. They both had a slightly sweet flavor yet very gummy in texture. 

Apigigi

Rice balls (center)
Fried banana (right)

The festival market also has a stage where local performers share Chamorro dances. We watched the men and the women each perform dances for the enthusiastic crowd. I am attempting to access the video I shot of the two groups performing but that will have to be edited in later. 

I held a coconut crab and Bob petted a water buffalo. David watched. 

The evening ended with a downpour of rain. The locals have said that it has been pretty rainy for the dry season and they wonder if it is indicative of a Typhoon later in the year. Guam hasn't had a significant Typhoon in years. We are told that the winds can get up to 200 miles an hour and a coconut hitting the house sounds like a cannon going off. This is why the houses here are all built from concrete. 

Guamanian Home

Today is Valentine's Day in Guam (we are 18 hours ahead of Seattle) so, we will be out looking for a romantic place to eat but I have to say my favorite place so far has been sitting at the outdoor bar at the hotel watching the ocean. 

Tragedy on Guam

Yesterday, we woke up to horrific headlines. A half mile from us on "Hotel Road", a local man stabbed multiple tourists, jumped into a car and drove along the sidewalk hitting six more people before stopping at another hotel and stabbing random tourists for a total of fourteen victims. Of those victims, two have died, four adults and two children remain hospitalized. This is devastating to the families of the victims, all Japanese tourists and frightening to the family members in Japan who sent frantic messages inquiring about who was affected by this tragedy.

Guam authorities are reeling from this event. Their last homicide was in 1996. The Governor of Guam, Eddie Calvo sent a message to Japan to reassure the Japanese people that Guam is still a safe place and that this was an isolated incident. Japanese tourists account for 71% of Guam's annual visitors.More information can be found at this link at the Pacific Daily News.

http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=M0&Dato=20130212&Kategori=NEWS01&Lopenr=302120802&Ref=PH

It is a sad day for Guam and Japan. There was a candlelight vigil held last night at the location of the incident.

Hafa Adai!

Western side of the island.

Hafa adai (pronounced "half a day") from Guam!  It means "Hello!" in Chamorro, the native language of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

"I ♥ Guam" campaign has the slogan "Where America's Day Begins!"  Guam is 15 hours ahead of the Eastern Coast of the mainland of the United States, and 18 hours ahead of where I live in Gig Harbor, Washington, so when I call home, I rely on my phone app with the world clock to tell me Washington's time. 


Island time is slower. Not literally, but buses run every eight minutes, give or take five minutes. When you wait in line to be served, the lines are slow and conversations flow between customer and server. None of the hurried rush of an urban setting. 

Another surprise for me was the limited daylight. The sun rises in Guam at about 6:45 AM and it sets at 6:27 PM so less than 12 hours of sunlight. June has the longest duration of sunlight of 12 hours and 54 minutes. But you won't see the wide variation in sunlight like Seattle. Typically, Seattle has about 10 1/2 hours of sunlight in February, and almost 16 hours of sunlight in June. Of course, the intensity of the sun is greater in Guam due to its location near the equator. Quality vs. quantity. 

The people have been gracious and friendly, indulging my curiosity and asking their own questions in return. They are amazed that we have come from so far away to visit. Some of the Japanese tourists have been practicing their limited English with me. One man told us that he did better at English composition than speaking it. Since my Japanese is limited to counting to ten and five other random words, I have no room to judge. He spoke well, and we told him so. 

I hope to interview a few local people over the next couple of days and visit the local elementary school. 

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Learning the bus systems. . .

Some of the buses had the feel of a trolley

(The last few blogs were written a few days earlier and transferred from Facebook. This is today's blog.)

Yesterday, I was recovering from a migraine and touch of what I think was food poisoning. Who gets a migraine in a beautiful paradise like Guam? Evidently, I do. It was my first day on my own because Bob had business to attend to. I packed up my fabric sling purse with water, sunscreen, and maps and headed toward the nearest bus stop.

Tropical Necessities: Sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat!

I studied the bus map and schedule given to us by the hotel front desk but it was very confusing. It wasn't until I boarded the wrong bus that I learned that the map schedule actually covers about 5 different services which explained the overlap of colored arrows. The bus driver spoke to me in halting English and explained the various schedules. He was from another Mariana Island and spoke Japanese quite well. Many of the service workers speak Japanese which is important since most of the people I see visiting are from Japan. In fact in the four bus trips I took today, I was the only non-Japanese rider in all but one.

It is speculated that Guam's earliest inhabitants migrated from the seafaring people of Southeast Asia. The Chamorro people have similar cultural and linguistic similarities as the cultures of Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia. The Spanish arrived about 1521 with Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer who named the island "Island of the Thieves." On first contact with the ships, the islanders rowed out began helping themselves to all the items onboard. They didn't have the same concept of ownership and intended to trade. The crew fired a cannon to scare them off but later they did trade items with the native people.
It wasn't until 1565 that Spain claimed Guam as their property and another two hundred years until it was colonized.

In 1895, Americans captured Guam during the Spanish-American War. We felt it strategically made a great warm water base near the Philippines, another area we had colonized and let us keep a good eye on Japan. It was ruled by the U.S. Navy, in fact, the governor was the Navy Commandant. Guam wasn't really taken seriously as a base by Congress until after World War II.

War in the Pacific National Historic Park

A few days after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, they invaded Guam and took possession and kept control until 1944. The other Northern Mariana Islands have been under the control of the Japanese sinceWorld War I. These events combined with the proximity to Japan has made Guam a favorite tourist spot for Japanese.

Becoming Acclimated. . .

Outrigger canoe or Proas as the Chamorros call them.

Guam is warm. It lies 7 degrees above the equator which means several things: Not only is it warm during the day, it stays warm at night. The temperature drops down to 70-75 at night and up into the 80s during the day. I woke up expecting the early mornings to be cool, but they are not. You can go swimming immediately. The water is usually crystal clear and is about 85 degrees. 

Headed out to snorkel!

The swim shirt allowed us to spend more time in the water without getting burned. 

 This morning we snorkeled at 9:30am. It had rained earlier in the day but the sidewalks were almost dry by the time we entered the water. The fish were active in the coral reefs. It is slightly cool walking into the water but almost immediately my body adjusted. This was my second time snorkeling. If you have never snorkeled, there is an adjustment period. My first reflex was to hold my breath as soon as my face submerged. That made me panic and gasp for air. So I spent a few minutes intentionally breathing and listening to my breathing so the my adrenaline could return to normal levels.

Secondly, as I began swimming around I thought about dangers in the water including the poisonous fish called the Stone Fish. Stone fish lie at the bottom of the water and their spines are very venomous. They get their name from the fact that they look a little like a stone lying in the sand. Fortunately, they like to lie near other real rocks so as long as you stay away from rocks, and only rest on sand, you should be fine. Rarely, sharks come into the area but usually they stay beyond the shallow reef.

Thirdly, I was afraid of inhaling water with the snorkel. We solved that issue by spending some time in the pool with our gear so I could get used to blowing the water out of the snorkel. We bought swim shirts so we didn't get sunburned while out in the water. The native Guamanian at the snorkel gear shop joked with us on the first day that Bob "would look like one of us, brother" in a few days. I, on the other hand, would look like a boiled lobster if I didn't acclimate my skin. Therefore, we decided to snorkel today early in the morning which worked out well.

First impressions. . .

The Northern view from our hotel

Guam is an interesting place. It is weatherworn from the wind and rain. Most of the housing is made from cement block to withstand the elements and small convenience stores are plastered with advertisements on the front wall. 

I was able to buy fresh ripe mango for my lunch yesterday from a local grocer. I walked around the store taking pictures of the food items.  There are many restaurants that cater to the Japanese tourists.

There are tents set up on the side of the road where shade-tree mechanics attract customers. The Chamorro people are very friendly and beautiful. Everyone has been gracious to us. Next week, while I am on my own, I am going to ride the bus around the island and explore the shops and communities.