Thursday Darren and I discovered a treasure: Hilton's hot tub! I think we may visit it again soon. We also checked out their eggish chapel on the cliffside. Odd.
On Fridays Darren and I get done around noon and we like to go on adventures. This Friday we decided to drive South to explore on of the many falls on Guam. When we got to the trailhead we packed up our gear, got out our camera, and locked our doors...with the keys still inside. We had both thought that they other had them, and I thought Darren was joking when he told me he didn't have them. Slowly I realized that our afternoon was suddenly a mystery.
I ran towards the road waving my arms, and to my surprise the first car I flagged pulled right over. He was a loquacious guy probably in his 20s. Directly he informed us about Roadside Assistance and then called them on his cell phone. Then he offered and drove us 15 to 20 minutes into town so we could get cash to pay the car unlocking people and then drove us back to our car. He pretty much didn't stop talking and we learned numerous things like meth and corrupt police on Guam, the military build up, secret beaches, Guam community, cliff jumping, and most interestingly about some sort of god that can make one's hand swell up if he or she litters. He left us with that solemn warning and with his number incase we want to go booney stomping together. What a super nice guy who saved our butwah!
Although the Roadside people had told our friend that they would be to our car in 20-30 minutes at the time we left our car to get cash, they didn't arrive for at least an hour after we got back to the trailhead. By the time they were done, it was about 5PM so we decided to head to Jeff's Pirate Cove on the east side of the island. It has a fun atmosphere and we'd been wanting to check it out. We consumed Greek food, shoot hoops, and learned more about Yokoi, a Japanese soldier who hid in the boonies in a pit for, no joke, 27 YEARS after WWII was OVER! He was finally discovered by some fishermen or someone like that. Incredible. He's deservedly a sort of celebrity here in Guam.
After Jeff's we watched the beginning of the sunset at Talofofo Bay. A sunken Japanese ship is somewhere inside of it and one used to be able to see quite a bit of it, but a typhoon sunk it deeper into the bay
We still had a bit of daylight so we explored a trail on the Pacific Ocean side of Guam.
I got to collect sea glass and hug some of the iron trees that I love here
Saturday Darren and I went diving at Cocos West and Pete's Reef. We saw some fish I hadn't seen before, a turtle, and sting rays, manta rays, and eagle rays!
For lunch we ate by the harbor at Jay Z's and planned future adventures on our laminated Franko's Map of Guam
After catching up with some people at potluck, we decided to give Tarzan Falls a second chance and we had success! Woo hoo!
Along the hike were beautiful purple orchids. We had fun with our color accent settings that we finally discovered on our new camera.
After the Falls we stopped for some history at Asan Beach. A great battle was fought here between the Japanese and Americans during WWII. The Americans stormed the beach in amphibious vehicles while the Japanese hid and fired artillery from caves (many of which they forced the local Chamorro people to dig out) like in the picture below.
At night we met up with some friends to eat out at The Mermaid's Tavern in Hagatna. Sooo tasty. I think it's the best food I've had in Guam. And they had live BLUEGRASS music. I was shocked and delighted!
Sunday Darren and I took it quite easy. We got out our snorkeling equipment, I purchased some new fins, and the store owner recommended we check out Fish Eye. Fish Eye is a place where tourists can walk out to a pier and then descend into a room underneath the ocean so that they can look at the fishies and stay dry. One can also snuba or snorkel in they designated ringed off area. They feed the fish so they'll sidle up to the structure creating even more fish then the plentiful amount that are already there. There was quite a big current, so Darren and I let it take us out a long way and then we just swam to shore and walked to our car.
We broke from snorkeling to eat our lunch of watermelon and Pringles, read (me a book by J. D. Salinger; Darren the Long Dong guidebook introduction--it tells of Taiwanese national and climbing history), and watch Italian tourist kiteboarders.
There was still plenty of daylight left, so we walked north of the Fish Eye structure and decided to let it drift us back from the other side. Quickly the current brought us back to it, and we surrounded by an enormous quantity of fish...including barracuda. I have never been very scared of barracuda until today. Darren and I had separated for a little while and apparently a barracuda had been eyeing him. He splashed some at it to try to go away, but he said that it seemed to make him more antagonistic. He swam to where I was, but the fish followed him. Suddenly he and I both were surrounded by about seven barracuda. I was mildly freaked out, but tried not to worry too much as I have gone swimming with them before. However, one barracuda tenaciously kept following us. Slowly I believe both of us got more and more unnerved until we decided finally to high tail it back to shore. The barracuda kept with us most of the way. SCARY!
Sunday night we had our first high school banquet together. It was GAA's Student Association banquet and they had invited us to come. We had a lot of fun and surprisingly had a lot of adults to with whom to interact.
1 comments:
Shoichi Yokoi is his name.
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