Tumon Bay

Looking north toward Two Lover's Point from Mata 'pang Beach at Tumon Bay.

Tumon is where most of the tourism is. Guam attracts lots of vacationers from Japan. They come for the beautiful empty beaches, fancy hotels and shopping, shopping, shopping. Compared to the cost of goods in Japan, Guam is a great bargain.

There is a big upscale Galleria, Gelatio shops and all sort of tourist stores (including Hard Rock Cafe). We went to big Aquarium where you walk thru tunnels inside the aquarium and see amazing sea life that is typical of what is in the reefs and seas around Guam.

There is a really long stretch of sandy beach, at Tumon, where you can wind surf, snorkel, swim, jet ski and sun bathe. The sandy beaches are not common to Guam, most of the beaches here are rocky, coral stretches that make getting to the water difficult. (No matter where you go into the water you must wear coral shoes. You have to step very carefully, if you slip you'll get cut on coral. A regular ritual after swimming in the ocean is washing and treating all coral cuts and scrapes with antibiotic ointment. It's very easy to get a bacterial infection from the coral.)

There are also a lot of Japanese wedding chapels along this beach, too. We walked most of the sandy stretch before cutting thru the Hilton pool area to the main street and business district. It was amazingly uncrowded everywhere we went.

Sella and Cetti Bays Hike and Snorkel Trip

On Friday we decided to combine 2 activities, snorkeling and hiking. We took a 1.5 mile trail 440 feet down to the Sella Bay. It was a beautiful Guam day (high 89, low 75, winds out of the east at 10-15). We headed down the trail thru the jungle. Going down was pretty easy. We only lost the trail a couple of times. When we got to the river (not much more than a steam--it's the dry season) we just waded thru it all the way to the beach.




Sella Bay can only be accessed from the trail or a boat. It was beautiful and deserted. It looked just like the beach in the movie "Castaway".

Guam has amazing coral reefs, unfortunately, to get to the water on most of the beaches you have to walk over the coral, damaging it. We did some snorkeling here at Sella Bay, but the water was a little murky because the river ran into it. So we walked around this bay to Cetti Bay. It was just as beautiful and desolate, but it was so difficult to enter the water to snorkel, we had to step on so much coral. Once we did get into the water, the reef was amazing. We saw so many fish, different colored corals and other sea life. It was really beautiful.

Hiking back up the trail was a lot more difficult. There were places you had to use ropes to pull yourself up a steep rock face. I didn't drink enough water and got a little overheated. I waited in the shade while Heidi and Don figured out which way the trail went.

If I lived here I would go on hikes and snorkel all the time. It's amazing to be in the jungle one minute, then come out to a grand view of the ocean the next. And to swim in the coral reefs and see all the life that lives within it, is really amazing.

Happy Birthday Buddha

Today we went to Buddha's Birthday party at the Ypao Park at Tumon Bay. Heidi wanted to go because they were supposed to have good vegetarian Thai food. The Thai food looked a little "sketchy" according to Heidi, so we had Korean noodles and kimcee. It was good. We also sampled some fried crispy vegetarian rolls, chai tea and a very strange shaved ice that was crushed ice with strawberry syrup and a big scoop of strawberry jam in the middle (we removed the jam)



The highlight of Buddha's birthday party was a brief rain shower (felt so cool) and a local dance group that performed traditional Chamorro dance. The kids were really cute and it was fun to listen to music (though one song sounded a lot like a Simon and Garfunkel song). Erin explained the most of the Chamorro culture was lost when Spaniards landed and converted everyone to Catholicism. Some 20 years ago a group redeveloped some of the traditional Chamorro dances and music based on study of other Micronesia cultures. They began a program to teach the kids this music and dance. It is very successful and popular here.

Two Lovers Point...

The Chamorro legend of the Two Lovers is that a beautiful Chamorro maiden was being forced into a marriage with someone she didn't love. Her true love was a strong Chamorro warrior. So instead of being separated forever, the maiden and the warrior tied their hair together and jumped of this outcropping of coral very high above the ocean. It's a story that has many versions on Guam. The view is quit fantastic.

In addition to the ocean views, there is this really cool DEEP chasm at Two Lovers Point. It makes your toes tingle to look down. I could only sort-of look down, because it was really deep and frightening even with a waist high rail.















Me and my warrior-could not tie our hair together because one of us is hair challenged and we got to marry our true loves.


The picture does not do justice to the amazing view. Despite all of the dumpy buildings and mundane businesses in the towns, Guam is fabulously beautiful and I have yet to see more that 10 people together on a beach (they were Japanese tourists).

Fishing off the coast of Merizo

Deep sea fishing is a lot of waiting for a bite on one of many lines followed by a lot of activity if you actually get a bite. But the waiting is entirely pleasant if you have taken your sea sick pills and have a lovely place to stretch out.











Catching the first fish is really exciting, but a little bit hard to reconcile with my vegetarian tendencies. I enjoy suchi and sashimi a lot, but some how seeing how beautiful the fish is alive changes my enthusiam for eating it dead. I did, however, enjoy some of out catch later in the evening (yes, raw). Thirteen fish later, I was really glad they stopped biting our lures and we could just enjoy a nice boat ride.











I cannot believe what a fun life I have with Don. He is determined that I should have everything I want. I never imagined I would have such a great time when I was 50. Guam is certainly as beautiful and exotic as I imagined it would be, but also conviently has a Kmart and BX (tropical jungles, coral beaches, crystal clear water and the blue light special).