Tarzan Swimming Hole Hike

Yesterday marked our first attempt at the Boonie Stompers, a local group that meets every Saturday to hike some trek on the island. You just have to show up on whatever Saturday you want at the Chamorro village at 9 am (the hike schedule is on line about a month in advance), sign some forms, pay 2 bucks for everyone over 12 and you're ready to go! The guides give a brief overview of the hike, and then everyone caravans out to the hike site.

these little beauties were everywhere

Yesterday's hike was to the Tarzan Swim Hole. It was a medium hike, about 1.5 miles each way. I strapped the baby on the front, put my back pack on my back, and started out. The hike itself was beautiful (though occasionally quite muddy), and I was amazed at how far we could see around us.

the boys are up there.....somewhere

When we got down to the river, I was very thankful to be out with such an amazing and friendly group of people. The guides and others in the group helped quite a bit to get the kids across the river without incident. Once we crossed, it was only a short distance to the swimming hole.

The water was surprisingly cold and refreshing. There was a high boulder to jump off, a rope swing, and a natural water slide. We all had a blast playing and swimming.

getting ready to get back on the rope swing

Unfortunately, we had to leave a bit earlier than the rest of the group. The oldest girl slipped on a rock and split her chin open. Thankfully again, the group was quite helpful in getting us up and out from our location. Not only did a guide escort us up so we wouldn't get lost, but others came along to help with kids, one guy carried my backpack so I wouldn't have to worry about it, and the guide actually carried the baby on his shoulders for the last 1/3 of the trek! It was such a blessing to have such wonderful people around to help with everything.

Once we got out we grabbed the van, got a quite bite to eat and headed straight for the Naval Hospital. Unfortunately they were quite busy and it took about 6 hours for us to get through there, but as always they were very helpful and highly professional. My friend was wonderful enough to come and stay at the hospital with us as well to help watch the other kids.

Despite the hospital trip, it was a wonderful day, with clear reminders of how blessed we are to be here!

Orote point and the Spanish steps-take 2

Happy Labor day weekend! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Yesterday (Sunday) was an amazing day, if a tad bit busy for us here on the Island. Right after going to church,we headed to the gym (which is right across the street) to change into hiking clothes and meet a friend to head out to the Spanish steps and Orote point.

If you don't remember, Orote point was the first hike we did following our arrival on the island (story here). Since then, I've learned that it was actually amazing that we made it out there when we did. Navy operational restrictions frequently shut down the site to visitors, and it is actually quite rare that it is open.

(I now have a goal to hike down there every time it's open while I'm here I think. It's that much fun and that beautiful )

Any way, back to the story. We met our friend (the same one we took to Talofofo Falls) and drove out to the hike point. I strapped the baby on my back, hand carried a backpack, and we headed down the side of the cliff out to the tiny cove. The trip this time went much faster than last since the kids and I knew what to expect.

Since this trip was a bit earlier in the day than last, the sun was a bit more intense, but it made the trip in many ways much more fun. We were able to see SO many more fish playing in the reefs, and the aqua blue reflection off the water took my breath away.

Despite the hike being "easier" this time we were still quite tired between the actual journey, exploring and swimming.

Our day was no where close to over when we got back to the car though. First, we ended up driving a few guys that we met while on our hike back to a ship that was currently pulled in but is normally homeported in Yokuska so they wouldn't have to walk the whole way back to their ship. It's a far journey, and they were very grateful for the ride. From there, we went back to the gym to shower and change, headed to the commissary to get some food, went home to prep food and then headed out to the first on-Guam spouse party for those associated with Adam's boat (all 6 of us)! WHEW! It was tiring, but a blast of a day, that ended with me actually knowing a few of the other wives I've been isolated from by being the only boat spouse on Guam for so long.

This week, I hope to continue the hiking adventures by joining the "boonie stompers". It's a local group that runs hikes every Saturday morning to different locations on island. Some hikes will be too much for the kids, but the schedule for this week looks totally doable! Fingers crossed the weather is clear and we can go!

More Randomness

1. There are chickens everywhere here. There's a whole family of them that spends half their time in my yard (until I figure out how to catch them.......)

2. This is probably the coolest guy. Ever. Walks his carabau down One of the main roads here with the dogs on its back frequently. He's very friendly and lets kids walk and ride the carabau.

According to him, he caught the carabau wild a few years back and trained it gradually not to freak out near cars. He used to ride the carabau himself, but no longer. Now just his dogs and random kids ride it (I personally think the dogs are the best).

3. Tried homemade pickled green papaya this week that I bought from a random vegetable stand on the side of the road. Amazing. I need to figure out the pickling spices they use here, they pack a punch.

4. I have no idea why, but there was a pig in my street this week.

5. Being in a port that ships from all over the world pull in and out of all the time is neat. Getting to catch up with old friends because they pull in randomly is even better!

6. I need to learn how to properly clean an octopus. This is so that when I'm driving down the street and I see the girl selling the ones she just caught I can stop and buy one from her and have a clue what I'm doing with it.

7. The power crews here are neat to watch. My power went out randomly 2 nights in a row this week and I guess the power company decided to completely redo some of the lines as a result. Saturday morning I woke up to no power, but at least 5 trucks and cherry pickers working simultaneously on the street lines. Only took between 6 and 7 hours (non-stop) for them to finish.

8. In a related note, waiting until the power went out for an extended period to get the generator out was not the best idea I've ever had. On the bright side, the outage wasn't due to a storm so it was an easily recoverable mistake.

9. Sunsets here still astound me every time I see them.

Agat Mango Festival

Hafa Adai!

Last night we went to the annual Mango Festival in Agat, which is the village just south of the Naval base. The location and set up for the event was great, and being able to see the sunset during the event was priceless.

We all had a great time walking around and meeting the merchants and seeing the displays. They had one display showcasing all the different mango varieties, another with about 6 different types of mango pickles, and another with the winners from each contest category: biggest, prettiest, and most bizarre. They even crowned a "Little miss mango" (the oldest girl has a goal in life now I think).

Trying Mango Jam

Of course, tried lots of food. The mango pie, which had a cheesecake consistency was my favorite, though the sweet and sour mango pickles were great as well. The mango jam was amazing, so we picked up a jar to share with Adam when he gets home.

I purposely skipped the McDonald's tent that was selling their "Mango Pineapple" smoothies. Though I'm sure they contributed financially to the event, it just didn't seem right given what was available from locals.

On our way out there was an area with representatives from local nurseries. I was naturally curious (I've been looking for a local nursery since I got here) and was fully drawn in when I saw the selection of orchids. They had many other plants beyond orchids, and my kids spent a good 5 minutes trying to convince me to buy a ghost chili pepper plant, but the orchids won the night. I ended up buying 2 plants and let the girls decide which. As a result they are both pink.

All in all, another great Guam night. I hope to start hitting the beaches again this week now that things are settling out.

Memorial Day Weekend

Saturday, after trying unsuccessfully to get phone and cable set up for the new place, we decided to take the kids to Underwater World, an aquarium with a large tunnel through it. At one point it was the longest underwater tunnel in the world, but as these things tend to go it has since been beat and now ranks 4th. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Upside down" Jellyfish

Beyond the tunnel, there are separate tanks with more exhibits, a large touch tank, and a few restaurants (one even has a bar with fish swimming in it). We definitely would like to do a date night there at some point.

My one gripe was that they held off telling us that there were annual passes available until AFTER we were done going through, and they refused to apply the value of the passes we purchased towards an annual pass. I had searched for it before on the website, but they only have it for locals and military and don't advertise the pass publicly.

Sunday afternoon we headed out hoping to see the Asan Beach section of War in the Pacific National Park before the rain hit. Asan beach is the site of the initial landing of US troops in WWII in an effort to retake the island of Guam from the Japanese (full history of the site here). The impending  rainstorm and lack of hiking shoes kept us from fully exploring the site, but we were still able to see and learn quite a bit.

In honor of Memorial day there were flags set up representing the US military members who lost their lives due to the battle and the local Chamorro people who died during the Japanese occupation and battle. It was humbling looking up  at the surrounding mountains and hills imagining what it was like for the troops facing what they had to coming out of the mountain caves and fortifications, and knowing that had they not done it I literally would not be here on this island today.

This morning we got the kids up and took Adam to the airport to say goodbye. He is headed to meet his boat that is still homeported in Hawaii, and we have no idea when he'll be back. We dropped him off at 9 this morning and since he was booked on the island hopper flight and crossing the date line he will land in Hawaii at 330 am Memorial Day there (2330 local here-14.5 hours of flying).

Bye daddy!

It was very sad to see him go, but I try to remember that we've been blessed beyond belief with how much we've had him around the last few years. Going through 6 years of sea time before doesn't take away the pain of his leaving now, but it has taught me how to cope and deal with it better (as does remembering that my kids feed off of how I respond-the better I cope the better they do as well).

Week 2 observations

1. I know I mentioned that Google maps is worthless here last week, but I had no idea how messed up the address system was here until this week. When turning on utilities, companies require that you turn in a map of the area pinpointing your house.

2. The Exchange here will shut down for the day every time  the power goes out.

3. The base post office frequently closes as well.

just use part of the lid to pop
the marble down then drink!

4. If you don't care about brands, KMART is better than the Exchange here for many things, even here where things are so "expensive". Makes me wonder why if you drive by the Exchange it's always so full.

Bonus: with all the Japanese here, KMART holds quite a few of the fun food things we liked in Japan. The kids were stoked to find the drinks they bought off a street vendor in Narita. I have a feeling anytime we go there I'll be asked to buy them.




5. Check labels. Always. "Guam" beer is made in Korea and "Guam" coffee is only repackaged here on Guam. There are many local things that are amazing, but just because it says "Guam" doesn't mean it's from here.

6. I never thought I'd see Firefly Vodka (the original Sweet Tea Vodka made using 100% US tea from the Charleston Tea Plantation) in Guam. They sell  it at the local grocery store. They also Firefly Bourbon here (Sweet tea infused bourbon) that I guess Firefly came out with after I left SC.

7. There is a real interesting balance on this island. On one street there will be houses in dire need of repair, and on the next street there is a shopping complex with Rolex and Prada stores.

8. The amount of fresh fish available here is astounding. Being able to get fresh, local, tuna and marlin is the best thing ever.

Change in plans

We got an interesting email from our Realtor today about one of the houses we saw Saturday. It was the first one we saw, and we fell in love, but the landlord and ourselves were off a bit on pricing. Today, the landlord had his Realtor call ours and offer us the terms we originally asked for. Since we hadn't actually formally done anything with the other house we were looking at (applications, contracts,etc), changing our minds isn't huge on that end, but it still took a lot of debate and back and forth time before making the decision. The house is further from Adam's work, but closer to the beach.....like walking distance close. It has a banana tree, is in a quiet area, and you can see the ocean from the porch.

I'm pretty sure it's the only time in our lives we'll be able to live this close to the beach, may as well take advantage! :)!

We were hoping to get to another beach today, but the baby is tired and crabby after being miserable with a fever from shots yesterday. So, we hung around the house. The kids did get to go to the playground though and  we got to meet Francia and her 5 children. She was very sweet, and the kids had fun playing with hers. She is originally from Saipan, and is giving me lots of pointers about visiting there in the future. Very sad that she and her family are moving back to the states just as we're getting here. I am glad to know that we're not the only crazy people in the military with a big family here though!

1st week observations

1. Brown tree snakes-probably one of the things I heard the most about before getting here. It seems as if it's the first thing you find information about when doing a search about the island. Granted, I've only been here a week, but the only ones we've seen are in traps placed by the USDA. Talking to people who have been here a lot longer, I'm not really surprised as the population has come down considerably from its peak a few years back.

2. The heat-the 2nd most frequent thing I heard about before arriving. Thus far I have yet to find it any worse than Charleston. In fact, I find it nicer here than Charleston during the summer. Midday is really hot, but the breezes are wonderful and by 5 it's very comfortable outside.

To combat the sun base playgrounds have or are putting in shade covers over them. Brilliant! SC needs to get the memo on that one.

It also rains here daily, but it usually blows through and doesn't last long.

3. As much as I live in the US, I don't. I live in Asia. While Chamorro and English are spoken, about everything is printed in English and Japanese (and some Korean). The area really caters to Japanese tourists, which is understandable, because the tourists really bring money into the community.

Beyond that, the prevalence of Asian food items at local stores makes it quite clear how close to Asia we really are.

4. Eating local has it's advantages here as always, with a few surprises. I was expecting the mangoes and bananas, but not avocados and eggplants. (Avocados for $1 a pound? Yes please!)

5. This is a Catholic island. Very, very, very Catholic. It seems as if every village has its own thriving Catholic church, and the Catholic Saints are prevalent throughout the cemeteries. I can count on one hand the churches I've seen that aren't Catholic.

6. I'm blown away by the scenery. We picked up a Guam hiking guide yesterday, and I can't wait to put use to it!

I also can't wait to dive into the  history here. Magellan landed here, and shortly thereafter the Spanish colonized the island (explains the Catholic influence). It was then taken by the US during the Spanish American war. In Dec 1941 the Japanese invaded and took over the island, and then it was eventually retaken by a US Marine invasion in 1944 (they celebrate Liberation day here as a state holiday).

7. The locals I've gotten the chance to interact with are very sweet and helpful.

8. Google maps is worthless here, even the maps that come with rental cars are more useful (though half written in Japanese). We bought a real map yesterday, but most of what we've found we just found by driving around. I figure the worst that can happen is we get lost for a bit, it's not like this place is huge or anything.