Guam trip

These are pictures from a pretty lame beach we were taken to on the first day (a freebie part of the package deal). No snorkeling, not very good swimming and a strong push to buy water sports activities. The lunch looked good, even if there wasn't one thing they served that I could eat. We left early and went shopping.

When you think of Guam and food, think BBQ'd steak. Really. It's everywhere. The other option would be BBQ'd steak with seafood. Your two main choices in just about every restaurant you see are charcoal grilled beef or charcoal grilled surf and turf. In both Saipan and Guam we had the damnedest time trying to find food we could eat. I'm more strict than Taka diet-wise, so most of it was on me. This time around, even I had to relent a little with regards to dairy...managed to avoid meat though.

The shopping was better in Guam, but the convenience of getting around, and the beaches etc. were better in Saipan. Guam has interesting beaches all around the island, but most of the north is restricted to the U.S. Air Force and most of the south is restricted to the U.S. Navy. The center of the island is mountains and jungle. The tourist areas had some good beaches and decent snorkeling but, for the most part, where we were was a huge, sprawling city with little or no planning, rhyme or reason (imagine a strip club next to a Japanese restaurant next to a surf shop next to a gun club next to another strip joint all across the street from a really large, cool supermarket). Public transportation was almost nonexistent.


This is just down the street from our hotel. The gunclubs, strip joints,
Japanese restaurants are just beyond this shot...and behind me up
the hill.



That said, we had a really good time. Taka got some shopping in at more than a few places (including an outlet mall). We even visited the world's largest K-Mart, if you can believe that!

Our main day was going to be spent ocean kayaking out to an island to do some snorkeling (a side package trip). Things worked out a little differently than planned.

That morning the weather was horrible. The tour guide called and told us that the ocean conditions weren't good for the trip, but if we were interested he could take us in to the center of the island for some river kayaking through a jungle. We went with that. It turns out that it was just the guide, Taka and I. On the way, the guide's partner ( the trip was soon to be our guide, his partner, Taka and I) called and said forget it. Conditions at the site were typhoon-like in intensity. We decided to give it a try anyway. It was more than an hour trip to get there and sometimes this stuff passes quickly. We were very glad we did.

By the time we got there, the rain had stopped and the wind had dropped to a breeze just strong enough to keep the bugs down. It was overcast, but that's perfect for that kind of trip. We had a blast! We spend so much time at the seaside on these trips that we rarely get the chance to see the inland areas, and this was really unique. The river was very deep but with almost no noticeable current and we were surrounded by serious jungle. Very cool!

One of our guides was a native Chamorro that has an archaeology degree from UCLA. He even walked us around some 2-3,000 year old ruins of a Chamorro village. He showed us some edible jungle plants and interesting flowers, animals, and the like (all of this was beyond the scope of the original tour...they were feeling guilty about not coming up with the tour we originally requested). All of it was very interesting.

After a few hours of river kayaking, etc., the main guide took us to an absolutely wonderful snorkeling location and even joined us. By then the sun was out, and that is perfect for snorkeling. He later confided that the place we ended up snorkeling was actually a much better location than the one he was going to take us, but that most of the thrill of the originally scheduled trip was in the kayaking. Actually, Taka and I much preferred how it worked out.

Of course I have no photos of any of that (we were told to bring nothing valuable or might be water damaged).

The whole trip was by far, the highlight of the entire vacation!

The next time we end up in that direction, I wouldn't mind Saipan again but for something even smaller and more local, Rota has been recommended.