Archive for the ‘Guam’ Category

Might as well be walking on the sun…

Posted in Guam, Islands, Travel, tagged , , , on Monday, 3 July, 2006| 2 Comments »

Since moving to Guam, I’ve become obsessed with finding the perfect sunscreen. Some days it really does feel like I’m inches away from the sun. Now, everytime I go to the store, I check out the latest in sunscreen lotions, sprays and sticks. There are so many chioces! I’ve been experimenting with what works best for me ~ so much so that my bathroom countertop has become more cluttered than usual:

FG is hooked on Neutrogena Body Mist Sunblock spray (SPF 45). It’s a good thing because it is easy to use so she is more likely to want to put it on. For our faces, we all use Coppertone lotion (SPF 50). The Coppertone Sport spray (SPF 30) is great but feels a little sticky so I only use it when I go swimming, hiking or doing any other sport ~ basically when I need waterproof and “ultra sweatproof” coverage.

I’m happy to say we have yet to sunburn and I plan on keeping it that way! Let me know if you’ve found the perfect sun block. I’ll give it a try.

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Guam: Underwater Creatures ~ the lazy way

Posted in Guam, Travel, tagged , , , , , on Tuesday, 27 June, 2006| Leave a Comment »

We decided to check out Underwater World after enjoying a delectable lunch at the Jamaican Grill in Tumon. I ordered the grilled vegetable plate with a side of red rice and a side of Jamaican rice & beans. Along with this, I got a house salad ~ a mixture of fresh vegetables,fruits and the house “fruit” dressing. Everything was very colorful, tangy and unique. The jerk seasoning is a little spicy for me so it’s a good thing I ordered the refreshing Reggae Splash (blend of mango, guava & pineapple juices). Next time I’m getting the large drink! Ya Mon!

Underwater World. It’s great for someone who doesn’t want to go on an actual dive. There’s  an acrylic tunnel with 3 inches separating you from the sharks, rays, sea turtles, groupers, wrasse & other sea life. We happened to arrive just as feeding time started. It was very interesting to see the sharks and rays eat ~ reminded me of my always hungry hound dog nudging everyone out of his way for some food. These sharks and rays are so tame that the aquarium divers could turn a shark over and rub his big belly before feeding him. Again, reminding me more of a dog than a killer shark. I had to explain to Logan NOT to try this in the ocean.

After leaving the tunnel, we arrived at the individual displays of jellyfish, spider crabs, octopus, clown fish, anemones, sea horses, lion fish, etc. It was educational and a real thrill for FG. Personally, I prefer the real deal in the sea but would recommend this as a nice diversion, especially for kids!

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Guam: Shop til you drop!

Posted in Guam, Travel, tagged , , on Friday, 23 June, 2006| 1 Comment »

Least anyone think I am languishing on an island with limited shopping, think again. Guam is quite the shopping mecca and boasts the largest K-Mart in the world. Yes, in the world! There is actually bus service that shuttles tourists (mostly Japanese) along a shopping route which includes K-Mart, Micronesia Mall, and others.

Micronesia Mall has a huge variety of stores including Macys, a ‘Funtastic Park’ for kids, a movie complex with first run films and a food court with the following international cuisine: Korean, Chinese, Japanese, American, Italian, Chamorro and Filipino.

Tumon, where most of the upscale resorts are located, offers high-end shopping with boutiques such as Kate Spade, Gucci, Dior, Ferragamo, & Prada, or in other words, all the stores I can’t afford to even step into let alone buy anything.

My favorite store so far is the Pop and Pour in Dededo. It is a newly opened wine store with great selections from France, Italy, US, Australia, South Africa, Portugal and Chile. German wines are soon to be available. Note to V. ~ don’t know if that will include any fat ass wine from Germany 🙂 Becky and Juvee offer great customer service including free delivery with orders of $150 or more and they will chill a bottle if you call in advance.

Not that I have time for shopping, too much beaching to do. But, it’s nice to know it’s available should I need a Gucci bag 😉

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Guam: Poltergeist? Amityville? NAVY HOUSING!

Posted in Books, Guam, Islands, Travel, tagged , , , on Wednesday, 21 June, 2006| 1 Comment »

The other day, I spotted a historical sign in one of the lawns at the Navy Base and stopped to read it. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I read the following:

In the battle of Orote Peninsula, from July 26 to 29, 1944, 3,372 Japanese soldiers were killed and hastily buried in mass graves by Seabees using bulldozers. This site, now located within the Lockwood Family Housing area, was a large bomb crater.

According to local eyewitness, the Seabees used the crater to bury an unspecified number of Japanese soldiers. The human remains were exhumed in 1972, in formal ceremonies by Japanese Shinto and Buddhist Priests and transferred to the Pacific Memorial Park in Yigo.

Admittedly, I get spooked easily ~ blame it on reading one too many “scary” novels in my youth, but I bet most people would be a bit uncomfortable with a ‘mass grave’ sign in their yard.

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On the way home, I thought about all the novels and movies which scared me the most and I realized I am much more into the psychological rather than the slasher type horror. I would list my top five all-time scary novels as follows:

5) Jaws ~ I read this while living in Puerto Rico. Made me more than a little leery about what was lurking in the ocean.

4) The Shining ~ I read this one before I knew I would some day live in the Grand Teton National Park during the winter when the lodge I worked for was closed (it only opened during the summer). There were about thirty employees, some with families, on the winter staff so it wasn’t quite as isolated as The Shining but there was every bit of snow like the movie so it was close enough.

3) Pet Semetary ~ Just plain scared me.

2) Silence of the Lambs ~ You won’t see me walking close to one of those utility vans!

1) The Exorcist ~ To me, this is the only one where the movie and the novel were equally frightening.

So far, Andersen AFB doesn’t have any spooky history that I’ve seen advertised but if you’re out walking or running, you feel as though you’ve walked onto the set of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”… more on that later.

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Guam: A Marine Biologist in the making…

Posted in Favorite Girl, Favorite Man, Guam, Islands, Travel, tagged , , , , on Tuesday, 20 June, 2006| 4 Comments »

On Sunday, we ate a delicious Father’s Day Brunch Buffet at the Outrigger Guam. There was such a varied selection of international cuisine; we had to pace ourselves. The buffet included sashimi,sushi, made to order pasta & omelets, carving stations, crepes, and about 15 different types of dessert. Yummy! Even though the place was packed and the staff a little stressed, they kept a smile on their faces and made us feel welcome.

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After we were filled to capacity, we made our way to the Navy base and checked out Gab Gab Beach. Beautiful! A great spot for Logan to practice her snorkeling ~ it was calm waters and a nice variety of fish. We couldn’t get her out of the water so John and I took turns snorkeling with her.

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We drove to Orote Point Lookout and this is the gorgeous view we encountered:

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Guam: Boonie Stomp ~ Fadian Cove

Posted in Boonie Stomping, Guam, Hiking, Islands, Travel, tagged , , , , on Saturday, 17 June, 2006| Leave a Comment »

Another gorgeous day in Guam and we went on our third straight Boonie Stomp. This will probably be the last for a few weeks as we plan explore other beach spots on our own. Today’s stomp was rated difficult and difficult it was. I tried to turn back about 100 feet into the hike and the guy behind me wouldn’t let me. Glad he didn’t because it is a beautiful cove in which I got to do a little snorkeling and the way back up wasn’t nearly as scary.

Thanks to John for taking my pack which was making me off-balance. Thank goodness for these army guys ~ they sure are tough, aren’t they?! I did carry my pack on the way back up least you think I’m a complete wimp! Here’s a photo of Logan and I on the way down the trail:

Fadian Cove is located on the Northeast section of the island and the trail is very steep. I’m not joking when I say I was “stuck” in a couple of spots for fear of sliding a long way down. Once again, it was all worth the effort when we got to the cove and were able to swim/snorkel.

 

 

Here I am happy to be back at the top overlooking Fadian Cove ~ isn’t the water glorious looking?

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Guam: Chamorro Village~Fiesta Wednesday

Posted in Food, Guam, Travel, tagged , , , , on Thursday, 15 June, 2006| 3 Comments »

We decided to visit Chamorro Village, located in Hagåtña, for Fiesta Wednesday (night market). It was a night with lots of food, lots of people and lots of fun. There are roughly 18 food vendors and over 40 shops with arts, crafts, handmade jewelry, clothes, woven baskets, wood carved items, and much more ~ all set amongst Spanish-style buildings. Very cute. Back to the food ~ yummy! Logan and I got our veggie-friendly items (red rice, salad, etc) but John was all about the Chamorro style BBQ as seen in his fiesta plate below:

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You would have thought that was enough but 10 minutes later, he had to get a BBQ kabob:

Chamorro Village is open every day but the main event happens every Wednesday nights: 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. There’s dancing on the north side of the village. Enjoy!

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Guam: Boonie Stomp Gun Beach to Tanguisson Beach

Posted in Boonie Stomping, Guam, Travel, tagged , , , on Wednesday, 14 June, 2006| 2 Comments »

With much trepidation, I agreed to try a ‘medium’ rated Boonie Stomp. Whew, this one was just as beautiful but so much easier. Wonder if John carrying all the water helped!? The hike was along the coastline from Gun Beach to Tanguisson Beach along the base of Puntan dos Amantes (Two Lover’s Point):

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We passed Nikko Hotel’s Latte park:

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At one end of Gun Beach, we saw the Japanese 20 cm coastal defense gun and this photo includes Dave Lotz, the organizer of the stomps, a 30+ year resident of Guam, writer of several Guam guidebooks and let me tell you, the man knows his stuff:

John and Logan with resort row along Tumon Bay in the background:

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On the hike, we saw bright BLUE starfish (on my wish-list: underwater camera), a baby coconut crab and beautiful flowers:

 
It was a another great way to spend a Saturday morning and again, we met some really nice people. In fact, I got to meet the man from the other of the two Guam-based blogs that I enjoy reading. His blog, Tales of Brave Ulysses, is about a lot of different subjects and is fun to read. I don’t agree with everything he writes, but he is very witty, intellectual and will make you think.

Next Saturday’s hike: Rated Difficult ~ wish me luck.

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Guam: Trying to Reason with Typhoon Season

Posted in Guam, Travel, tagged , on Tuesday, 13 June, 2006| 3 Comments »

Many consider Guam to be in Typhoon Alley, and while the season is officially considered June to December, there has already been a SuperTyphoon in the South China Sea last month. I’ve learned some of the typhoon lingo such as ‘Banana Flattenner’ = small storm and ‘Storm Salad’ = vegetation strewn all over the house and yard. We’ve been warned by everyone we talk to that we better be ready for a Typhoon so FM has taken it upon himself to prepare us. This is what I found in the Typhoon storage as of yesterday:

Guess we’re off to a good start: beer, wine, ramen, pop-tarts, bug spray and a generator ~ what more could we need?

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Boonie Stomping in Guam on 4 June 2006

Posted in Boonie Stomping, Guam, Hiking, Travel, tagged , , , on Monday, 12 June, 2006| 3 Comments »

From the time John told me we were moving to Guam, I started reading the local newspaper, the Pacific Daily News, on-line as well as two Guam blogs. I would check one particular blog, Latitude 13, everyday. Latitude 13 is a smart, funny and very Guam-positive blog. It gave me a local’s perspective regarding life on Guam.

It was on Latitude 13 that I first heard about Boonie Stomps. It’s a public hike every Saturday to a beach, waterfall, cave or WWII monument. The Boonie Stomps are rated easy to very difficult and, when reading the announcements for upcoming stomps, I noticed the easy ones are few and far between. So, when I saw an easy hike listed in the newspaper for the first Saturday we were here, we decided to give it a go.

As we got out of the car at 8:45 am, the thermometer read 94 degrees. Racing through my mind was how do I get out of this since it was my idea in the first place. John and Logan were not about to turn around so I just kept drinking lots of water in the hopes that I wouldn’t succumb to heat exhaustion. Really, what was I thinking?

There were between 30-40 people at registration but I was more concerned with why they were offering gloves for sale. I figured at $1.00 a pair I’d best get all of us a pair.

The hike was a half mile STRAIGHT down a hillside on an unmarked path. There were big spiders perched on the trees and bushes along the way. We actually used these same spiders as landmarks on the way back up the hill so they became less manacing and more of a useful tool. The gloves were used for grabbing onto a tree or bush as I slid down the hillside ~ all I could think was “best three bucks I spent all week.”

Was the hike worth all the effort?! You bet. We ended up at the beautiful Ague Cove with no one else around except us hikers.

We met a couple of really nice people. Most of the hikers had their snorkel equipment with them and spent most of their time at the cove in the water (note to self: buy snorkel gear). The hike was actually on private property but the BoonieStompers had been given special permission.

Personally, I would not have rated this hike as easy. Let’s just say I am a little scared to attempt medium or difficult hikes.

After 10 stomps, you get a free t-shirt! I’ll let you know when I get one LOL

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