Guam 05/30/2017 - 06/10/2017

My Itinerary:
Guam Itinerary Wednesday May 31st - Saturday June 10th
Leon Mass·Monday, April 17, 2017
Leaving LAX United 12:10 PM Wednesday May 31st
Arriving Guam june 1st 10:30pm
Leaving Guam june 10th 12:00pm
UA197
Get Scooters from Scooter World
https://www.yelp.com/biz/scooter-wo...
1.5 miles away from Condo
Jungle Rules Adventure Tours: May not be in service anymore: Meeting spot, Agaña Shopping Center, 302 South Route 4 O'Brien Drive 4, Hagåtña, 96910, Guam 4.3 miles
June 2nd Friday
Kayak to Alpat Island I guess it's off of onward beach resort: 1.8
miles
ZORB (Yona)Leo Palace Resort 9.9 miles
Proa Restaurant - Chamorro Bbq 2.7 miles
June 3rd Saturday
Grotto -Swimming- 2.7 miles
Snorkle at Gun Beach - 2.9 miles
June 4th Sunday
The cafeteria 7am - 3pm Monday - Saturday - Kadon Pika 3.4 miles
Tarzan Pools
A large freshwater pool fed by the Ylig River, Tarzan Pools has a great rope swing that will make you feel like the king of the jungle. Allow at least two hours, to get down and back, and pack sunscreen.
To get there: Take Route 4 south into Yona, hang a right at the stop light, onto Route 17, and keep right at the fork after Windward Hills Golf Course. Long before you hit Santa Rita, there will be a clearing on the right, with shoes hanging off the telephone poles like Christmas tree lights. This is the place to park. Soon after you start, the path will fork, left to Tarzan Falls, so continue straight to the pools. Soon, the path will open up into a confusing red dirt field, without a clear trail. Veer left, down the slope and follow trail markers through the sword grass field, watching out for steep potholes along the way. After a ways, stone steps will bring you down to the Ylig River. From there, head right, downriver, until you find the large pool. - 11.7 miles
Turtle Cove
This secluded cove on the edge of a gemstone sea is named for the shape of the limestone carved out by the ocean. Climb up the rocky staircase on the back of the turtle, shout “cowabunga,” and leap off its head, a 15-foot drop into Ylig Bay.
To get there: Take Route 4 south into Yona. After passing Pago Bay, and two supermarkets—7 Day and Day Buy Day—start down the long, curving hill. Take the dirt road on the left, halfway down, and drive in far enough to be out of the way. Take the path on the ocean side of the road, and head down the steep hill, until you come to the beach. If no one has been here in a while, great banana spiders will have spun their webs overhead, shriek if you must, but also take solace in the fact that you have come across a rarely trodden path. - 14.3 miles
June 5th Monday
LamLam mountain bike trail - 18.3 miles
June 6th Tuesday
Hike to Agua cove in Dededo 8.5 miles North West
Two Lovers Point - 4.2 miles
Chesa Guam - Kelaguen 6.1 miles
June 7th Wednesday
Go snorkling at Fish Eye Marine Park 6.3 miles
Atlantis Submarines 9.3 miles
Chamorro Village - Wednesday evening 5:30p to 9:30p to enjoy festivities.
- Chamorro Village Night Market on Wednesday and Friday for a photo opp of you or someone brave petting the crab. - 3.8 miles
- Try Coconut candy
June 8th Thursday
Priest’s Pools is a hike in southern Guam. The Yledigao River cascades along terraces of basalt lava as it heads toward the ocean. The water is cool and somewhat clear. Jumping into Priest’s Pools is a test of courage, as you can’t see the bottom from the ledge. Be sure to test the depth of the waters before you jump in!
To get there: From Route 4, just south of Merizo Pier, turn onto Chalan Joseph A. Cruz. Turn left just before Merizo Elementary School at dead-end road. Follow the unmarked trail through sword grass covered hills for about 20 minutes. - 25.7 miles
- Umatac - where magellin landed 22.4 miles
June 9th Friday
Pagat Cave 8.8 miles
Marbo Cave
- directions to marbo cave guam360.com 7.2 miles
June 10th Saturday
Leave back to Cali 12:00pm

My Check-ins
with Paul Talise at Submarina.
June 9 at 4:42am · Tamuning, Guam ·
added 2 new photos — with Paul Talise at Fish Eye Marine Park.
June 9 at 4:35am · Piti, Guam ·
added 2 new photos — with Paul Talise at Spanish Steps.
June 9 at 4:22am ·
added 2 new photos — with Paul Talise at Guam's Valley of the Latte Park.
June 9 at 4:14am · Talofofo, Guam ·
added 2 new photos — with Paul Talise in Umatac, Guam.
June 8 at 3:53am
added 2 new photos — with Paul Talise in Priest Pools Guam.
June 8 at 3:47am
with Paul Talise at Inarajan Pools.
June 8 at 3:40am · Inarajan, HI
with Paul Talise at Jeff's Pirates Cove.
June 8 at 3:30am · Talofofo, Guam
at USPS.
June 8 at 3:27am · Hagatna, Guam
with Paul Talise at The Cafeteria.
June 8 at 3:18am · Harmon Village, HI ·
added 2 new photos — with Paul Talise at Night Market, Chamorro Village.
at Pagat Caves.
June 6 at 10:39pm · Mangilao, Guam
added 2 new photos — with Paul Talise at Night Market, Chamorro Village.
June 7 at 3:59am · Hagatna, Guam ·
was watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 with Paul Talise at Regal Cinemas Guam Megaplex 14.
June 6 at 3:09am · Tamuning, Guam ·
eating local food at King's Restaurant.
June 5 at 11:22pm · Tamuning, Guam ·
with Paul Talise at Marbo Cave.
June 5 at 6:54pm · Dededo, Guam ·
June 5 at 5:46am · Yigo, Guam ·
eating SPAM with Paul Talise at Mcdonalds.
June 5 at 4:07am · Tumon, Guam ·
at Alpat Island.
June 4 at 10:43pm ·
in Tamuning, Guam.
June 4 at 8:02pm ·
at Pachinko Gameroom.
June 4 at 1:14am · Yigo, Guam ·
added 2 new photos — at Two Lover's Point.
June 3 at 11:36pm · Mangilao, Guam ·
with Paul Talise at Turtle Cove.
June 3 at 8:50pm ·
added 3 new photos — with Paul Talise at Tarzan Falls.
June 3 at 7:20pm ·
with Paul Talise at Mosa's Joint Restaurant.
June 3 at 1:23am · Hagatna, Guam ·
with Paul Talise at Guam Gun Beach.
June 2 at 10:21pm ·
at Blue Hole Guam Dive Site.
June 2 at 4:26pm · Apra Heights, Guam ·
added 2 new photos — with Paul Talise at Naval Base Guam.
June 2 at 3:27pm ·
Proa Restaurant Haganta.
June 2 at 2:28am · Hagatna, Guam
eating burgers and fries at Rally's at 8500 Crenshaw.
May 31 at 8:58pm · Inglewood ·
at Tivoli Motor Hotel.
May 31 at 3:04pm · Inglewood ·

May 31st Wednesday

This story starts like any other trip. I make sure that everything is packed this time, from all my previous lessons learned, I remember to take my water shoes this time, passport, neck pillow, enough clothes, swim trunks, sunglasses, nice shoes, flip flops, money, passport, and my bathing bag. I make sure my phone and laptop are fully charged and this time the laptop is off so it can stay charged. I packed early so if anything pops to mind, I just put it inside my luggage. Everything done, I go to bed awaiting my trip for the next day. I actually got really good sleep and in the morning I wake up my roomate Dennis, get my stuff and go to get dropped off by Dennis at the Flyaway. At this point I start thinking that everything is going way too well. I never sleep easy before a trip. Oh well, maybe this time things will actually go my way! As I get out of Dennis' car and walk up to take the bus, it had just left. I thought they come around every 15 minutes but it turns out that it's every 30 minutes. I start calculating and will still get there about 1 hour 20 minutes to spare no big deal. Still at ease, I get onto the bus, and although I appreciate free wifi, it doesn't work for anything. We make it to the airport and I have a pretty good amount of time, still 1 hour and 35 minutes until lift off. The driver parks and says "Gate 1" and gets the people out for gate 1 and helps them with the bags. I look at my ticket, I'm in Gate 7, of course the last gate. Now I'm getting a bit worried. I calculate that it will be another half hour to get to my gate. I was considering just getting off in a few gates and just walk the rest of the way but I told myself that it will be alright, I will still have about 45 minutes left until lift off. The final gate finally comes and I jump out. I get to the kiosk to print tickets but it asks me to see the person behind the desk because I may be late. All the people at the desk are of course busy and there is no line, it's like a free for all at this point. I can see what United tried to do here but it's unorganized like crazy. I get behind someone who is already being helped and they are taking forever. The lady behind the desk is taking her sweetest time putting stickers on the luggages, it was just spectacular. I speak up and tell her that I may be late and if she can help me, she looks up at me and says that if I'm late I need to go to the special services desk and they can accomodate me. I go to the desk dragging my luggage and neck pillow along and here I see a huge line of people who are also likely late. There is no way I'll make the flight if I get behind this line, so I try to get another employee of United so they can help me. I find a person wandering and ask him if he can check to see if I can get through, at this point it was probably less than a half hour until lift off, it would be a miracle if I got on that plane. He looks at me with no hope but tries to find a computer anyway to help me out. He turns the computer over to me and tells me that it's not allowing him to book anyone anymore for that flight and sends me back to the special services line. I'm almost sure that if the lady had checked her system in the very beginning it would have let me on but oh well, let's say it all together, "lesson learned!"

As I learned before going to Germany, usually there is only 1 plane that goes international at a time so if you miss it, you will have to wait until the next day. The special service desk booked me in for the next morning and gave me the tickets back letting me know that I don't have to check in this time. Even though Guam is a US territory, I confirmed that I still needed my passport. I asked if they can accommodate my hotel for me like they did for me in Beijing, he kind of laughed at me and told me they don't accommodate for late comers. I didn't want to go back home and it was better for me to stay close so I won't be late again for whatever reason, so I decided... Adventure! I know there is Hollywood Park Casino nearby so I walked toward that direction. First, I needed to walk out of the airport. I went outside and started walking by along the street and tried to exit. I learned very quickly that one doesn't just walk out of LAX! I went one way, it lead me straight to the freeway, I went another way, also another freeway or highway where pedestrains aren't allowed. There was another road that went under the bridge but it didn't seem to go toward the city of where I wanted to be. I figured that I had to go all the way back to gate 1 and exit that way so I started walking. By the time I reached gate 3 I saw that it was right in the middle and if I cut through the middle I can get to gate 1 faster. Fun fact, this is a true statement and got to gate 1 a bit quicker. As I approach gate 1 I see familiar things, and right when I pass gate 1 I look to the right and I realize that I was pretty much in the same spot as gate 7! That road that I didn't want to take actually lead straight to gate 1 and if I had crossed it, I would have seen the sign that clearly says, "Exit to street" With an arrow on it.

I now know the Goddamn LAX airport like the back of my... anyway I finally find the exit and proceed toward the casino. As I was walking, I looked at the new flight tickets and made sure to note the new time. The flight was going to leave at 8:45 am the next day and right now it's 3:00 pm. I needed a place to stay. I didn't want to use my phone for navigation so I can conserve batteries and I was sure there were a bunch of places on the way. I walk past a Marriott hotel, probably way too much for what I need. Then the Hilton hotel, probably even more. I keep walking hoping I'd find a motel 6 or something. Also at this point, starving, hoping to find some food. I pass a Jersey Mikes, I know I will get a lot of hate for this, but it's probably the worst sandwich place I can think of. I'm usually not picky and go for whatever but I figured if I kept going, something else would pop up. I keep walking and find Traverlors Lodge Hotel. I've stayed at a Travel Lodge before, it should be more of what I am looking for. I walk in and get a quote, "$119 not including tax." I probably can do better and I keep walking. I find a Carl's Jr, and eat there. I continue to walk and find a Motel 6! I go in and ask for the price, "$174." How is Motel 6 more expensive than Travelors Lodge? And it's further away from the airport. I mean the price is pretty much a Hilton price! I can do better so I continue to walk. Get to a Holiday Inn and it was about the same price as Motel 6. How many more hotels can there be? Worse comes to worse, I'll just go back to the Travelors Lodge. I keep walking and pass the Inglewood sign. Great, I have just entered Inglewood, things should be more on my range here, I just hope that there are more motels on the way. I spot The Trivalgo Motel. I've never heard of it before but it was small and I could barely find the entrance to this place, seems like more of my kind of place. I ask for a quote, "80 including all taxes." I quickly took it. I don't think my luggage was made to roll 6+ miles on assphault.

Finally I get to Guam.

Haha Just kidding, this is still Inglewood, California. I go into my room at the motel and it has everything I need. Bed and bathroom. Also they had free Wi-Fi. Beat that "all inclusive" Occidental Hotel in Cancun! After relaxing a bit, I continue on to the Casino. I go on my phone to locate Chase Bank to get cash and conveniently it is located just across the street of the Casino. I love Chase! Get the cash, went to the casino, and lost probably more than I should have. Note to self, stop playing no limit hold 'em at Casinos and $10 Black Jacks. I leave and on the way back I notice the weather. I'm not too hot, it's not too humid, I can have a sweater on or off and will still be ok somehow. Just maximum comfort level, this is truly the best weather in the world. On the way back I stop at a Rally's Burger. I've heard a lot about this place, but have never eaten here before. Trust the hype, it was really good.

The cheeseburger is just how I like it, with the toppings evenly spread out and the bread is a little bit sweet. Fries were also amazing, thin ones that were extra crunchy. Definitely my top 6 favorite burger places. The first being Rock n Roll Cafe in Simi Valley, 2nd In-n-out, 3rd Steak and Shake and there are other ones I can't think of at the moment. I get back to the motel and just relax. Admittedly the wi-fi kept going out on me so I had to keep resetting the connection to get back online. I finally realize that I don't have my neck pillow with me. I must have left it on the desk while getting the new tickets. Shame.

June 1st Thursday

Of course I am now anxious and cannot fall asleep. I doze off but keep waking up. I finally wake up 4 hours before my alarm. This is more like it, this is how I do before every main trip! I try to fall back asleep for another hour but it's just not happening, so I start packing and leave. I was going to Uber to LAX this time so there isn't any complications but since there is so much time left, I decided to walk. I pass a McDonald's and get a salad with a hash brown since I've been eating burgers prior and I absolutely hate McDonald's breakfast food except for the hash browns. I get to LAX and get to the United gate like a champ! Get in one of the lines because I don't need to check in, a lady comes and says that I need to scan the tickets still so I can check my luggage in. I do it and get the sticker for my luggage and get behind some people so I can turn my luggage in. I'm all for automation if it makes things easier and it doesn't lay people off too much but this was just a cluster, no one knew where to go after getting their luggage stickers. I saw United workers entering the customers information on the automated systems, what is the point? I turn in my luggage and ask if there is a lost and found, they point me to the direction and I ask the lost and found if they found my neck pillow. They told me that I needed to fill out a form online and they will email me if they found it. Update: They haven't found it. I proceed to my gate, sit down, and eat my McDonalds salad while I'm waiting for the plane to arrive.

Plane arrives and I take my seat. Oh United, how I hate you so much. The only reason I'm flying United is because I had credit from my Russia trip, otherwise, if I can help it, never again. I'll take the blame for being late the first time but has there ever been a time where a United flight has left on time? Another delay, we waited a good 30 minutes to lift off. On top of which, they have the worst entertainment I have ever seen.

On the back of the seats there is a place where you can put your phone or ipad and when the pilot says ok he will turn on the wifi. Through the wifi, you have to log into united website where you can watch movies. All fine except the website keeps telling me to install flash where I already have it installed! I can view the advertisement video but when it comes to the actual movie, it says that my system needs to install flash. Am I not watching the advertisement videos through flash? So I instal flash through the website, still gives me the same problem. I restart, I try a different browser, and nothing. I don't understand, how much extra can it possibly be to put screens on the back of the seats? I realize there is one browser I haven't tried yet which was Internet Explorer, I tried the Explorer Edge, but not the actual Internet Explorer. So I went on the site through that and watched the advertisement for the 10th time, it asked me to download a plug-in called DDR or something, so I downloaded it then restarted Internet Explorer and it finally worked. Holy hell, why? Why do I have to jump through all these hoops just for entertainment? And my Samsung S-6 didn't work at all with the internet that it has. Lucky I had my laptop and I am pretty tech savvy. I looked around and most people weren't watching anything probably because their devices didn't work either.

I watched Death Note. I didn't really like the Anime, but decided to give the movie a try. It ws ok, better than the Anime but nothing too extraordinary. The flight gets to Hawaii and the pilot announces, "If there is anyone connecting to Guam, this is the plane you are going to go on again." Cool, that means there is no way I will miss the plane. I had to leave the aircraft so it can be cleaned, I literally went around the plexi glass that separated from passengers getting off and I sat down with the others waiting for the plane to be cleaned. I didn't even have to sign in again or anything, it was weird. Also because I didn't have a long walk, it seemed like it took forever for the same plane to become available again. I finally get back on the plane and this time I was all set up for the entertainment! I saw American Sniper and on the corner of my eye, I noticed an older lady watching my screen on my laptop. Even though she couldn't hear any sound she still jumped when people got shot in the movie. This made it that much more entertining for me although it probably would have been better for her if she had a screen of her own.

After both the flights and barely having anything to eat besides peanuts and some sort of cookie that united provided, I was starving. I still don't understand how they can get away with that. A 10+ hour flight including the connecting flight and still they don't serve food besides peanuts.

June 2nd Friday

I finally get to Guam, hello humidity my old friend. Paul is awaiting for me. He had read my itinerary and takes me straight to Proa Restaurant.

Online, I was recommended to try the Chamorro BBQ. Turns out that Chamorro is the name for the natives that live in Guam. So it was regular short rib bbq which was good. We ate and headed to Pauls place. He lives right on the beachfront, it was like I was in a fancy hotel the whole time.

Notice the quick day difference? Guam is one of the first places to experience a new day.

June 3rd Saturday

We wake up and go to the Naval Base to rent a boat.

We go around some land and go snorkeling.

Probably shouldn't do it, but at first we didn't see much fish, but we brought bread and started feeding them, a whole ton of fish all of a sudden appeared and started eating the bread. As per protocol, according to Paul, one of us went snorkeling while one stayed on the boat and we alternated just in case the boat untied from the booey and floated away. It was fun, we took the boat further and went snorkeling at different spots.

In one of the spots, there is a hole under the water where you can go scuba diving and it will lead you out of a hole somewhere else. I never really liked the thought of scuba diving mainly because I don't like the feeling of popping my ears but seeing scuba divers go into this hole from above was way cool and is making me want to get a certification. One day in the future, I will go into a hole like this. We snorkeled and swam a bit more and turned the boat back in.

I must say, my favorite "bio dome" place is warm water. This was even warmer than Cancun and it felt so amazing. I can stay in this water forever and so we did. After the boating we went to a nearby beach still in the Naval base, and we swam

We snorkeled, we ate

we then went to another beach now outside of the Naval Base called Gun Beach and swam some more.

We swam to a place where there was a little bridge so we did a little bit of exploring.

Amazingly beautiful but alas all things must come to an end. We finished swimming and went out to eat. Paul took me to a burger place called Mosa's Joint Restaurant and said that I had to try another famous dish in the island called Kelaguen.

It was really good, has greasy pork and beef in a thin what looks like fried bread. It reminds me of a dish called "Chiburek" in Russia except this is much more compact. It was served with spicy toppings on the side. I don't like spicy so I ate them by themselves and still Kelaguen was really good.

June 4th Sunday

We decide to go on a waterfall hike. The instructions to drive there was to look for shoes dangling off of the telephone wires.

We parked underneath them and started walking along a pretty trail. I've never been in an actual jungle like this.

Everywhere you turn was just beautiful nature.

After a short hike we find the amazing waterfall.

Taking full advantage of my water shoes, I go toward it and shower underneath the fresh water.

It was really refreshing and awe inspiring. We head back and as we get closer to the car and we meet another family that just drove up. They ask if we were in the pools or the falls, we answer the falls and didn't realize that there were pools here. They tell us that they are going to the pools which must be on the trail that goes the other way. The family goes ahead and Paul and I go on the trail too. We stop to take a few pictures of a broken car.

We then catch up and the family tells us that if you take the trail that way, there is a dead end and just shows the view, so we take a break and take the trail the other way. We walk and walk, and walk. We can't find the family nor any pools.

There is no way they were walking this fast but they just vanished. We decide that we aren't in the jungle anymore and this place will not have any pools so we turn around. On our way back we still don't find the family but get back into the car and drive to our next adventure.

We head down to Turtle Cove. To get here, you need to drive through a narrow dirt road. It was pretty cool and looked like we were heading into a super secret place.

If a car had come from the other side wanting to get out, I don't know what we would have done. One of us would have had to reverse it all the way back. We get to the clearing and park the car. The beach is right there and then we see the turtle.

We brought sandwiches along with us and ate them the Guam way

I actually don't know if this is the Guam way, but it should be. The internet said that you can jump off the turtles head, so I went on my way to jump. A little girl nearby showed me how to get up from the side. She was a professional, "Hop here put your foot there" She says and bam you're up. I was way slower than her and actually got scared at a point because the ledge became so narrow. At the top she tells me that there is a few places to jump from and this one is the highest place. I ask her to go first and show me and she jumps. I get to the ledge and I've said it before and it is still true, I'm pretty scared of heights. I get low to the ground and make sure Paul is recording so I can quickly get this over with and jump. I run off the ledge because I'm too scared to just stand there and jump.

After hanging out and swimming more we headed to Two Lovers Point.

There is a legend about a girl who defied her father and fell in love with a boy. It's pretty interesting and you can read it here if you want.

In short, father wants daughter to marry someone rich, she doesn't like him, finds someone else that is poor and falls in love. They come to a cliff and as father comes to scold them they tie a strand of hair together to symbolize that they will always be together and jump off the cliff.

After walking around for a bit, there is a smoothie stand. The worker gave me a free sample of his coconut and pinneapple drink. I usually don't like either of those things however, this was actually really tasty so I bought the drink. There were a few more things to look at.

We then walked around the city. We came across a thing called Pachinko Gameroom. I was expecting to see some video arcades or something but as we enter we see a bunch of what I thought were slot machines. Turns out it's neither a slot machine nor video arcades. It's like a video pinball machine. At first I had no idea what I was doing, but then I started to understand.

You pay $30 to get a bucket of like 1500 balls and you throw them in to a huge slot. On the right side, you turn a knob to make the machine shoot the ball up. The more you turn the knob to the right, the harder it's going to shoot the ball up. The harder you shoot the ball up then it's going to start falling down on the right side. The point is to get the ball in the middle hole and once you get it into the middle hole a random number appears and you have to get 3 matching numbers in order to win. Once you win, more balls come out and you can either keep playing with them or cash out. It was pretty weird and I couldn't believe that many people would play this, but the place was pretty packed. Needless to say, I lost.

June 5th, Monday

Paul had to go to work so it was a lounging day for me. I dropped him off at the Naval Hospital where he works and he was nice enough to let me use his car. After dropping him off at work, I put his home address into the navigation and attempted to drive back. My navigation tells me to, "Turn left in 500 meters." What is this 500 meters!? I'm used to miles and feet and of course, no clear street signs posted just like every other place I visit. Only Los Angeles has actual clear signs on every street. I don't understand why make it so difficult and not post street signs so people can see? Long story short, I missed many of my turns but finally managed to get home.

I went over to the pool area and swam and sunbathed. After I got tired of lounging for a few hours I decided to go explore. Turns out that Paul's beach front location was in proximity of Alpat Island which was on my itinerary. I decide to swim there with a snorkel. I didn't have to swim because the whole way there, the ocean levels doesn't rise higher than my waist, it's pretty amazing.

On the way I spotted a starfish which I thought was really rare but they were actually all over the place.

I get to the sand portion of the island and quickly spot a narrow trail leading up. I went inside, it was beautiful.

There were all kinds of insects in here, including huge ants and tons of black butterflies.

Through the very thorny bushes I found a way all the way to the top on the other side that faces the ocean.

I come back out into the water and walk around the island and head back home. Paul messages me to pick him up and again after missing a few turns, I make it and pick him up. We decide to get dinner at McDonald's. I didn't have it on my itinerary because I figured that it would be the same as in the sates. I was wrong. They had a sweet BBQ beef sandwich and a spam platter.

It was meh.

June 6th Tuesday

We head toward Marbo Cave. We park and start walking. Among having no street signs, this place doesn't seem to have any kind of signs letting you know where the caves are. Without the internet and other peoples blogs we would have never found it. Paul stated that there aren't any signs because of safety reasons due to Monsoons. I don't know how true that is but at least some sort of marker around a tree would help. We finally find it and go down to the Marbo Cave.

It wasn't too big and the more down you go, the weather gets cooler. We reach the bottom where there is water and you can swim. It's pretty cool, the cave has some nooks where you can swim too and swim in the dark shadows. However, if you turn around you can see light and where you can swim back to. The water was extremely clear and fresh. We ask someone there if Pagat Cave, which was also on my itinerary, was far away so we may squeeze it in for today. They told us that it's further and you will need a flashlight. Paul told me that I can do it the next day while he is working. I kept swimming around and we left Marbo Caves.

We stopped to eat at another local restaurant called Kings. I got a sampler so I can try a little bit of everything, it was pretty good. Reminded me of Denny's but with a much bigger menu.

Paul went to work and I swam around some more. He came back and was tired, he suggested that we watch Guardians of the Galaxy 2. I was reluctant because I didn't like part 1 and wanted to see it again just so I can grasp it. So we watched part 1 at home and went to see part 2. Part 2 is a lot better than 1, it is funnier and the plot is better. I'm glad I saw it.

June 7th Wednesday

I drop Paul off at work once again and head to Pagat Cave. At this point I have mastered my meters and kilometers, I am good to go Navi!

I park near the path and head down toward the cave. This trail was full of wasps and flying crickets. I have seen crickets with wings before, but not this big and they didn't nearly fly as high as this. There were mosquitos but I haven't really noticed them much. The only reason I knew that they were there is because I had a few bites on my legs.

I also noticed that I've never been in a jungle like this before, this is probably the closest to a "jungle" that I have ever visited. This is pretty much Guam, jungle and beach.

I almost pass it because again there weren't any signs, but I make it to the cave. Oh man what an adventure.

This cave goes deep inside and dark really quick. There is water that goes a bit above your ankles while your coming in. I take out my phone and take pictures and put it back in my pocket. I keep walking, and again getting darker and darker. Thank God the person from the other cave told me to bring a flashlight. I got Paul's flashlight with me and turn it on. In sheer amazement I go in further. This is the first time I'm using an underwater flashlight before but it keeps turning off and I have to shake it to turn it back on. It made things even more scary as it already was. There wasn't anyone else there but me and before I know it, I look down and I'm about waist deep in the water already without even noticing it. Remember my phone in my pocket? I quickly take it out hoping that it would still be on but it's no good, completely off and broken. With the flashlight turning on and off I find a nearby rock and lay my things down so I can continue to explore.

I was pointing the flashlight where the go pro went. Everything you are seeing in the video is what I can see, there was no light whatsoever coming inside the cave at this point. I also remember being in the dark caves in Texas where they turned off the light and told us that your eyes will not get acclamated to the darkness so you will not see anything no matter how long you stay in for because there isn't any light coming inside. I swam a bit more and explored. I would have stayed longer, but if the flashlight went out on me, there was no way I would find my way back out. I wouldn't have been as scared because my phones flashlight would have been a back up but it obviously wasn't working anymore. Even though things went wrong, this was my favorite part of the trip. I loved swimming in complete darkness, I felt so adventurous, this is what I travel for.

I get out of the caves and I heard that I needed to put my phone into rice as soon as it gets wet for any chance of revival. There wasn't any rice so I used natures rice.

I probably did more harm than good. I get back out safely and find my way back to the car. Having no Navi nor phone to call, this will be interesting. I remember which way I came from so I start driving back that way. No road signs or anything, Guam did have signs for highways and I remember seeing the word Tamuning every time I checked in on Facebook close to Paul's house so I headed that way. At the end of the road, I turned right and at the end of that road there was nowhere else for me to turn. Also to my luck, it was pouring rain and I don't mean sprinkling like in California, it was really coming down. I decide to stop and do the unmanly thing of asking for directions. I stop at a shop and ask if they knew where Condo Lane was which is the street the home is located. They say no, I ask them about Alpat Island, again they say no. I ask them about the Naval Hospital, they say hospital? I say yes, and they point and say, it's very far that way. Later I realized that the hospital and Navy hospital are different locations but I stick to the shore because I know that the building will be located there and I actually find the place. If Paul didn't live against the shore, and if Guam wasn't so tiny, I mean it's about 25 miles in diameter long ways, I'd probably still be in Guam.

I got on my laptop so Paul can tell me when I can pick him up and perfect timing, he asks me to come get him. I get the directions from my laptop and head out. Afterwards, we head to Chamorro Village for their night market.

They had the biggest lobsters I have ever seen. One was climbing the cage.

We ate more Chamorro food and listened to country music they had. It was kind of weird seeing old Asians doing the electric slide. The culture of Guam is very interesting. In Los Angeles, we have many cultures however, they tend to stick to their own especially the older generation. For instance, you'll usually see the older Hispanics doing the Bachata, white people doing the line dancing, black people doing some form of hip hop. The band, which usually plays one type of music in the states, in Guam, went from Ragae right to Country, then Polynesian and back to country. Guam culture is very much mixed with many cultures that do not stick to each other and adapt to everyone's culture living there. It's interesting to see for the untrained eye. We finished eating and walked around a bit more.

At some point, we saw a huge animal giving rides to people. The animal was called a Caribou, I've never seen or heard of one. It was very tame, it looked really strong but had a friendly face.

We get to a shop where they sell post card coconuts. You read that right, actual coconuts you can send as postcards. Apparently, it is legal for USPS to deliver coconuts without any extra packaging. So, I sent my parents a coconut. Update, they got it!

June 7th Wednesday

For breakfast we head down to our next destination on the Itinerary which is a breakfast place called, The Cafeteria. We take our seats and look at the menu. The waitress comes up and lets us know that they are out of 2 items. We understood and decided to order the next best thing that the restaurant had to offer. "Oh, we just ran out of that too." I hesitate, but asked what she had which was the next best thing and decided to take that with sweet corn as the side. Paul fed up at this point said he didn't want anything. After a good amount of time, the girl comes back and says we are out of sweet corn, the only thing we have is potato salad. At this point I also get fed up and let her know it's ok and we will eat somewhere else. We were there maybe 2 hours after they had just opened and they still had a good 3-4 hours until they close. Why stay open if you are out of 75 percent of your menu? Either close the shop down or get more food!

The next stop on the itinerary is Priest Pools but before that, we stop at the USPS to ship out the coconut I bought from Chamorro Village to my parents. I go to up to the postman in the store and reluctantly looks at the coconut. Puts a barcode and tracking on it, and charges me. Success!

We head toward Priest Pools and still have to eat along the way. We stop at Pirates cove. They give us bandanas as a gift and sit us down on the beachside of the restaurant.

There was a lot of food to choose from and it was pretty good. Finally full, we continue on to Priest Pools. On the side of the road we see people swimming on some other pools and decide to check it out.

Turns out we were in Inarajan Pools and I'm really glad we stopped. It was an amazing sight.

After we had our fill playing in the water and with the views, we continue on to Priest Pools. We head to a turn on where we think it is and have to go a little bit off roading.

We park the car and hike the rest of the way hoping we'd find it. Again no signs, nothing to suggest this is the place, we only relied on Google maps. Google, you are my most reliable friend. We were at the right place.

There was water in what seemed like lava rocks and they went deep. In one of them, I couldn't even touch the ground even going underwater. It was really cool and another amazingly beautiful sight.

Afterwards, we went to Magellan's landing. This is the first place Magellan found. The Chomorrans saw that he was hungry so they welcomed him with open arms and fed him. While they were feeding him, they stole his ship, and once he found out, he burned their villages.

Intense history, nice bridge, and of course beautiful beach. Besides that, nothing really amazing to do or see here.

June 9th Friday

On the last full day on the island, Paul and I go on a kayak tour. Our tour guide was pretty cool, she has been to many places and seemed very adventurous.

Down the river, we saw coconuts floating, cat fish, stick fish, and huge crabs.

After we get to one of our locations we rest a bit and swim around. I jump in and feel really warm on the bottom and just warm, like always here, on top. I mean it was a good 95 degrees Fahrenheit warm on the bottom and a good 87 on top. I asked why that was, but didn't get any definitive response. I enjoyed it.

After we were finished resting and swimming we went back on our kayaks. We saw a Japanese tour boat and the tour guide told us to say something in Japanese, I already forgot the word, if anyone knows what I'm talking about, please remind me. This means alligator bait, a Japanese way of teasing others that they put you in the river as bait. Then we thought about it and were wondering if there were in fact alligators but the tour guide calmed us down and told us not to worry as the whole island doesn't have any alligators.

The tour guide guides us down to a grassy area where the Chomorrans used to live and the setting was perserved for people to see. We get off the kayaks and check out the place.

There was a boat and a hut that reminded me of the Moana movie.

Only the elite lived in these huts closest to water, the lower class Chamorrans slept "under the stars." Eating fish was considered a higher class delight, while the lower class ate bugs. The huts were built on foundations that look like this:

There were all kinds of trees with fruit we could eat. Like, what they call a Manzanita which was sweet, tasted like a cherry:

And tasted like sweet guava if that makes sense. I've never had one before.

Both were really good, and after that appetizer, they served us food.

After the meal, there was a show by a young man who was showing us how to make fire by rubbing sticks together. He told us that in many movies they put the stick between their hands and start rubbing their hands really fast on top of a stick to make fire, he went on to say that if people did this, it would take forever to get the fire started. It's easier to rub the stick long ways against another stick to make stick dust at the end of the rubbing place and that dust will burn a little bit and then you can burn straw with it.

Looked easy enough, so I tried to do it.

I also couldn't get it. Everyone attempted, and it seemed like some actually got close, but none can get it started. New found respect for the stick fire starters and making it look so easy. Also, there is a famous saying that goes, "Fire before smoke." In this case, however, from what I'm seeing, it's smoke before fire.

After the show, we went on our kayaks and headed back.

Our next destination was supposed to be Fish Eye, but Paul got a text from a friend telling him that the Spanish Steps was open. It is located in the Naval Base and he tells me that it is usually closed but luck has it that it is open now, so we head down there. I'm glad we did. We start, like every hike starts in Guam, from the top and heading down. The jagged rocky slopes were so steep that you need to use the ropes there to guide you. I joked that these were the craziest "steps" I have ever seen!

Once we got down, we had to walk through what was the most "jungly" area yet. It was like the Alpat Island I went to earlier in my trip but blown up. I know I keep saying it but... So beautiful.

I noticed that there were trees coming out of a coconut and then realize, duh the coconut is the seed. This is how coconut palm trees are made.

There were a bunch of cool hermit crabs walking from side to side with amazing looking shells. We get down to the ocean with an amazing view and start snorkeling.

Lots and lots of coral are here, filled with life both hard and soft. Found a rockfish, can you see it?

Paul comes up and tells me that they are poisonous. Oops. We head back up and see people barely making it down the roped slopes with regret in their eyes. We assure them that it's worth it and going back up is much easier.

This being my last day, we still decide to go to Fish Eye. I tried to savor every moment since this will be the last time I'm in the warmest beaches ever, the water temperature was never below 83 degrees. This is the last time I get to walk so far away from shore and still have the water below my waste line. I took a picture so you can see how far away from the shore I am and I am still standing!

I decide to go the furthest away from shore and see how far I can get and then Paul yells for me to come over because he spotted a turtle.

I think the turtle is the king of the ocean. So majestic and every time I see one swim it seems like it is looking over the water world. A good way to end the adventurous trip.

Since all I had to eat so far is BBQ, I decided to eat well and go to Submarina. Submiarina is pretty much exactly like subway where they ask what kind of bread and toppings you want on your sandwich but tasted a little better and twice as expensive. I got a foot long but only ate a third of it because I wanted to save the other third for later that night and another third for the airport so I won't be hungry leaving home the next day.

June 10th Saturday

Got up hours earlier than my flight probably because of my stress again of being late. I eat the rest of my sandwich, hang around a bit and Paul takes me to the airport. I thank him for everything and go to my terminal. Getting there early and not having a phone, I turn on my laptop and look for plugs but none can be found. United States, please update your federal technology. I used my laptop on battery hoping that the plane will have a plug like last time. This time my connecting flight is in Tokyo and I'm still flying with United. As I get inside the plane I take a look and this time there were screens in the back of the seats! Finally a normal flight as it is supposed to be. Also, the plane actually took off on time! As I scroll through the options, I see that it's a Direct TV guide in real time which means that the shows and movies start every half hour to an hour depending on when the last show ends. Which also means that you can't pause the movie when you need to go to the bathroom or getting your meal. Why, why, why!? Oh well, I'll start the show after one ends in a half hour. One finally ended and I plug my headphones in, and of course the sound doesn't work. I get the complimentary headphones provided and again it doesn't work. I tell the stewardess that my headphones don't work so they restart all the screens for me because of, according to the announcement, "audio issues" I seriously didn't mean to have them do that just for me. After the restart the stewardess came to me to ask how it was going and I told her that it still didn't work. She apologized and gave me a card to fill out when I get home so United can give me some sort of gift. Update: It is a $50 coupon code off your next United flight purchase. That was nice of her and I was grateful. I check to see if there are plugs for my laptop to charge, there aren't there, I have to conserve my laptop battery just in case something happens and I need a random Wi-Fi to Facebook home because I don't have a phone. Looks like I need to so something else. I am at the window isle and my control is on the side of another passenger who was sleeping with his elbows on the arm rests. I had to carefully go around his elbow to navigate the stupid Direct TV controls which were also on the arm rests. I find a Korean movie, "My Annoying Brother" and start watching it with subtitles on. All of a sudden, my contrast goes up and I see the volume control up and down on the screen. Thank you passenger next to me and thank you United for making another inconvenience for me. Who thought putting controls on an arm rest would be a good idea!? I watched the movie with random contrast and things popping up on my screen, I really would have flipped if he accidentally changed the channel on me. The movie was actually really good and gave me the feels.

I land in Tokyo to get to my connecting flight. I go to the bathroom and have to laugh because the toilets actually have a button you can press where it will produce a recurring flushing sound so you won't get too embarrassed. I go through the screening and wait for my flight. I see free charging stations, I get my laptop and easily get online. This country gets me and I will visit you Japan very soon.

The final United plane actually had everything this time and did everything right. It even had windows that you can tint all the way so it's dark by pressing a button. Pretty cool actually, I'd really want one of those in my car. Also, this plane served not 1 not 2 but 3 meals, a snack, and ice cream for free. I absolutely don't understand the flight system because on my way to Guam, nothing was served but a snack on both flights.

Guam, you are amazing. I'm going to miss your such warm beaches and water. I wish it would be a little bit sandier so it can be easy on the feet even with water shoes on but the coral is what makes the oceans beautiful so I can't complain too much. Thanks again Paul for letting me stay and experience this kind of paradise. Thank you for sticking to my itinerary even more than I was. I'll see you soon in San Diego.