Guam - Where America’s day begins ...

 

Sunday, February 18, 2024

" Hafa Adai"… or for you English speaking blokes,  Hello!

 

The sun comes up here to start a new day before it comes up anywhere else in America.  Guam, located in Micronesia, is a U.S. Island territory in the Western Pacific.  Guam became a US territory shortly after the Spanish American War when the Treaty of Paris of 1898 forced Spain to cede this island nation, Puerto Rico and other lands to the U.S.  

The original people of Guam as well as the Mariana Islands are the Chamorro people. They are fully American citizens with all the same rights we all enjoy.  Guam is a bit of a journey to get to.  We left Honolulu on the 8^th of February and have been churning up the waves for 8 straight days without seeing land.  We crossed the International Date line and completely lost Monday , February 12^th.    It is kind of strange how that works, but as most of you know, LeRoy likes his sea days!  Vialula is ready to step on some non-moving land.  And that unmoving land will be Guam.  Guam is about 212 square miles and has about 176,000 folks calling it home.   There is a large U. S. military presence there of about 22,000 and the military uses about 30% of the island.

Guam played a significant role during the Second World War.  Guam was an important location from which planes could fly into and ships could be refueled.  With its abundant water supply and agricultural land it was a highly sought supply route prize.  In 1941 Japan captured Guam from the U.S. and established a firmly held base from which to supply its fleet and Air Force.  In fact, just 4 hours after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese were bombing Guam. The Chamorro people suffered greatly under the control of the Japanese.  Forced into labor and agriculture for the benefit of the Japanese army and the misuse of the women for Japanese soldier’s pleasures was demanded and if anyone refused, they were executed.  10% of the Chamorro people were killed.  The United States liberated Guam in August of 1944.  It was a costly battle for both sides, but the Japanese were badly outnumbered and bore the brunt of the fighting losing 18,000 men.  For more information, please reference Guam in WWII

An interesting story is the one of the Japanese soldier, Shoichi Yokoi.  Many of you probably know this but in 1972 he was found on the island of Guam where he was still hiding in the jungle and still fighting the war.  He did not know the war had ended 27 years previously.   He was living in a cave and living off the land.  After his capture, several unsolved murders were attributed to him still believing that the war was still raging.  He was returned to Japan as a war hero but he never really adjusted to life in the modern society.  

Fun fact number 1:  Guam has the largest K-Mart in the world.

Fun fact number 2:  At one time, Guam had the largest McDonald's in the world.   That honor now belongs to Orlando. And much to Vi's dismay, only one Taco Bell (on the military base!)

 

Today, Vialula and I did not have a planned excursion like we do at most of our stops.   A free shuttle dropped us at the Dusit Thani resort in downtown.  It looked like Rodeo Drive, complete with Gucci, Louis Vitton and even a Hard Rock Cafe.  

We started walking through town, headed for Gun Beach at Tumon Bay.  On our way, we happened upon a place of  significant importance to the Chamorro people, a group of latte stones. They built their houses on these foundation stones.  See picture below for how the stones were used. They would also bury their family members around these stones.  Today they are important memorials of their ancestors.  It is also home to a geocache that we found!

After a hot and humid mile long walk, we made it to Gun Beach which is a beautiful beach area with thick coarse light brown sand.   The water was post card perfect material and it was exactly what you would expect in a tropical destination.  It was a Sunday so things didn’t get too busy until late morning. 

It is called Gun Beach because there are still remnants of Japanese gun placements complete with caves where the soldiers could retreat to when our shelling responded to theirs.  Rust and the jungle has reclaimed most of the remaining gun but you can still get a feeling of the impending doom and gloom as you look down the barrel and see how it protected the beach head.  This was a 144MM gun which I think shoots about an five and a half inch shell.  But don’t quote me on that.  Vi wanted me to tell you that the area around the gun was filled with butterflies, a beautiful symbol of what felt like holy ground. 

Best thing about Gun Beach was that at noon, a place called the bar at gun beach opened.   It is an open-air bar sitting right on the beach.   Vialula and I shared some beach nachos, and I had my local beer for the day, an Asahi Dry.   So, it wasn’t long until Gun Beach became fun beach!

After our refreshments we headed back to the resort area and walked down the beach which by then was really hopping.  We saw friends from the ship swimming, and the locals were beaching and cooking out! The beach was beautiful, and the water was perfect, and everyone was enjoying it.   

Like I have said before, people are about the same everywhere.   Get thru the work week and try to enjoy some time on the weekends.   The ocean beaches are a good place to do that.  A great stop for us.

All aboard was at 4:30 today along with a beautiful sail-away party.   These are a great time of port days; listening about everyone's adventures and recanting our own over cool drinks as we head out for our next adventure!

Tomorrow is Saipan.   Come join us!