Guam 2 Jan 09

Natalie bought a book that highlights obscure hiking trails on Guam. The following photos are Natalie, Baby, Cleavis, Daisy, and I exploring a jungle basin in the southern part of Guam. It was beautiful and a lot of fun.




This was one of five waterfalls that we found on our hike. We swam in the one bellow and the bottom was too deep to touch.

Here you can see Cleavis in the water below me swimming in circles waiting for me to jump in so he can attack me.

Cleavis loves to swim. Daisy does not.

This waterfall had a cave behind it. I am in the entrance to the cave. Natalie is taking the picture and holding Cleavis back at the same time. Cleavis loves to try and drown me when we are swimming together.

This was a pool that was good for jumping but it was too dangerous for Natalie and the Baby to get down to so we didn't go down there.

This was an interesting test because I had to get Cleavis and Daisy up this cliff while hanging on a rope with one hand and pushing them up with the other. I was prepared to do the same with Natalie but she showed off her muscles and went up it with ease.

We had fun.

This guy was riding his water buffalo (known locally as carabou) down the street. I asked him and he said that it is not that hard to train them for riding you just have to start when they are young.

This is a picture of one of the many Boonie Dogs on Guam. These dogs live in the jungle but are not afraid of people unless the person gets too close.

Natalie and I went out in the rusty old 4x4 we just bought. It is allowing us the freedom to get to more remote and secluded locations on the island. These next photos are from a trip we took this weekend. The next 8 pictures were from that trip.




While out exploring we saw a cave. When we looked inside we saw that at the bottom of the cave there was a deep pool of water and locals were swimming in it. Below there are two picture of the pool of water. If you swim through the crevice in the rock, seen in the second picture, there is an even bigger and deeper pool on the other side.

















Due to popular request: we present the bump. This picture was actually taken when Natalie was 15 weeks pregnant (she is now 19 weeks).

This and the next two photos are of Talafofo bay.

I happened a crossed this beautiful beach near the commissary on the Naval Base. This beach was an invasion point during WWII. The Japanese had an air station here so they had it heavily fortified. If you look closely down the beach in the second photo you can see some caves where the peninsula firsts starts to jute out. Some of the photos that follow are from inside this cave. This cave acted as a fortified firing position for Japanese machine guns. While enjoying this beach I was struck by the contrast between the beauty that was there now and the carnage that happened there only a little over sixty years ago. My freedom to enjoy that beach is a testament to the fact that throughout history men have had to die for freedom. On this beach I gratefully remembered the sacrifice of those valiant Marines who fought and died to free the people of Guam. I further was reminded of the greatest of such self sacrifices. Like these Marines, Christ also gave His life so that others could enjoy freedom, beauty and life. He died so that others could have freedom from sin, death, and enjoy the beauty of man's Creator.

This feral piglet was caught here taking a dip in a water bowl. This piglet and its family below have become accustomed to people. They are fed by tourists at a local attraction in Talafofo. I have been told that most other feral swine on the island can be very aggressive.

Gecko lizards are everywhere in Guam. It is difficult to keep these wall climbing creatures out of our house. We found this little one running away from Cleavis.

Natalie on a hike to Talafofo caves.
The dogs love Guam. They really enjoyed this hike to Talafofo caves.



This was an interesting cave. Behind Natalie the cave drops off so deep into the earth that even with a large flashlight I could not see the bottom. Next time we go there we are going to bring a glow stick and see how far it descends. Another interesting thing about this cave is that a strong wind blows up and out of the cave from somewhere in the deep.