May 2017 – JD's Blog

Gab Gab Snorkel

Gab Gab beach is a lovely place to snorkel. It’s on the Navy Base, and it’s a hard coral reef with lots of beautiful fish and turtles.

At first I couldn’t figure out why everyone said it was good. I was trying to snorkel from the beach wading out.

However, if you go around to the pool and take the stairs, you can go out past the reef. That’s where the real excitement is.

It is always dangerous to go past the reef, so make sure that there aren’t high winds. Those will cause currents, and that can be a problem.

However, when it is safe and the water is calm, it’s a wonderful place to go.

I had never been snorkeling until I came to Guam.

It’s a steep learning curve trying to study all the names of the fish.

After all, in Arizona there isn’t much call to learn fish names.

However, it’s really a beautiful place to check out, even if you can’t name the fish afterwards.

Talofofo Park and Falls

You can’t see Talofofo Falls unless you pay to get in to Talofofo Park. The admission price is steep; it’s $20 per person. I want to say it’s worth it, but it’s not much of a park.

There is a very small garden of “sexy” statues which is sort of like LoveLand in Jeju, but much smaller and closer together.

I don’t like to be negative, but if I am honest, it’s a really small area with a few very generic statues. It doesn’t add much to the park.

There is a very small haunted house under the cable car entrance. In the style of haunted houses worldwide, it has a few things that pop out at you.

When you finish walking through the haunted house, you can go up to the cable car. Take it over the waterfall, and down to the trail head that lets you walk down below the waterfall.

After that, you can walk over a bridge to the side of the pool. At the top of the stairs, you go up and are faced with two choices:

1. You can walk straight and go into a “museum” full of dioramas depicting the Japanese occupation and the US occupation. It’s very small and not historically accurate, but I suppose it’s good for a laugh.

2. You can head left and walk down a long path to see a reproduction of Shoicho Yokoi’s Cave. Really, it’s just some bamboo lashed together and a hole in the ground (which you cant get close to.) The most interesting part is the shrine next to the “cave,” where Japanese tourists leave coins and gifts.

It’s not that there isn’t a lot to see. There is a lot of walking and you should bring plenty of water and maybe a snack. The park definitely covers a large area.

It’s just that all the attractions are sort of cheesy and second-rate, so you walk away feeling disappointed even though you have seen a lot of things.

I went with my friend Mel, who had just finished a tour of North Korea with a Chinese tour company. As she put it “There are better amusement parks in North Korea.”

If you like cheesy though; this is your thing. Neil Gaimen said in American Gods that roadside attractions are the best part of America. If you are the sort of person who would be excited to see the world’s largest ball of twine or a giant frying pan, then you will probably enjoy Talofofo Park.

Tumon Bay Snorkel

Tumon Bay is in the center of the tourist part of the island.

Most of the large hotels are right on the bay.

Because of this, you don’t really see as many fish and coral as you would other places. The coral can often be damaged by tourists.

However, you can still go around and see some nice things.

It’s very shallow, so it’s a good place to go if you have children.

Mostly, you’ll find stag coral and trigger fish. Oh, and a lot of sea cucumbers.

Fish Eye Marine Park

Since I loved to Guam, I feel like I spend a lot of my time underwater. One of the best places to do that is Fish Eye Marine Park.

Grab your snorkel and wade out under the bridge. When you get into water that is too deep to stand, start swimming to the left.

This will bring you through an ancient forest of coral, and give you the opportunity to see a lot of cool fish.

Normally, you wouldn’t want to feed the fish in the ocean. However, they already feed them as the fish eye tourist attraction, so sometimes I bring along some rice or peas to give them.

They are so used to eating food from humans that they swam all around and it’s cute.

I am trying to learn all the names of the fish, but unfortunately the locals want to teach me the Chamorro words. That’s not something I will ever use outside of Guam.

Once I find a fish guide for this (very remote) part of the Pacific Ocean, I will try to caption future fish pictures with the names of the fish.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of things you can see at Fish Eye.

I think this is a butterfly fish.

And, I know this one is called a flounder.

As for this little guy, I know he’s a rainbow parrot fish.

This seems to have a shape like a damsel fish.

And, this one I do know. It’s a Picasso Triggerfish. They bite, so avoid them.

Here’s a star fish. Ours our blue, but usually they have five arms. I am not sure why this one has six.

And, this is a Picasso Triggerfish with a Wrasse. I really enjoy the different kinds of Wrasse, but I don’t know all their names.

Whatever this one is, it has a great pattern. Shame they’re always digging up the sand so it’s hard to get a good picture.

This is another kind of Triggerfish, but I don’t know its name.

And this is a soft coral forest full of fish. This is to the left of the Fish Eye, swimming into the Piti Bomb Holes. However, there is a lot of soft coral to the right of the bridge as well.

Some of the bomb holes are very deep, but there are lots of shallow places too. Don’t be afraid to swim over the deep parts to get to the shallower parts.

You can go all the way out to the second reef, which is past the Fish Eye bridge and the Fish Eye structure at least another 100 meters.

There are great views and huge coral forests covering a huge area, so look around a lot!

Where is Guam?

Guam is a US territory located in the Pacific Ocean. The United States took ownership of Guam for the Japanese during WWII, and since then the islanders have been trying to work with the US government in partnership.

I moved to Guam when my husband got orders here in 2015, and we will make it our home until the military sends us somewhere else.

At first it was hard to adjust, because it is a very small island and it is very isolated. That means giving up things like fresh fruit and vegetables (which mostly don’t grow here because the island is coral.)

However, it also means new experiences and being on a tropical island, so that is an exciting change. I had always wanted to be on the equator because I love plants.

I will make sure to tell you all about the exciting things that I learn about Guam.

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