Adventures in Guam: Birthday Festivities and Saipan Activities

Alright folks, I just had an incredible last ten days, so get your reading spectacles on, grab a cup of tea and get ready for an adventure. I’ll start off with by sharing that in the last month or so I have started going to yoga here at the Jiivana spa and wellness center and boy has it has been revitalizing. I was never really into yoga because I didn’t really want to pay money to have someone tell me how to stretch, but since it was offered for free and since we have some world renown yoga instructors here at PIC, I thought I would give it a try, and I am so glad that I did. Aside from yoga being great and all, I will tell you about a particular experience that I had last week, that words can barely describe. So usually yoga is held in the yoga pavilion on the beach, which is so beautiful, but this week one of the managers attended yoga and suggested we go to an even more aesthetically pleasing spot that we could all enjoy. So we follow Ed over to the elevators of the tallest tower here on property (32 floors) and proceed to take the elevator to the helicopter pad on the top of the roof! Once up there, we all set up our mats and had probably the best yoga session I’ve ever had. There were panoramic views of all Tumon Bay, the east part of the island, and of course the resort below. To top it all off we were able to see the sky turn all sorts of oranges and pinks and eventually dark purples as the sun slowly set in the sky. Truly an experience I will never forget. Thanks Ed for taking us up there..

Next we had my “Golden Birthday”, 23 on the 23rd, and it was definitely one I will never forget! So we started off on the eve of the 23rd, beginning the festivities with a mustache party, where everyone either bought fake mustaches or mainly just drew them on with eye liner and sharpies. This was such a fun night filled with picture taking, a belly dancing performance, and then ended with a live band across the street at a local venue. Such a great night! Thanks again to everyone that attended and to those that made that amazing night possible. The next night my good buddy Art (who is Pilipino) threw me a bbq with all sorts of dishes from the Philippines, including the infamous Balut (half cooked chicken fetus). This night was a lot more relaxed and chill with everyone mainly conversing with one another and stuffing ourselves full of the delicious food prepared by Art and his family. I’m still not quite sure how I feel about 23, I’m optimistic however, and am quite positive this year is going to bring much more traveling which I cannot wait for.

Now for the main event. Saipan! This small island just north of Guam is home to so many beautiful sights and held so many new adventures for me in the short time I was visiting. A bit overwhelming, but no doubt one of the most incredible islands I have experienced yet. I had four days here but two of which would be spent playing in my first pro beach volleyball tournament. So after our 3am morning arrival, we caught a wink of sleep and then went off to explore the island. One of the girls that was on the trip had actually lived here for a few years, which was awesome because she became tour guide for the day as we went from one cool spot to another. The first stop was a historical one. It was called "The Last Command Post" which was the last fort to be overtaken by the Americans on Saipan during WWII. This sight held all sorts of heavy artillery, old tanks, deep bunkers and more. It was interesting to see such remarkable history on this tiny island. Next we headed off to "Suicide Cliffs". The gory story behind this cliff was that when the Americans came in and overtook the Last Command Post, instead of the Japanese surrendering, they ran up to this cliff side to kill themselves in an honorable way instead of becoming a prisoner of war. It was a bit uncanny standing there in the same spots that many Japanese did right before they hurled their bodies off of the cliff. And when looking down the edge, it was clear that there was no chance of survival.

After the history lesson we decided to lighten the mood by going to an amazing diving/snorkeling spot called "The Grotto" which held water that was an incredible blue color that I had never witnessed before. Along with loving the new experiences out here, I also love encountering new colors, tastes, smells that I haven't had before. It's sort of a refreshing feeling and makes you think, wow the world is so big, and I've only started to barely scrape the surface. Anyways, getting back to The Grotto. Despite the impending tide that looked questionable breaking on the rocks, we decided to hop in and start swimming around. We couldn't pass up traversing around in this breathtaking water. Basically the Grotto was like a shallow cave in the water that got smaller and smaller and eventually just turned into a wall, but underneath that wall was a hole that the tide would come in and out of which also let light in that gave the water such an impressive glow. So we went all the way back as far as we could and experienced the crushing force of the rising and falling tide coming in and out of The Grotto. Half awe stricken, half concerned for my life, we would wade in this little safe zone, careful not to get sucked out, and as the water came in, it sounded like a series of explosions as it rose up against the rocks, pushing air, and whatever else was in the way, up and out. After around an hour or so we decided that it was time to see the next cool spot on the list; Bird Island.

Bird Island is a beautiful little piece of land just off the coast of Saipan. It was so close that we literally swam there. Only my buddy Ryan and I swam out, but once on the island we began exploring all of its beauty. At first it appeared as though the whole backside of the island was flat with about an inch or so of water running over the top, but as we starting walking across this surface we noticed that there were hundreds of small pools, with one big 9ft by 12ft pool that was probably 8ft deep. In these pools were fish that had become trapped by the falling tide. They stayed here until the tide rose again, freeing them from their small natural cages. Some of the pools were too small for the fish and so we would see them try and flap across the one inch of surface water that was constantly running over the pools from the breaking waves only yards away. We had to be careful walking around here not only because we didn't want to fall into one of the pools but also because of how slippery it was. Before long our curiosity led us away from the pools and around to a different side of the island were there had been vegetation growing. we began to climb up through the trees and eventually we found ourselves grabbing vines and roots as the cliffside became steeper and steeper. The loose earth beneath us was not enough to make it to the top so we literally had to go from tree to tree, grabbing onto whatever we could so that we would not tumble down the steep slope to the sharp coral and rocks below. Up higher and higher we went, every now and then peering out of the dense vegetation to see how high we were. Finally we made it to the top where the wind howled and the views were like none other. We could see our friends that didn't adventure out with us on the beach below, just tiny specs at this altitude. After being overwhelmed by how beckoning our ascent was, we decided we had better get back down before someone got hurt. Returning to the beach was almost like returning from some epic journey of sorts. As we looked back at the island we were just sort of in shock at how majestic it was protruding from the water. Not too many people reach the top, or even attempt to climb this island. Thankfully we made it up and down with only a few cuts and scrapes.

I didn't think we would be able to top Bird Island, but our "tour guide" for the day promised what came next would put us in awe. After driving down a dirt road quite a ways, we pulled off into the jungle and began hiking up to what looked like a huge entrance to a cave. Sure enough it was more than a cave. it was a cavern descending hundreds of feet down into the earth. Standing on the edge of the cave looking down was incredible enough, but what came next was almost too much to handle. There was some scaffolding with a ladder leading down to what Ryan and I thought was the bottom of this cave but as we began walking around this enormous trench's floor, we came upon another colossal hole in the ground leading hundreds of feet further into the pitch darkness below. Once again our curiosity got the best of us and took us right up to the edge of this void of earth. As we looked over the edge we had to test how much further down it went, so we grabbed a rock and casted it into the abyss. We waited for the clash of the rock to sound but we heard nothing. We looked at each other and then back at the hole and finally we heard the sound of the rock echoing up to our ears. Our imaginations ran wild with what living or non living things might be down there. It blew our minds to think how deep this hole was in the ground. What we would give for some flashlights and some climbing gear to go down that far into the earth, but since we didn't, we decided to climb back out of the cave, back into the warm sunlight that was completely foreign to the depths of the cave below.

After our adventure around the island we headed back to our hotel, grabbed some amazing Thai food and rested up for the the next two days ahead. Those next two days were filled with some of the most challenging beach volleyball that I have ever played. It was the Mariana's Cup, which is a tournament held annually bringing in professional volleyball teams from Japan, the US and Australia as well as amateur teams like mine. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into at first when I signed up for the tournament, but by the time warm ups came about early Saturday morning, I quickly realized the level of play that was before me. I have never played in a pro beach volleyball tournament before, so I didn't really know what to expect. After warm ups, we began "pool play" which is essentially weeding out the weakest teams so that the next day would be at a greater caliber of play. To Ryan and I's surprise we won our first game. We barely pulled it off in overtime, but we did it. We soon found out that we had four more games to play that day. So we rested up a bit and went out and surprisingly won our second game! Some talk began around the beach about this young team no one has ever heard about that won their first two games, and if that wasn't enough, we ended up winning our third game in a row. At this point we were so shocked slash happy we had won that we didn't care who we played next. Turns out, winning our first three games automatically advanced us to the second day of tournament play. The next day we came out ready to go, but the teams that all advanced were too much for us to handle. Our first game we played was against a Japanese pro team with 5th ranked Japanse player Yujiro Hidaka. That game was sad to say the least, however it was cool to say that we scored ten points against them, and even better to say that I had one block against 5th ranked Japanese beach volleyball player Yujiro Hidaka, haha. All in all it was a very fun tournament that gave an opportunity to meet some amazing athletes that live for their sport. They were all very nice people that just loved playing volleyball, so it was fun to be around an athletic group like that where everyone was there because they loved being there, not to mention the tournament was played right on the beach in beautiful Saipan. The tournament was concluded with a very lovely banquet and award ceremony that went late into the night with dancing and amazing food.

The last day of the trip was spent lounging around the pool at the resort we stayed at. It was nice to my legs a rest after hours of volleyball and also some strenuous hiking and climbing. Later that day we flew back to good old Guam and back to "work" it was for me. Saipan was a beautiful place. It's incredible to think that if such a small little piece of land can hold that much beauty and adventure, then the rest of the world must be holding some truly amazing sights I cannot wait to explore.

love and miss you,

P.S. My camera broke on this last trip, so I am in the process of getting more pics from this trip, come back in a few days for some better uploads.