A Typical Guam Afternoon

One sunny afternoon, my buddy Priest and friend Heidi came over to my room and asks if I want to stand up paddle board (SUP) over to a small rock island in Tumon Bay where baby sharks hang out.{Paddle boards are like large surfboards that you can stand on and use a paddle to move you through the water. Just fyi.} I had gotten off of my morning shift and didn't have anything planned for the afternoon, so of course I said yes. We set out at around 5pm so that we could catch the sunset on the way back. So off we went paddling our little hearts out into the wind, which was a just bit less than arduous because every stroke we took, the wind pushed us back three. Coming down onto our knees, we became more aerodynamic, enabling our movement through the water to become more streamline and manageable amongst the wind. Gliding over the coral reef just below us was admirably impressive as we soared over bright blue starfish, sea cucumbers, and schools of hundreds and hundreds of tropical reef fish. Everything seemed to come to life as we passed by it, most likely startled by our quick passing. Upon arriving at the small rock island, Heidi and I immediately saw a baby black tip, reef shark only two feet in length. This was the first shark I have seen outside of Sea World and other attractions like it so it was a bit of a moment for me. As a surfer, we usually don't take kindly to such marine animals, but seeing this little baby shark was not half bad. In fact it gave me a bit of respect for the creature as it gracefully swam by us and continued on its way. Heidi saw a few more fins come out of the water up ahead so we quickly paddled over to find a school of fish desperately trying to make an escape from its predator of a few baby sharks just behind.

Not quite ready to finish our adventurous afternoon, we picked some cliffs off in the distance to paddle to, to see if we might be able to jump off of them and also see some monitor lizards were crawling around that we heard resided there. I wish I had a camera on this trip to be able to show you what we saw next, but hopefully my words will suffice. So after another tough paddle we came before the jagged cliffs of Tumon on the North side of the bay. We originally made the trek to try and see the monitor lizards, however we were more captivated by a mouth of a  cave that was just barely visible through vines and vegetation that grew over it. Paddling right up into the cave we were appalled by this natural unknown hole in the ground only accessible by water, or so we though. Up in the far left corner of the cave I saw that it went deeper and darker. Taking a slight risk I plunged into the darkness ahead of me, not knowing where I was going, or what I would feel out ahead of me. With my buddy Priest right behind me, we went deeper, burying ourselves in the obscurity around us. Then we saw a single beam of light,  fighting its way into blackness. Instinctual attracted to the beam, Priest and I crawled up and further towards the light. With how exhilarating this was, we told Heidi she couldn't miss this, so she then began to follow as well. This beam of light took us into another pocket of the cave that then had another stream of light in which we followed. Shimmying up a wooden beam, free climbing up and out of the cave, we finally breached ourselves from the darkness behind us into a damp, dense jungle. Thinking we were deep in isolation we were perturbed to hear the sounds of civilization; laughter, splashing, music. We had emerged from a cave, hiked only but  a few steps and ended up at a resort with water slides, pools, and best of all a nice white sandy beach. A bit confounded at what just happed, we laughed a bit and the realized we needed to take advantage of our new found discovery. We immediately jumped on one of the slides and splashed into the pool. Walking around the pool, past the beach bar, we dove into the warm waters of the ocean. Baffled at what had just happened, we sat there for a bit enjoying each others company and talking about how crazy that all just was. We went down the slides a few more times and then headed back down through the cave so we could catch the sunset on our paddle home.

Sunsets here in Guam are spectacular to say the least, but what we witnessed on our way back, was absolutely one of a kind. Just before the clouds rolled in with nightfall, we were able to catch the sun setting in the far west, falling behind the billowy clouds, coloring the sky in all sorts of pinks, yellows and oranges. Looking directly opposite of the sunset, we were lucky enough to catch a full moon rising in the dimming night sky. It was an amazing feeling to be in the middle of the bay with tropical fish, sharks, and sea creatures just under me with an illuminating full moon rising on one side and a glorious sun setting on the other. Among the peacefulness of the moment, I stopped and said aloud, "I love my life", and then paddled on back home.

Love and miss you