Travel Blog #8

Started 7a Monday January 21 Guam time; posted at 9a Monday.

We went on a site-seeing adventure yesterday. We headed to the other side of the island to find Talofofo Falls and Yokoi Cave.

On our way to the falls and the cave, we drove through the old Navy base where my folks lived after they moved from Dededo. The naval air station was closed by Bill Clinton in 1997 and the property was turned over to the Government of Guam. The old Officer’s Club and adjoining buildings are occupied by the Police, and the housing is now occupied by civilians. It was hard for my folks to see everything looking so run-down…the pool at the Officer’s Club is filled with black yucky water. I can’t wait to get home and check out the old pictures and movies to see what it was like back in the olden days, but here are what they look like now:

Our old house at the Naval Air Station base

The old Officer’s Club and pool.

Yokoi Cave was on Rick’s to-do list – basically it’s where a Japanese soldier went in to hiding in 1944, and lived for 28 years. I’ll let you read more about it here…

Talofofo Falls is one the big tourist attractions on Guam. It looks like a run-down carnival with a few non-functional amusement rides and a rickety old cable car to take us down to the Falls (my mom & dad said that back in the day they hiked down to see the Falls). My dad tried to ask the workers what ski resort they got the cable cars from but they couldn’t hear my dad over rap music being piped in over the loudspeakers. Oh, and we bought pig food for $5 to feed the pigs but after not seeing any pigs, we were told that the pigs were already asleep.

	At Talofofo Falls
	Sign in the Talofofo Falls/Yokoi Cave museum: “From 1896 to 1898 When the Spain and U.S. war Spain Government tried to sell Guam to Germany for $5,000,000. But, U.S. Battleship Landed in Guam, so that Spain Governor in Guam has surrender to U.S. So, Guam has free from Spain but still U.S. occupied in Guam.”
	A sign about Yokoi cave
	3-dimensional sculpture showing what the cave looked like.
	Afro girl
	Little Miss Independent
	More Talofofo Falls

Rick & my dad did some snorkeling and scuba-ing. Here is a cool picture from snorkeling off the shore at our hotel:

Rick is off exploring with Mallory – the 4th quarter of the game just started. I’m hoping to hit the pool for some alone time here pretty quick (before he returns with a hot & crabby baby who is sick of being in the baby carrier!)