Second failure. Gun Beach

Continuing with the posts of me failing to find what I am looking for - Gun Beach! While we didn't get to the actual beach there were still some guns nearby that I got some pictures of. David came along on this one so there is finally a picture of me.

Gun Beach is pretty easy to get to from our house. It is about a 5 minute drive and there is a trail that leads you right to it.

 The trail has a pretty nice view of the ocean and Tumon beach.

When we got to where the bridge is supposed to be that takes you to Gun Beach we found out that it was washed away in the last typhoon. The picture below shows David right after a giant wave smashed against the rock and soaked him.

Foiled again, maybe next time! Hopefully they rebuild it in a timely manner.  When I find Tweed's Cave and get to Gun Beach for real you can count on there being a blog post on it. So keep refreshing this page until then!

Tweed's Cave

So today I decided I would try to find Tweed's cave Imperial Japanese Soldier style by just walking into the jungle in the general area where it's located and hoping I stumble upon it. George Tweed was a US Navy Radioman who hid in the jungle from the Japanese during WWII for 3 years during the occupation of Guam. He is a controversial figure because a lot of Chamorro people were tortured and killed by the Japanese in the effort to find him.

I did not find the cave.

On the bright side, I did find the mystical "limestone forest" (I didn't know it was special so I took no pictures of it). Regardless, let's retrace my steps through the photos I took.

Here I decided to enter the jungle. It looked like it was a trail of some sort so I followed it.

Eventually the trail seemed to just disappear but I decided to keep going and try to hit the ocean.

Randomly it opened up into this giant path. "Tweed's Cave is definitely nearby!" I thought to myself.

Then it just ended in both directions. One end was the "limestone forest" which was basically just a ton of limestone rocks with algae on them. I actually walked over them because I thought the cave was nearby. This probably wasn't a good idea because I almost fell and died about 4 times. You can kind of get the general idea of what the limestone forest looks like by looking at the rock in this picture I took of random object #13 on the trail. The metal box is probably some sort of unexploded ordnance that I was kicking around.

Eventually, probably like the Japanese soldiers looking for Tweed, I said "f this, I'm going to the beach nearby". Luckily I was able to find my way out and I went to this other trail that is close by which takes you to Haputo Beach.

The trail has steps that go down to the beach but it was like a death staircase since they were about 3 feet off the ground and there was nothing to hold onto.

Eventually I made it down and was rewarded with the most beautiful beach I've seen on Guam so far.

Since it is located on NCTS Guam it's fairly secluded because no civilians are allowed on base. I think this will have to be my beach spot on those days that I want to feel like I'm trapped on a tropical island.

House

Originally I wanted to do a House Hunters Guam episode where I showed three different houses and then at the end decided which one I wanted. I thought of that idea too late because by then I pretty much was done looking at houses so instead you just get to see what I picked! The winner was...

Guam Beachfront Residences!

It isn't completely furnished but the owner did agree to give us some cheapo couches, 2 queen size beds, and one twin bed. She probably agreed because our rent is 4400 bucks/month and David and I are 99% positive that the rent for normal people is probably lower so they decided to give us a little extra. Places around here are all tailored for military so everything is in increments of 2200 dollars because that is exactly how much OHA (overseas housing allowance) we get. Since it is use it or lose it I guess the owners win and the renters don't really care.

Anyway this entire weekend has been spent buying a bunch of random house stuff and furniture. This completely destroys my point of trying to own nothing but I guess I gotta start owning some sorta furniture someday. I will eventually post some before/after since as of right now it is under construction.

This is David's room. He took the master bedroom because I wanted the one with its own private balcony, even though its slightly smaller. You can see here he is hard at work building his dresser and rummaging through his boxes of assorted things.

Here is my room. The picture is a little dark but with the windows open it is way too bright for the camera to handle. The lower picture is my balcony where I will one day put some chairs on it so in the mornings I can enjoy my breakfast and stare out at the ocean while pondering life.

Here is the dining room/living room. To the left of it is the kitchen but there are no pics so you will just have to imagine it.

Finally here is the view from the main room out into the ocean. Every night I get a nice view of the sunset so for those romantic evenings I should be all set. All I would need is some dolphins to swim by.

On a different note we went to the beach today. The water is amazing but it has a ton of coral pieces and rocks that are painful to walk on so I need to get some water shoes. The current is amazingly strong as well - I guess that lame video I had to watch when getting on island about water safety wasn't lying.

And while I'm jumping from topic to topic... after talking to Grandpa and how he was stationed in Guam in 1951 I decided to look up pictures of what it was like in the 50s and I found one that was nearly identical to mine.

 Before

After

Mine has a Japanese tourist at the bottom so it is logically the better picture.

Since I normally end my posts with a random picture, this weeks goes to...

Goodbye until the next blog post!

Marine Landing Beaches

Today I went on a drive around the entire island of Guam. As Colin put it I was cruising around the rural part of Guam in my Jeep with my windows down, one hand hanging out with the wind blowing through my hair. The southern part of Guam was completely different, it was absolutely beautiful because it was less developed. The eastern part of the island even had better roads than the main tourist hub/capital (wut?).

Before we begin, and since I know you are all dying to see what awesome Guam Bomb I bought, here is a picture. I wanted to get a cooler picture of it like in the jungle or something but I got lazy and just took this one instead.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of my adventure around Guam.

 Nice view from a small stop on the side of the road.

 I thought this place looked cool and completely out of place in Guam.

Hills and plains of southern Guam. I took this picture from the Vietnam Memorial.

Anyway, the main part of this post will be focused on me exploring the two beaches where the US landed during the invasion of Guam, Agat and Orote. Orote didn't have too much to look at compared to Agat but I did get a sweet picture of an AA gun on the beach and there was a small bunker nearby too.

After Orote I went to the other landing beach near Agat. This one had a lot more stuff in it, including a cave system that you aren't legally allowed to explore. I opted not to go into them because I was in flip-flops and had no flash light, but I definitely would like to go back sometime. This picture shows where an artillery gun was placed - the gun is long gone but the area where it used to be was cleared out. A nice view to see the incoming Marines.

I also found a pillbox near the beach below where the artillery gun would have been. I took a picture from the inside and then got a cool photo of the beach where they would be aiming.

 Dat over-exposure.

That was pretty much what I did for the day. It started raining while I was walking around and I didn't feel like falling to my death so I had to leave a little early. This weekend and next week I will be house hunting so get ready for a post about my awesome new pad!

Until then I will leave you with this picture:

War never changes.