San Carlos Falls

The plains before the jungle.

           A couple of weeks ago we went to San Carlos Falls. To get to San Carlos Falls is a pretty difficult hike that will leave you hurting in the morning! :) The hike goes through through plains or flat lands and jungle and

Going down the ropes

the whole time you are pretty hot. There are some ropes that you can use to climb down because at some parts it is really difficult to walk since it is so steep. We actually went twice, once last week, and once a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago was the first time that we went. We went with a couple of my dad's work friends that knew the way there. The second time we went, we went with Chris, my cousin. While we were walking through the plains we had to go through razor grass. It hurt A LOT!! It leaves little paper cuts on your arms and legs. The falls were a lot of fun though. There was also a plant that when you touched it, it would close. The plant is called mimosa pudica. There is a video at the bottom of the page.

Razor Grass

 The first falls that we stopped at my dad tried to fish in, (it didn't work so well). But, Benji caught a few tadpoles to put in our fish tank. At the second falls there was a rope swing and about a 7 foot tall cliff that you could jump off of into the water. We got a video of me swinging on the rope swing. The hike out of the jungle was kind of difficult, also. There was a really steep cliff with a rope that we had to climb up and then we had to go through the plains again. Even though it was a hard hike, it was still a lot of fun being able to go to the falls.

mimosa pudica closing.

Dad relaxing.

Haputo Beach

                                                     Mother's Day at Haputo Beach


For Mother's Day we went to Haputo Beach with my cousin. The beach is located at the bottom of a cliff on a military base at the northern end of the island. To get to the beach itself, you have to park at the top of the cliff and hike down. The trail comes out at on end of the beach, which is only about 200 meters long. The cliffs form a cove around a shallow bay, and at the edge of the reef there is a small island with the bottom eroded away.

When we got to the beach, we went to the far side because we had heard that there were caves there, but we later found out that they were on the other side. We ended up spending most of our time there just floating in the water. I found a small crab and watched him for a while to see what he was doing. After about 4 hours we packed up our stuff and hiked back up to go to dinner.

My dad, sister and cousin floating and drinking (not my sister though).

Small island in background.







By: Benji

Tarzan Falls

Tarzan Falls

            A couple of weeks ago we went to a beautiful waterfall called Tarzan Falls. The falls are reached by following a short trail, and the trail head is right off one of the roads. We hiked it in the dry season, so the puddles were only about half a foot deep and you could walk around them. In someplaces the trail was very steep going down and if it were the rainy season, hikers would be covered in mud. After about 15 minutes of walking we reached the top of the waterfall. The picture to the right is what the river leading to the falls looks like. The picture below is what the falls looked like from the top.

 From the top of the falls we followed a short but steep trail to the river below, which was about 100 feet from the base of the falls. The below picture are what the falls look like from the bottom. Everyone got in the water when we got to the bottom because it was so hot. During the wet season the water is so deep that people jump from the top of the falls into it but when we where there it was only a 3-4 feet deep. After swimming for a little while we went to explore down river, and my dad scared my mom with a piece of rope that looked like a snake. (Still haven't seen a brown tree snake.)

After exploring for a bit we hiked back up to the top of the falls and looked around for a bit, then headed back up the trail. The trail, which was hard going down, was exhausting going back up. But when we got to the top we decided to go to Yogurt Land so it was alright.                 

By Benji

Inarajan Pools

Me jumping off the diving board

The other side of the stairs

At the top of the stairs

    Last week we went to Inarajan Pools. They are fresh water pools mixed with saltwater pools at the southern end of Guam. They are a great snorkeling spot and have a ten foot tall diving board. To entertain ourselves we brought some paints and found some coconuts and painted the coconuts. I did not get to snorkel much but my mom and Mrs. Cindy did. They saw an octopus in the water under a rock and he looked really cool. His tentacle was curled up in a swirl and you could see his suction cups. Its was really cool! The pools are pretty deep, so when you jump off the diving board you don't touch the bottom. My mom and I jumped off the diving board, but no one else would do it. Neither Benji, Mrs Cindy, or grandma did it. There were also a broken stair case that you could climb up and get a good view of the pools!  My mom, Benji, and Mrs. Cindy all took a picture up there but I could not get to it. It was a lot of fun going to those pools, and I want to go there again!

By Jackie

Ritidian Point

Ritidian Point

            Last weekend my family and I went to Ritidian Point, a wildlife reserve and beach. It’s a beautiful jungle area with cliffs on one side and a narrow beach on the other. Here’s a website if you want to read more about it http://guam.stripes.com/travel/ritidian-point-gorgeous-slice-tropical-guam. My grandma, Mrs. Cindy, and my older cousin Christopher were visiting from Colorado and Hawaii at the time. They were leaving the next day, so we decided to all go for a day at the beach at Ritidian.

     

 We got there at about 10AM after going to Subway and picking up lunch. When we got there the sky looked dark and within a few minutes it started to rain. Luckily, the rain only lasted for about 20 minutes, so it didn’t really mess with our plans. The waves were really cool because they would splash up against the coral about 100 feet out. My mom, Mrs. Cindy, and Christopher went snorkeling and had a good time. My grandma was reading, and my sister was playing football. I built a sandcastle with many walls, which my dad then used as a cage for a hermit crab. We watched the hermit crab escape through the layers of walls that I had built, only to get to the outside and wander back into the ocean, where it got swept away.

            After watching the crab, I dug a massive hole and buried myself in it.

        

 Unfortunately at the bottom I accidentally crushed a crab, but found another one and captured it. The poor crab was a little confused and unhappy. We tried to put it in my castle, but when we did, it just dug a hole and we didn’t see it again.

After that Jackie, Christopher and I tossed a football for a while. We left at about 1 PM, which is pretty early, because my sister had a dog walking job. But afterward we got to go to Yogurt Land, so we had a good day.

Texas

           For those of you who do not know, my Aunt Barbara was in a car accident and passed away on February 13.  So, we got on a plane and headed to Texas.  We pretty much spent the whole week in Austin and it was good to get back there and see everyone. I got to see a lot of my family including Jimmy, Kelly and Joey. It was a lot of fun going there besides everything that had happened there. The plane ride to Austin was pretty terrible. I never really liked plane rides anyway. But the good thing is that we got TVs on our seats so I was able to watch some movies and TV shows. We went from Guam to Japan to Houston to Austin. We had to go through customs and check our bags again in Houston and when we got to Austin, one of our bags were left in Houston. The bad thing about that was it was my suit case with my clothes in it. We got it the next day, so that was ok.
My Aunt Heather came to visit from Germany too with her younger kids. There are 3 of them and there names are Marcus, Tori and Alex. Tori is the oldest followed by Alex then Marcus. Tori had a birthday the night before she left so we had a celebration for her. We went to the zoo in Austin and it was kind of fun. There was a little train ride there that we thought went around the whole zoo so that could see everything, but instead it just took past some brush and some old Halloween decorations. We named it the lame train :-) My favorite thing that I saw there was a panther. It was really pretty and it reminded me of my old school's mascot. While we were there he was looking at Marcus like he was lunch.

Cousins from Germany

The funeral was very touching and very sad. There was a video played in memory of my Aunt Barbara, and I liked it a lot. We got home safely and this time we went through Honolulu and it was a very beautiful place. I will miss Aunt Barbara a lot and she will be dearly missed by everyone that knew her.

Friends made a great memorial video of Barb.  If you would like to view it, the link is: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200625019458824

Posted by Jackie

Daddy Daughter Day and South Side of the Island

        I went with my dad to a mall today because we were home alone while Benji and my mom were out scuba diving for the whole day. We searched the mall for things to do and they had a cold stone ice cream shop. We bought chocolate ice cream with pecans and marshmallows in it and it was quiet delicious. It was a little too sweet though so I stopped eating it after a while. Next, we went to Gamestop to look for Minecraft on the Xbox  so that Jordan and I and a bunch of our friends could play on it. We figured out that I had to download it from the Xbox to get it. I was kind of disappointed because I was really excited to get it. After that my dad and I went to a book store so that I could get a book to read.I found my book and almost finished it while we were in the store. But I saved the rest of it until I got home. It was a very fun day and I had a great time with my dad. Hopefully we will have another daddy daughter day!
        I went to the south side of the island this weekend to go look around and climb Mt. Lamlam http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/BeataUnke.shtml. They say that Mt. Lamlam is the tallest mountain in the world because some people say you are supposed to measure a mountain starting at the sea floor, and Mt. Lamlam is right next to the Marianas trench which is the deepest trench in the world. You can find out more about it on the website I highlighted in red. While we were going up, I saw a lot of markings for a celebration on Easter where they carry the cross up the mountain  making stops along the way at the 12 stations of the cross. There is a fern grotto along the way that is a shrine to the Virgin Mary, but we didn't stay long because there were a lot of mosquitoes and they were very annoying! The top of the mountain was amazing! There were a whole bunch of crosses and a bigger cross that was about 20-25ft tall! The wind was so strong that it almost blew us off the mountain.We could see the whole island from up there including where our condo is. After we got down from Mt. Lamlam, we went to go look around the south end of the island.

drinking coconut juice at the fort

       We stopped at Fort Soledad, a Spanish fort http://guampedia.com/fort-soledad/. It is the last of four Spanish forts in the village of Umatac. It was built there to protect the incoming trade ships from enemies in Umatac Bay. I got a coconut there with coconut milk in it and the milk tasted very odd. It was good in an odd sort of way, but I did drink a lot of it. If you want to find out more go to the website highlighted in blue. Finally we went to a German bar to get food, and the food there was really good! I got some chicken nuggets just because I wasn't all that hungry but everyone else got a bratwurst. it was kind of like a hot dog, but just with bratwurst instead of the hot dog. It tasted really good! It was definitely a fun day.

Top of Mt. Lamlam

South end of the island... really pretty!

Fort Soledad