Guam's Natural Beauty

This post is written by Brent. We headed out to explore the island a little yesterday. I love to hike; Paij tolerates hiking for my sake. Here on Guam hiking is called boonie stomping. Many of the trails are in the jungle, so traditional hiking trails don't really exist. It is more navigation by landmarks and makeshift trails. We headed out on our first boonie stomp yesterday. It was rated as moderate in difficulty and provided access to 5 different waterfalls in only 0.8 miles. Well we quickly learned that moderate difficulty is not conducive to bringing little kids along, at least not in the jungle. It rains almost daily here and the jungles have a red pasty clay that becomes very slick. We all hiked to the top of the first waterfall. Due to safety concerns with scrambling down the waterfall Paij and the girls stayed at the top while I went down and explored a couple of the waterfalls.

While I was exploring Paij and the girls got swarmed by mosquitos (Morgan has bites all over her face and arms and looks terrible!) Although we probably won't be doing much boonie stomping as a family over the next 3 years, this little sneak peak made me even more excited to be here in Guam.

After the hike we decided to continue along the coast to explore the island further. We came across this awesome lagoon with a swimming hole. There were small tropical fish in the lagoon that were just the right size to interest Morgan without scaring her about getting in the water with them. There were these beautiful flowering vines growing around the lagoon. Morgan loves picking flowers, and surprisingly obliged to getting her picture taken with them.


A diving board has been built next to the lagoon. It was fun to jump from, however, I wasn't completely thrilled to have such an eyesore in a place of such natural beauty.

Paij and I took turns enjoying the lagoon. The water temp is perfect and a huge improvement from the cold waters of California's coast.


A reef protects the entrance of the lagoon so the water remains fairly calm. We each took turns swimming across the lagoon to go stand on the reef and watch the waves coming crashing in. I don't think we will ever tire of admiring the unharnessed power of the the sea. It is the perfect blend of fear, respect, and admiration.


It was an awesome day. We are loving Guam already and looking forward to the many adventures and that lie ahead for us on this little island.