Boonie Pigs

Another unicorn on the island - but we had a major breakthrough this afternoon. We found 6 baby boonie pigs out on the prowl. They made a wrong turn and went down the side of the fence that doesn't lead into the forest so I took it upon myself to chase them to freedom.

There are a few things that I'll miss

There are going to be a few... I guess it's nice to be able to walk out and have the beach to yourself.

Sigua Falls

I'm trying to play catch up. We hiked out to Sigua Falls about 2 weeks ago. Actually to be more acurate we hike out there about 3 weeks ago - got lost - didn't find the falls and then tried again with great success a week later. This hike was no joke - it's over 8 miles round trip and it's not a straight shot. The last half mile is a drop off with old ropes tied to trees so you can make the ascent. Luckily for us it hadn't rained in the past couple of days or this would have been a painful trip back. I've seen videos on youtube of guys jumping off of the top of this one but we weren't up for it today. The fall itself is probably 60 feet, but there is a convenient spot about a third of the way up you can jump through the waterfall and into the pool. That was more our speed.

Don't Touch the Ayoyo

It's like I've found the unicorn of guam. When I showed up here they made it sound like you had to use the buddy system to walk around at night because these little guys hang out waiting to lop off your toe and drag you off into the forest. As it turns out this is the first one I've seen and trust me I've been on the look out. It does turn out that I found this dude hanging out on our door step and I'm pretty sure that if I wasn't paying attention he might have gotten crushed by a size 10. After some research by Jenn I found out that this little fella was somewhere between 7 and 10 years old. Wikipedia has a good little article talking about the coconut crab . We sat down and had a little chat - he's a big fan of Brock's marlboro reds.

Elephant Ears

So I've got 5 days left here on the island. I apologize for not updating the
blog on a more regular basis, but we've been pretty busy finishing up the flying
schedule and trying to finish all 7 seasons of the Sopranos before we leave. You
can imagine how little time I've had. We decided to go out and try to find this
cave - Ritidian Cave - I've heard it's a cool cave and not too far
away. Along the route we came across these elephant ears. They're my favorite -
I remember growing up having these outside our house in Denton and I planted
some in the backyard while we were living in North Carolina. Cole was only 3 at
the time but he dug up a couple of the bulbs and I got mad at him about
it - I think he was looking for some worms. I've always felt bad about
getting mad at him about digging up the bulbs but really - he's a little
boy, they look for worms and bugs - that's what they do. I'm sure I did the
same thing when I was his age. Either way they grew as advertised into
these huge plants. Ever since then when Cole sees elephant ears he always
brings them to our attention and reminds me of how he got into trouble
digging them up. When I saw these it reminded me of how his
memory is so much better than mine. I can't wait to see them in a week.

Jenn always wanted a bald baby

There's nothing quite like a shorn noggin. Idle time as it turns out isn't such the good deal you'd think. So we're sitting around eating breakfast and decide that today might be a good day to shave the nuggets. Why not, we've got a 4 day weekend - let's shave the dome and grow out as much of a beard as we can in 4 days - Great Idea! I'm actually very afraid of taking her out into the sun, as I sit here and type I can actually feel it getting burned through 2 feet of concrete hooch ceiling. I called Cole on skype - he saw the dew and can't wait for me to get home and hook him up. We'll see what the momma bear has to say about that.

Why men don't put sunblock on other men

You might think that the sunburn hurts - and you'd be right. But what hurts even more is the coral reef road rash on top of the sunburn. I got that little treat during the tide shift on my swim back in from double reef. It's like having a sunburn then taking a cheese grater to it...mmm good. So I'll get to the reason I've titled this why men don't put sunblock on other men... You see I actually did have a fella use some Skin and Scalp 30SPF spray block that Jen mailed me out here. It may actually look like there was no thought of protecting the old dermis but in fact, the stuff is actually superb at protecting the dome and everywhere else on my pasty body with the exception of the one place I had my bud hook me up. If you blow the picture up you can actually see that it made contact with me skin in a couple places - you know the places that don't look like imminent skin cancer. It's times like now that I truly appreciate Jen's block application skills. I sometimes wonder if the awkward feel of some dude applying block would be worth it to avoid times like these...no, I'll deal with it.

Boonie Stompin

Time for another boonie stomp and it was an awesome one. We went on one that had a series of 5 falls and the last one you could jump off of into a swimming hole. It was nice because by the time we got there we were covered in mud and smelled like a foot. The third fall had a small cave you could get to by swimming through the waterfall. It's a good thing it didn't rain before or during our trip because I'm not sure we could have made it out. The hike in was pretty sporty and would be almost impossible if it was wet or muddy. It reminded me of the good old days hiking along the trinity looking for three headed catfish. I took a ton of pictures and I'll post them on the picasaweb site for you take a look at. It was a great Saturday - went on the hike for a couple hours this morning and then to eat at Jeff's Pirate's Cove for some greasy hamburgers - the only way it would have been better is if Jen and the boys could have been here. Maybe someday we'll get a chance to come back.

The mind was ready but the body was not

So there's a base soccer team here at Guam. I thought it would be a good idea to go show the young lads a thing or to about the world's game. It turns out that the Guamanians like their football so much that they play for about 3 hours before calling it quits. My little piggys were screaming after about 20 minutes and for good reason. See you don't know you've got a blister until it's too late. The good news is that they'll callus up nicely in about a week then I'll be good to go again. Until then I'll stick to sitting on the couch and watching the Olympics.

Dad's picking up the slack

It's really heartbreaking to hear the boys say that there aren't any critters for them to catch in Idaho. I remember growing up never having a shortage of animals or bugs to catch. I'm pretty sure the little fellas never wanted to leave Texas because of it's abundant supply of things for them to chase around and put in their cherished little bug containers. It's funny because when I see a lizard or a small frog or any other cool looking bug I immediately think I need to catch it to keep up my proficiency. I guess the apples didn't fall far from the tree. So here's to my favorite little buddies half a world away, I'm taking care of the bug catching. Miss you guys.

Anatahan

It's not every day that you get to fly over an active volvano. The past week Anatahan, which is a small volcano in the Northern Marianas, has been actively coughing up ash. The pictures were taken by some of the Navy guys stationed here in Guam. We haven't been able to take any pictures of it from the air but it's pretty impressive how much ash cloud is dispersed over the area. That ash drift is about 100 miles long up to about 10000 feet above the ground.

Double Reef

I apologize for not updating the blog sooner. The past week was really no different from the last. As I reach my halfway point every weekday seems like groundhog day so I've been trying to break up the monotony with something different on the weekends. Saturday morning we woke up and went on a hike to double reef in search of the small secluded beach we see everyday when flying. The hike starts out as a poorly maintained jeep/atv trail and then branches off into some of the most rugged razor sharp coral I've seen on the island. Total it's a 5 mile hike roundtrip with about half of that on the coral. What awaits at the end of the hike is one of the coolest little beaches on Guam. It's a little overgrown with trees and it's completely secluded surrounded by coral cliffs. From the beach the swim out to the reef is another half mile or so and it's equally awesome. There are tons of blue starfish and the coral is very vibrant since it's not trafficked like at the other beaches. My dad got me an underwater case for the canon so I got some good use out of it. All told I took over 120 pictures in the 2 hours we were in the water. I posted some of the pictures here.

I can't wait to take some pictures of Cole snorkeling in Hawaii in 2 months. Hope everyone had a good July. I've got a busy August but I'll try to do a better job of keeping everyone up to speed.

Coral's Sharp

It may look like some soft stuff, but actually they're like tiny little razors. We were walking along the side of the coral cliffs and the tide was coming in and you couldn't see where you were stepping. There was a hole about 5 feet deep and 3 feet wide that I didn't see - ow! Like a cheese grater. Time for some motrin.