Where is Adam today? He’s in the USA – GUAM!

I visited the Statue of Liberty, what could be more American than that?

On my way out of the office, one of my colleagues asked me if I was heading to the States – and I said, “no.” – but then I changed my answer: “Yes, I am actually going to the United States of America! I’m going to Guam!”

And so it was: Monday evening, 21:30, I stood before a US Immigration official who welcomed me “home” – of course that’s a loose term for me regardless of the facts, never mind the fact that I’d never actually been to Guam before.

Although Guam is part of the United States, it is only a territory and it does have its own customs regulations and form – the form I found incredibly peculiar. Although there were some questions concerning whether or not I was bringing in anything edible, there were more demographic questions, thus making me suspect I was filling out a marketing survey more than anything else. I loved the part where “Germany” was not one of the pre-printed options for “country of residence.”

Regardless, I got out of the airport and to my hotel in an incredibly short period of time. From the aircraft door opening to the time I opened my hotel room door was no more than 35 minutes.

I fell into bed.

Some Japanese tourists took my photo. I took theirs.

Tuesday I took a driving tour of the southern half of Guam – what a stunningly beautiful place. I don’t really know what I expected to see, but I can certainly assure you that it is more beautiful than I expected, with stunning vistas over the ocean. I stopped by the National Park Headquarters (the park preserves the battlefields from World War II; in an odd way this is new, refreshing, WWII history to me, and it doesn’t involve the Germans….) and a few other random spots.

Ga’an Point, Part of the War in the Pacific National Park.

Guam is not, some how, set up for individual tourists. Most of the tourists here are on package holidays and are schlepped from place to place on buses. Once I got south, there were few (but more than zero) tourists around.

Southern Guam’s coastline

The highlight of Tuesday was the Historic Inalahan Cultural Village Tour. For $10 (American, that is), I got a tour of early twentieth century life. One of the highlights, especially for me, is that I sampled coconut that did not make me gag. I’ve never really liked coconut, but when it’s split open right in front of you and the milk is right there, it’s quite refreshing. As is the actual coconut flesh, which I sampled.

Guam is the first place I’ve ever needed to chase a pig out from under my car.

Guam does have highly localized weather – I managed to drive through an epic downpour right by the airport – the kind of downpour where the streets turn into fast moving rivers. Ten minutes later, back at my hotel, the streets were dry and it looked like it hadn’t rained there at all (a situation rectified a few hours later when I wanted to take photos of the sunset—that did not happen).

More beautiful beaches. Guam has many of them.

Wednesday’s highlight was going to the Wednesday Night Market, a gathering where local food is in abundance as well as performances by local groups. I watched some youth dance (although ages are hard to ascertain) for awhile, enjoying the energy the performers gave off.

The dancers dancing.

The dancers in a mock battle.

The dancers performing, including the littlest dancer of all.

The dancers dancing.

Unfortunately I have to leave early Thursday – I’m off to the next stop on my adventure.

Guam is worth returning to.