Monday, November 26, 2012

Boonie Stomping: Tarzan Falls

One popular pastime on Guam is boonie stomping, which is a fancy name for hiking in the jungle.  Every Saturday morning, volunteers lead a hike to a different site in the wilderness.  In mid-September (yeah, we know it is now November), we went on our first boonie stomp, to Tarzan Falls.

The Guam Visitors Bureau provides volunteer guides who organize the hikes.  Everyone meets up at the Chamorro Village (more about that later).  You pay $2 a person and sign a waiver containing some legal mumbo jumbo.  Then you drive out to the hike site. 

Tarzan Falls is the red mark.  The meetup point is Hagatna, near the green arrow. Our apartment is at the southwest corner of the airport, near the blue arrow.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Guam Nom Nom

We've been here for some time now, and we've now had a chance to experience a considerable part of the local culture.  Naturally, we begin sharing this with you by discussing the most important part of any culture: food. 

As noted in our earlier post about Guam's history, Guam has been a center for cross-cultural contact, having been exposed to Filipino, Spanish, Japanese, American, and other Pacific Islander cultures just in the past 500 years.  As a consequence, the local cuisine draws from many sources and influences.