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GuamA Pacific Gem Awaiting DiscoveryBy Toni Dabbs
Guam is an inviting tropical playground, with turquoise waters welcoming swimmers and wind surfers, and coral reefs beckoning snorkelers and SCUBA divers. It offers golfers the opportunity to play a different course every day of the week and hikers trails of even greater variety. Its accommodations, dining and shopping rival the best in the world. But Guam also has a rich cultural legacy and a compelling history, and these aspects of its character quickly captured my interest. Chamorro Culture
My introduction to the Chamorro culture came courtesy of Ben Palomo, a former senator in the Guam Legislature and director of public works, who now writes a column for the Pacific Daily News. And I discovered almost immediately how gracious and outgoing the Chamorro people can be.
The cathedral-basilica itself is a striking white structure in the old city of Agana, the heart of Guam before World War II. Its museum, which covers the history of the Chamorro people and the Catholic church on Guam, includes an exhibit about Padre Jose Bernardo Palomo y Torres, ordained in 1859, the first Chamorro to become a priest and an ancestor of my escort.
Margaret Blas showed us around Gef Pa'go and then took us across the road to Inarajan, one of the few villages on Guam that survived World War II virtually intact (except for the bullet holes in the buildings). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Inarajan was founded in 1686, but most of its existing structures were erected during the first quarter of the 20th century. Margaret invited us inside the 1901 house built by her paternal grandfather and the 1927 Saint Joseph's Church, which features woodwork by her maternal grandfather. As Ben drove me around the southern part of the island, the road wound through rolling green hills and alongside rustic shorelines, passing small farms and houses painted the same brilliant colors as the bougainvillea growing in their yards. We stopped at Fort Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, a remnant of one of 14 Spanish forts built along Guam's coast during the 19th century to protect treasure laden galleons on the Manila trade route from pirates who roamed the western Pacific. From the cliff-top sentry post, with its cannons and watchtower, we looked across the bay to Umatak, where Ferdinand Magellan landed in 1521, becoming the first European to interact with the island's Chamorros. A modest monument in the village of Umatak commemorates Magellan's arrival, but the centerpiece of the community is the San Dionisio Church. The simple white church faces the open bay, but windows behind the altar look directly into dense jungle. We ended the day back in Agana, at the Chamorro Village Wednesday Night Market. Chamorro Village is a cluster of shops and restaurants, part cultural center and part public market, with vendors selling items ranging from Guam-made chocolates to fine arts and crafts to fresh produce. But on Wednesday night, it is transformed into a miniature fairground. Stalls set up between buildings offer Chamorro treats such as ahu (grated coconut boiled in sugar water) or lumpia (vegetable egg roll dipped in garlic sauce) to eat on the spot and homemade sweet tuba (a drink made from the first sap of the young coconut tree) or hot sauce to take away. Most popular are the family operated barbecue booths, where short ribs, chicken kebobs and even squid are served hot off the grill. As we made our way through the mostly Chamorro crowd, we paused several times to listen as musicians performed both traditional and popular songs and once to watch children taking rides on a water buffalo. Our last stop was at a produce booth, where I selected a few locally grown mangos for breakfast the next day. World War IIFor North Americans over the age of 50, it's difficult not to think of World War II when visiting Guam. The United States military has played a key role on the island since 1898, when Guam was ceded to the United States following the Spanish-American War. But its presence became more prominent after 1944, when it defeated the Japanese Imperial forces that had invaded in 1941.
The Visitor Center features an audio-visual presentation that puts Guam's position during the war into perspective. It, along with exhibits of artifacts and historic photographs, tell the story of the war in the Pacific and the liberation of Guam by American forces. Uniformed park rangers are available to answer questions. From there, it was just a short drive to Asan Beach, today an attractive park but the center of the action in 1944. At Asan Beach, 24,000 members of the Third Marine Division battled the Japanese 320th Independent Infantry Battalion. We walked to the Liberators' Memorial on Asan Point, then followed the Asan Ridge Trail to view remains of fortifications that the Japanese has forced Chamorros to build. Tony told me that remains of some American military equipment and coral-encrusted ordnance lie underwater in the offshore area, making it popular with divers and snorkelers. We drove to the Asan Bay Overlook on nearby Nimitz Hill for a panoramic overview of Asan Beach. On the way down, we stopped in the village of Piti and took a short hike into the hillside jungle to see three 140 mm Japanese coastal defense guns. The clear view of the beaches below is especially obvious from the third emplacement. However, the Japanese had not completed this fortification when the Marines attacked, so the guns were never fired.
Two more Japanese guns, a 20 mm anti-aircraft gun and a 200 mm coastal defense gun, stand beside poles flying the flags of the United States, Japan and Guam in memory of all who died in the conflict. Several pieces of American military equipment still lie underwater near the edge of a reef.
A tribute to Yokoi is included in Jeff's Seaside Museum, part of Jeff's Pirates Cove, a post-war Navy flight personnel rehabilitation center that Jeff Pleadwell has turned into a popular restaurant and recreational facility. Tony introduced me to Jeff, who showed us the museum. After being discovered, Yokoi said that he often had heard music and voices at the cove from his many hide-outs in the nearby mountains. During several trips to Guam in his later years, Yokoi visited Jeff's Pirates Cove and dined at the restaurant. Just a few days into my visit to Guam, I had learned a lot about the island's heritage and history. And I still had plenty of time left in my stay to take in Guam's other attractions, hike to an interior waterfall, soothe myself at a spa and try to figure out why those beautiful beaches weren't blanketed with sun-worshipers. IF YOU GOPacific Islands Club - 210 Pale San Vitores Road, Tumon Guam 96911, phone 1-671-646-9171, web site http://www.pacificislandsclub.com: Stay at a luxury beach-front hotel with its own water park, on-site spa and cultural dinner show. Josephine's Chamorro Kitchen - Fahrenholt Avenue at Governor Carlos Camancho Road, Tamuning Guam, phone 1-671-647-3205: Sample authentic Chamorro dishes prepared by Josephine Cruz. Hy's Steak House - 871 Pale San Vitores Road, Tumon Guam 96911: Dine on quality beef and fine wine in a sophisticated setting. Jungle Riverboat Cruise - phone 1-671-646-1710: Cruise the Talofofo River, visit the ruins of an ancient Chamorro village, and see demonstrations of traditional crafts. Jinapsan Beach - phone 1-671-477-8989: Travel along the shoreline in a converted military personnel carrier to an isolated beach at the site of an ancient Chamorro village. Cocos Island Resort - PO Box 7174, Tamuning Guam 96931, phone 1-671-828-8691: Spend all or part of a day enjoying water sports at this 100-acre island a short ferry ride from the village of Merizo. Underwater World - 1245 Pale San Vitores Road, Suite 400, Tumon Guam 96911, phone 1-671-649-9191: Walk among tropical fishes, sharks and rays without getting wet, through a winding plexiglass tunnel inside a giant aquarium. Mandara Spa - 210 Pale San Vitores Road, Tumon Guam 96911, phone 1-671-649-7613, web site http://www.mandaraspa.com: Pamper yourself with a massage in a private treatment room looking onto the beach. FOR MORE INFORMATIONGuam Visitors Bureau Photos by Toni Dabbs Copyright 2003 by Toni Dabbs. This work, including photographs, is protected by copyright and may be used only for personal non-commercial purposes. All other rights are reserved, and commercial use is prohibited without permission of the author. |
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Why, I wondered, isn't Guam
awash in tourists? The tiny Micronesia island, situated 3,800 miles west of
Hawaii and 1,500 miles south of Japan, is rimmed with pristine beaches and
filled with rippling volcanic hills, here baldly rocky and there thick with
jungle.
The name Guam comes from
the ancient Chamorro word "Guahan," meaning "we have." The Chamorro people
arrived on Guam from the Malay Peninsula around 3000 BCE, and they occupied
the island alone until Ferdinand Magellan landed there in 1521. They have
survived invasions by the Spanish, the Japanese and the Americans, managing
to retain their cultural identity, including language, cuisine and customs,
and they still comprise 43 per cent of the island's population.
We began at the National Museum of Dulce Nombre de
Maria Cathedral-Basilica, where curator William Hernandez explained that
Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores, a Spanish missionary, was sent to Guam to
convert the Chamorros to Catholicism in the 17th century. Since that time,
the Catholic church has been the center of Chamorro village
activities.
From there we went to a different kind of museum, one
that brought to life much of what I had just learned about the traditional
Chamorro culture. Gef Pa'go is a replica of an ancient beach-side village,
with simple buildings made solely from natural materials. Docents in the
different huts demonstrate the making of salt, bread, coconut oil, coconut
candy, rice baskets, rope and other former essentials of everyday
life.
I toured World War II sites in the company of Tony
Rabon, chief of Emergency 911 communications with the Guam Fire Department
and also a Chamorro. We began at the T. Stell Newman Visitor Center,
headquarters of the War in the Pacific National Historical Park. The park,
actually a series of seven sites scattered along the west side of the
island, is administered by the U.S. National Park Service.
About five miles down the
coast, we came to another beach landing site, Agat, where the First
Provisional Marine Brigade and the 305th Regimental Combat Team of the 77th
Army Infantry Division came ashore. At Apaca Point, we explored remains of
fortifications, including caves, bunkers and pillboxes, that gave the
Japanese an advantage over soldiers on the exposed beach until American
tanks approaching from the rear were able to knock them out.
One strange story that emerged from World War II is
that of Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese soldier who evaded the American
military in 1944 and hid in the densely jungled mountains of Guam until he
was discovered by local farmers in 1972.