Day: July 21, 2006

A couple weeks ago we went to the southern end of Guam for a fiesta. For those of you who aren’t familiar with that tradition here on Guam, here’s my understanding of how it works.
Fiestas are the national pastime of the island. This is the only place (that I know of) that people take out a loan for up to $25,000 to pay for a party for hundreds of people (most of whom they are related to). Oh, there’s no wedding involved. It’s typically to celebrate a patron saint (98% of the island is Catholic), or celebrate some other event. Basically, any excuse will do, and on any weekend, you can find a fiesta that ranges from a large family gathering, to an entire village joining in a celebration.
Our experience was down in the southern village of Malojloj. Here’s one of the monuments to an event by 2 ancient chiefs of Guam, Chiefs Gadao and Malaguana. Here’s the basic story:
Chief Malaguana from Tumon (in west central Guam), heard of the feats of Chief Gadao from Inarajan (in south central Guam). He decided to paddle down by canoe to challenge the great southern chief. As he got close, he met a stranger along the way who invited him to dinner. Chief Malaguana then shook a coconut off a nearby tree. The host (who was actually Chief Gadao) then crushed the coconut with his fingers. Chief Malaguana thought, “if an ordinary man can do this, how strong is the chief??” So, Chief Malaguana decided not to challenge Chief Gadao, but as the both got in the canoe, they were facing opposite directions. As they began to paddle, the canoe actually broke in half and Malaguana paddled so fast, he made it all the way back to Tumon without realizing that the canoe had broken.
Here’s a monument to those chiefs.

Here are some of those coconuts…

This church is one of the major landmarks on southern Guam.

Here is Anna and our friend and neighbor, Rachael.

Here’s the fiesta we went to (there were many going on at the same time).


Here are our friends Jon and Libby.

There are many carabao around the island. They are still used as a beast of burden, but can also be ridden for sport (as they are here). It’s interesting to note these are actually water buffalo.

While there aren’t many cars like this on Guam anymore, it’s still fun to see a throw back to a time gone by.

Here is my favorite photo subject.

Another popular sport on Guam is kite boarding. Here’s one in Pago Bay.

This is back on our beach, looking back up at our condo.

This is the outrigger canoe that Dan and I bought last year from our old neighbor who built it himself. Unfortunately, it’s no longer sea worthy, but it was fun to take it out snorkeling in search of manta rays (we’ve seen three thus far).


So, until the next adventure…
–Jim