Day: August 5, 2006

This afternoon, we had the pleasure of joining Dennis and Amanda for her first “real” hike on Guam. Amanda said she wanted to go on a hard hike. So … we decided on Pagat Cave and Cliff (which you may recall from a post last year).
In fact here she is now (she did really well, considering this was her first true foray into the jungles of Guam).

The hike meanders through the jungle for a while, past the cave and out to the ocean. We then headed north and made our way to the natural bridge. Once we arrived, the water had a little surge, but nothing too dangerous. Here’s what the area looks like.

So, we decided to get in the water … off the cliff. 🙂 Don’t worry; there was a pretty easy (and safe) way to get out of the water. Just swim over to one of the ledges and wait for the water to raise you up, and then just step out. In fact, here’s Dennis doing just that.

Last time, I took all my pictures from above looking down. This time, I decided to get down on that ledge and take some pictures. This is what the perspective is from down there.


I caught Dennis in mid-leap, literally flying down toward the water.


All four of us (including Anna, who hadn’t jumped off a cliff since a bad landing in Palau last year) felt the thrill of freefall. I always love the feeling of flying through the air. It’s just the landing that sometimes hurts. Fortunately, the water is very forgiving (to a point).
Here’s the other side of the bridge.

After the ocean, we needed some fresh water to rinse off in, so we went back up to the cave. When we got there, we found a couple candles burning, so we thought someone was already in the cave (and our entrance would be disturbing them), but the cave was empty. So, we light a bunch of candles ourselves so we could see without flashlights and cooled off the in very refreshing water of Pagat Cave. As you may recall, it was used as a water source for the ancient Chamorro village that is nearby. The water is a bit brackish (salty), but not too bad (don’t worry, I didn’t drink a lot).
This picture was the third one I had taken (after our eyes had adjusted to the light), so you can imagine how much the other three appreciated the flash (but the first two pictures didn’t turn out…). Sorry guys.
Although the flash ruins the lighting, you can still see how pretty the water is there.

Then, we have the required post hiking pictures (perhaps to prove that we have survived another hike…)
Here are our friends Dennis and Amanda (and Jake), who we hope will go hiking with us another day. 🙂

Amanda was kind enough to reciprocate the favor for Anna and me.

This is definitely one of our favorite hikes. It has a little of everything, jungle, cliffs, history, adventure and cool and refreshing cave pools. We highly recommend it.
So, until our next adventure…
–Jim