Yesterday, on our way to Guam, we sailed over the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on earth. The bottom of the trench is called “Challenger Deep” and is about six miles below sea level. I think that makes some little mountain peak in Guam the tallest mountain on earth, if you measure it from its base underwater. Guam is a 212 square mile island which seems rather isolated to me. Other than passing New Guinea last Tuesday we haven’t even seen even seen an uninhabited Island in days. Guam is Micronesia’s largest, most populated Island and the southern most of the Northern Marianna Islands - if that locates it any better for you. But if anyone knows much about Guam, they are probably a WWII history buff. The Japanese had a highly prized airfield here during WWII. Marines came ashore on July 21, 1944 and the battle was over by August 10 with over 18,000 Japanese killed as well as 8,000 U.S. troops. Guam was where Japanese Sergeant Yokoi emerged from the jungles in 1972 becoming the last Japanese to surrender from WWII. Talk about a communication gap. It seems like there would be some memorable and quotable response from the guy when he was informed the war had ended almost 30 years earlier. Or maybe he just asked, “So Americans are now driving Mitsubishis and eating at sushi bars – who won”? Or “After reading today’s newspaper, I think I prefer going back to my cave, thanks anyway” … surely he said something of note. At any rate, we still have a large naval and airbases here. In fact, 40% of the island is made up of military bases. We docked in Apra, a cargo port, which was about 30 minutes by shuttle bus to the nearest civilization, Tumon. Guam looks less like the south Pacific islands that we have been seeing, maybe because we are now in the north Pacific. In fact, rather than a tropical island it reminds me more of a weather beaten, small coastal town back in the states – except the water is a prettier color. They have everything from outlet malls to any chain restaurant you can name. Our goal was to sight see a bit then hit “the biggest K-Mart in the world”, or so they say. I had my list. My objectives at this stop were to restock and to get a manicure and pedicure - that didn’t cost $150. We found a place. When she finished trimming my nails, there was a big notch in the middle of my thumbnail. I asked if she could please even it out – which she did, making one thumbnail considerably shorter than the other. Each nail is a little different shape from round to square to pointed. She dug at my toes with such vengeance, I expected blood. My poor big toe didn’t quit throbbing until we were back on the ship. But, the price was right. I just hate it when you get what you pay for. We then hit K-Mart - looped around on the HOHO bus until we arrived back at the Hyatt. (If you wonder why the Hyatt Picture - Tom has hit about 90% of the Hyatt’s in the world, I just wanted him to know that he missed one). Another couple was walking back to the shuttle with us. She said, “Wasn’t the shopping divine?” I looked and she had two Louie Vuitton shopping bags and one Gucci. I just smiled and nodded. I was glad that Jim was toting my bag of K-Mart treasures. Then back to the ship with a 35 minute bus screening followed by 43 TSA “workers” doing bag and people screenings. Of course only 5 of them were actually searching bags, the rest were just standing around asking if we had a pleasant day in Guam. The lady searching my bags found no contrabands, but she just loved the lip stick I had purchased and said she was heading straight to K-Mart after work.
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