Housing

Searching for housing has been interesting. We definitely learned quite a bit about housing here on Guam and there are many things you need to look for that you wouldn't necessarily think about in the states. There are also many things that houses here do not have that many houses in the states do have...for instance, it was difficult to find a house that has a garage.

Most houses here have carports because it is too expensive to build a garage. Also, most of the bathrooms have pedestal sinks instead of having a cabinet underneath or an actual counter top around the sink so there's space to place items (I am not bitter about this by the way). Another item that was commonly missing (that we really wanted) was a fenced yard. We didn't need the whole yard fenced necessarily but at least the back yard or a portion of the yard so the dogs could have access. This is one major reason we looked at housing off the base. None of the houses on the base have fenced yards. Apparently, many houses in town do not have fenced yards either!

On another note, one thing that a house really needs is typhoon shutters on all the windows and any glass doors! So there are two different types...you can either have the ones with flat panels that are a few inches wide. They have to be placed one at a time in a frame around each window and door, so they are time consuming to put up. The other type is an accordion shutter - they fold up on either side of the window or door when open and then you can just pull them closed and lock them to get ready for a typhoon. The accordion type are much easier to work with (provided they haven't rusted shut).

So with all this in mind, not to mention other details like looking for a place that is fairly close to the base and liking the other aspects of the house, these are most of the houses we looked at over the span of four days.

So after looking at many houses, we finally realized what the options for housing were on the island. The first day we went out, I think we both had the mindset of looking at houses in the states. By the time a week had gone by (and we had seen a couple houses on base) we had a better idea of what we could find. Ironically we ended up renting the very first house our Realtor showed us! So this is our house for the first year at least...we signed a year lease and we will see how it goes! It's a three bedroom two and a half bathroom house with a balcony off the master bedroom that looks over the front of the house. Here are some pics of the house:

Two Lovers Point

Before Carlton left, we did a little more exploring of Guam and Two Lovers Point (or Puntan Dos Amantes) is one of the tourist attractions in the resort area. So the legend is that long ago when Spain ruled Guam, there was a prominent family living in Guam. The father was a Spanish aristocrat and the mother was related to a great Chamorran Chief. They had a daughter that was admired by their community. The father arranged for his daughter to marry a Spanish Captain but the daughter didn't want to be forced into marriage with a stranger. She fled to the north side of Guam to a secluded beach. In the moonlight, she met a young warrior from a modest Chamorro family and they immediately fell in love.

Her father found out about the lovers and demanded that she abandon her love and marry the Spanish captain. That day at sundown she fled back to the secluded beach and met her Chamorro lover. Her father, with the Spanish captain, and all the Spanish soldiers pursued the lovers up the cliff to the high point above Tumon Bay. Soon the lovers were trapped between the edge of the cliff and the soldiers. The lovers tied their long, black hair in a knot, kissed for the final time, and leaped over the cliff into the waters below.

Since then, the peak above Tumon bay has been looked on with reverence by the Chamorros. The two lovers remain a symbol of true love - a love in which two souls are entwined forever in life and death.

The photos I took from our visit are in the slideshow below - give it time to load. :-)

Spanish Steps

This past Friday we decided to do a hike on the base which leads down a fairly steep but short cliff...it's the Spanish Steps that lead to a Spanish well and then on to the beach at Orote point. The Spanish well was possibly the source of water for Fort Santiago. During our hike we had to descend down a very steep rocky area using mooring lines to assist with the descent. There were also a couple ladders stuck in a couple places, one was an old metal ladder from a sub and there was a wooden ladder as well. Once we finished rappelling down to the bottom of the cliff, we found the Spanish well with a hermit crab adorning it.

From here the path diverges two ways, so we headed through the forest along the base of the cliff to the cave and then on to coral pebble beach. Needless to say we did not examine the cave too closely. I had already been waving a large leaf in front of me as we walked on the path to get rid of the spider webs that were abundant on the hike. Climbing down into a dark cave, which was sure to have many more creepy crawly things in it, did not appeal to us. So we ventured on to the beach area which looks out on the channel between Orote Peninsula and Orote Island (see pictures in slideshow).

It is a gorgeous view from the beach!! The water is very inviting and if it had been low tide we should have been able to make our way from that beach around the rocks to the other side. However it was high tide and we were not wearing water friendly shoes. I know some would say you could just take your shoes off, however, this beach was fairly rocky and didn't seem friendly to tender-footed peeps like us.

So we retraced our steps back to the well and then continued on the other way which led us to another beach on the other side which was definitely more beachy. Nice sandy beach that was definitely more appealing to bare feet. Both spots had great views of Apra Harbor and the water was very clear!

After relishing in the lovely scenery for awhile, we made our way back through the forest and up the Spanish steps. The slideshow below also includes pictures of the steps, the ladder, and the lines we used to climb back out. Although it was very steamy in the forest, it was a very nice hike and one I would do again with water friendly shoes!!

Enjoy the photos!

...

Chamorran Food

We have been busy doing all our check-in stuff for the military over the past couple of days along with shopping for a car and looking at houses to rent! So far we have completed two of our three main goals we wanted to do before Carlton leaves...I needed to get Guam cell service, we needed to purchase a vehicle (mine won't get here until mid-May), and we wanted to find a place to live. The only thing left is to find a place to live. But we are the owners of a used Hyundai Tucson now!! Turns out that vehicles are more expensive here, so we paid more than we originally thought we would but the vehicle is in good shape and it's a good size.

Ahi Poke

While doing all our errands around the island, we have also been checking out some of the local culture and by culture I mean food. So we went to a restaurant that was recommended to us by our Realtor as a good place to get authentic Chamorran food. So we went to Proa for our first Chamorran food experience. The food was excellent!! Here is some food porn for you to enjoy:

Strawberry-Calamnsi margarita

Bacon wrapped salmon on a bed of mashed garlic potatoes

Vanilla sundae and Taro cheesecake

We also decided to check out the Chamorro Village which is a big fiesta every Wednesday and it was recommended to me even before we got to the island. It's basically like a street fair in San Diego except that there are shuttles that bring in tourists from the nearby resort area. Lots of Japanese tourists come to the Village and there are plenty of booths with clothing, jewelry, and other Guam paraphernalia. You can also purchase coconuts to drink (similar to Hawaii) but here they have something called Coconut sashimi. After you drink your coconut, you bring it back to the booth and they cut into the coconut more to make several slices and give you the option of adding wasabi and soy sauce. It sounds interesting but we have not tried it yet. Carlton got in line to get the coconut sashimi before he knew that we were suppose to purchase a coconut and drink it first, then go into the line for the sashimi.

Here are a couple other pictures from the Chamorro Village:

One of many clothing booths

Fried Parrot fish...a popular dish here

One of the most decorated taxi's I have seen here

Other pictures from our Guam adventures so far:

One of many frogs that come out at night around our hotel

Gas prices on the base...just to make you jealous!

Carlton having fun in the clown car at the dealer (It's a Fiat)

The Suite Life

As a huge welcome, we are currently under TCOR 2 on Guam......tropical storm Bavi is heading our way and may or may not become a Typhoon. So we could be experiencing our first Typhoon!! Or at least the readiness for a Typhoon. TCOR stands for Typhoon Condition of Readiness with four levels. Level four means that there is no current threat but sustained winds up to 58 mph may occur within the next 72 hours.. Level three means you should stock up on water, non-perishable food items, batteries, gas, etc while you can still go out in town (off the base) and destructive winds may be coming in the next 48 hours. You are supposed to secure any outside items and prepare your household for power outage. TCOR 2 means that sustained winds may occur in the next 24 hours, fill bathtubs with water for flushing the toilet and other household usage. Turn the refrigerator temperature down to keep foods cold and sandbag the doors. They also have Typhoon shutters here on the island to protect windows. TCOR 1 means the storm has come!! Stay away from glass doors and windows, keep a battery operated radio nearby along with flashlights. DO NOT go outside!

 In spite of this oncoming storm, we went out yesterday to look at homes for rent in town. We may still be able to get into a house on base but we wanted to see what was available out in town. We met up with a realtor who took us around to see about six different houses in our price range. You definitely get more for your money out in town but the problem is that many of these houses were quite a ways from the base, so not super convenient for Carlton. Also, shopping on the base is much cheaper than in town, so it wouldn't be convenient for me either.

Just to give you an idea of what houses on Guam look like...here are a few that we saw.

Typhoon shutters

So we were in a small hotel room that was booked until March 17th and when we discovered that we wouldn't be getting into housing for awhile, we asked about extending our stay. When we asked on Thursday, the hotel was booked completely and they had no openings anywhere. So we were a little panicked about where we were going to be staying. However, the typhoon changed that. Yesterday when we asked again, they had a suite become available!! So now we are staying in a two room suite and we have it until April 4th! It is amazing how excited you can get about having a full sized refrigerator and a mini kitchen!! Our old room only had a microwave and a mini refrigerator, so to be able to actually cook something is fabulous!! :-)

The Gateway Inn also has a couple small houses available to rent that allow pets and we have been asking about that since we got here but they are still booked. So it is great that we are in the two room suite now, it is definitely a LOT more comfortable for us and nice to be able to cook rather than eat out every day. Unfortunately that means that Ms. Bubbles will be extending her stay at the boarding facility since the hotel does not accept pets. Maybe we will find housing before our stay in the hotel is up.....we hope anyway.

Right now our focus (after the Typhoon passes) is to find a vehicle! We are still using a rental vehicle which is supposed to be returned on Tuesday. It would definitely be better to have our own vehicle rather than continuing to pay for a rental but for some reason most vehicles here are priced about $1-2k above Kelly blue book! For instance we saw a 2003 Pontiac Vibe with 44,500 miles on it for $6995. Yes, it has low miles but it's still over ten years old! Seemed a tad high for us. So the search continues.