May 22 - Guam

We’re nearing a twenty-four hour day and I’m still rocking from yesterday’s boat ride somehow. No blog for the 21st because we passed the international date line and I didn’t really have a May 21st. This morning we went from LAX to Honolulu to Guam. And now here we are! We caught a glimpse of the sunset as we were landing, and Guam is absolutely beautiful. It has all the tropical things you could want on an island – lots of lush forests, bright blue water, and sandy beaches.

Everything from the airport to the vans to hotel went surprisingly smoothly, considering we’re carting around 21 huge “action packers” filled with dive gear. The hotel shuttled all of the luggage in a gigantic catering truck, and we all piled into big white vans. We got our room keys, and made a mad dash for the pools and the ocean, even though it’s nighttime here.
The pools were fine, but the ocean was really cool. And by cool, I mean cold. Because Guam has had so much rain later, the top layer of water is more brackish and much cooler than the water underneath. The thermocline was reverse of what you would expect. I can’t wait to dive – the water is so clear and beautiful and there were rays just a few yards off the hotel beach.
I can’t help but think about the last “expedition” I made (see Biomials) and all of the things that happened on that trip and the comparisons between the two. They are similar in their intent but very different in the group and travel dynamic. Today in the van, I started talking to the driver who was Chamorro. I asked him about the military build up in Guam, and predictably (as a former soldier and a beneficiary of tourist funds) he believed that the build up would be good for the Island. I didn’t want to say anything about my own opinion, but I smiled and nodded and was thankful that he shared with me.

Back in the hotel, as we waited to be checked in and given instructions, I noticed the same driver watching me. I was reminded of a conversation with a Tuk-Tuk driver I had in Jaipur, in India. I happened to have read an article about a Tuk-Tuk driver strike and I was asking him about his political views on the drivers unions and such. Instead of wanting to talk politics, he ended up asking for my number and asking if I would like to go out and get some “hot rum” with him. It was a very strange situation and I was glad to be gone from the Tuk-Tuk driver and his Tuk-Tuk that had been aptly painted with the name “Naughty Boy.”
Aside from the Tuk-Tuk experience, I felt like I mostly shied away from “locals” while I was abroad last spring. Often, the places we visited seemed too dangerous to engage in casual conversation with the surrounding people – often people surrounding us were a little too interested. I think that this time, I want to make more of an effort to talk to people. I feel more protected in some ways than I did last spring – we are staying in an American hotel with security and a higher instructor to student ratio.
In any case, talking to the people around you can sincerely benefit you. The Diver’s Alert Network (DAN) president approached Jim in the lobby of our hotel. DAN is a huge organization and provides us all with diving insurance. The DAN president, conveniently named Dan, offered to give us a lecture about diving tomorrow. I’m thrilled!
I am overwhelmingly excited and feel like this is going to be a new and unusual experience. At the same time, I feel like I have a peculiar and particular perspective because I have been on a trip like this before. I think that I started this trip to Guam and Palau a lot more relaxed and comfortable than the trip last year, where I constantly was taking deep yoga breaths to mitigate my stress. I packed more thoughtfully this time. I’m more accustomed to accepting things unknown, and not necessarily being aware of or in control of the schedule. That trip did so much for me, and as we flew past Haleakala today, I felt a twinge of nostalgia, or sadness, or something else unnamable, when I thought of the epic hike the biomes group took on Haleakala a year and a half ago. And I know that as I dive in the tropics, I’m going to be reminded of the biomes group diving in the Maldives and Thailand. I think I had a very real desire when I signed up for this program to somehow replicate those feelings that I had last spring. But this is a separate program with completely different (and wonderful) people, and I can feel our unique dynamic beginning to be forged.