So ever since I got here I've been dying to go hiking, which the natives here call "boonie stomping". The mountains here are so beautiful that I knew it would be really awesome! So today I finally got my chance, and it was quite an adventure! The middle school Chinese teacher from my school, Jackie, gathered some people together so we could hike Cetti Bay. She's the same age as me (rare among the teachers at our school, although I'm lucky to be on the elementary side because all the middle school teachers are like 50...a lot of the elementary teachers are 30-40ish). She came here by herself right out of school last year, so she knows what I'm going through and has rescued me from my "I've already driven around Guam 50 times now what do I do?" feeling.
So we all gathered to go hiking. We had to hike down the mountain to get to the waterfalls. Jackie decided to take a different trail from the one that most people take, because she knew of a different way down. So we started down. The view was fabulous!!! However, the way down was a little precarious and we ended up sliding on our butts most of the way because it was pretty steep and rocky.
Starting down the mountain!
On top of the world! : )
So we hiked all the way down, ending up pretty much in a mudslide (which was pretty fun if you ask me). When we got to the bottom, we had to walk up a little river to get to the bottom of the waterfall, which had a nice pool. We had all come equipped with our bathing suits so we went swimming! It was so nice and cool after fighting down the mountain! I wish I had pictures of this, but while we were at the waterfall, it started raining so I had to put away my camera. : (
But that was ok, because the next part of the hike needed all my attention. We started our way back up, choosing to go to the right of the waterfalls. Because it has been raining a lot lately (it's the rainy season, meaning it pours rain every day) the trail we were on was really muddy. Now, this would have been fine, but the trail was pretty steep and we had to pretty much haul ourselves up. The first part of the climb had a rope hanging down. Apparently a lot of hiking in Guam involves pulling yourself up with ropes. It was pretty fun...challenging, but fun. But after the rope disappeared, the only thing we had to grab on to was the vegetation on the sides of the path, which consisted mostly of something they call "swordgrass" here. I think it's like sawgrass in Florida, but let me tell you it's called swordgrass for a reason. If you catch it the wrong way, it slices you pretty good. So having to pull yourself up a mountain with only swordgrass is pretty rough. Then we got to the top of that part and encountered...A SEA OF SWORDGRASS! We had to push our way through. Now as you can see in the picture above, I was wearing shorts. I look like I got in a fight with a wolverine now. And lost. Now needless to say, I was hiking with 7 girls and one guy (poor guy) and this was by far the whiniest part of the hike. I felt like I was 5 and I skinned my knee. I kept crying "ow, my leggggssssss!"
But we made it through the swordgrass field, and then we had to climb up more dirt cliffs. At this point, we were pretty high up and the view was gorgeous!! We could see the waterfalls, the bay, and the valley. However, it was a little scary being on the side of a mountain. So most of the time I was focused on what was right in front of me. I started to have flashbacks of Mt. Fuji, trying to only think about where you were going, not what was behind you (a precipice). I realized that my legs are not long enough for rock climbing, because I kept trying to climb up and would have to reach my foot up to get up a step and half the time I couldn't reach and I would get stuck trying to figure out what to do next. Towards the end I just ended up climbing like a monkey or something on my hands and knees. So 5 out of the 8 of us made it to the top of that portion. One of the girls that was with us was really scared of heights and she was having a little trouble climbing up because she was so nervous. So we were waiting for her at the top when we heard a huge crash of thunder and it started POURING rain. Lightning and everything. Out of nowhere. We all looked down to see little rivers of water beginning to pour down the mountain and started getting a little concerned for the poor girls still trying to climb up in a mudslide. But one person went back down to rescue them (the rest of us huddled under a palm tree so we wouldn't get struck by lightning) and they made it up slowly but surely.
At this point we were all really muddy, really wet, and pretty exhausted. I felt like I was on Lost or Survivor or something. To tell you the truth it was pretty awesome. It sounds like a miserable experience, but I was still having fun! The rain finally stopped, and we all stopped to check out our scratched up legs and sliced up hands. It was at this point that Jackie looked at her hiking guide and realized that we had somehow ended up on the difficult path up the mountain, not the one that normal sane people do. But we survived!
The rest of the way up the mountain was pretty easy and uneventful (anything would have been easy and uneventful after that). So muddy, cut up, and exhausted, we made it back to our cars. It was then I realized that I had just picked up my brand new, sparkly clean car yesterday, and that it has beige interior. So needless to say, my car has been christened with a little dirt and sweat. Gotta get rid of that new car smell somehow!
After that adventure, we dragged ourselves to the nearby marina and got some lunch and some beers. I think it was a pretty successful first hike. We all agreed to do it again some time, but to actually go on the beaten path, wear pants, and bring some gloves next time.
Oh, and you could tell it rained really hard because driving back to my apartment I had to go through a flood. Like...a foot of water. I was so scared I was going to get carried away. Yet another Guam christening for my new car. It was like Oregon Trail where you have to ford the river. Thank goodness it didn't turn out like most of my Oregon Trail experiences.
On a random side note, I would like to share that my neighbor's cat, Morty, is a total creeper and he sits on my windowsill and scratches my screen and makes really scary noises sometimes. But he always comes to say hello when I pull up to my apartment. He's actually tried to come in my apartment on several occasions. I don't mind him though, he's pretty cute. I could do without the scary noises outside my window though.
Pictures/video of my new car to come! : )
