About...

I'm the other mother - or Momma Deb. Our family is pretty much like every other family in suburbia. The girls go to school, one mom is on the PTA boards of elementary and middle school. The other mom goes to work, paints, writes, and tries to just have a good time raising kids with her partner. This is my third attempt at blogging...

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Guam... Ah, the Memories...

When I made a reference to Guam in my last post, Lori (from Hahn at Home) commented that she had heard that brown snakes come up through the toilets in Guam.

Now, I gotta say that that is something I never experienced in the two and a half years I lived there. Not only that, I have never even heard that particular urban legend until today. Eeeuuuuw! Yes, there are sea snakes in the shallow waters off Guam. I lived in an apartment on the beach in Tamuning, and I never saw sea snakes there. On the other side of the island, some friends saw sea snakes and came screaming out of the water. It was pretty funny watching them run all the way in! But, I never saw a brown snake. A shrew? Yup. No snakes. Cockroaches as big as your hand? Yup. Coconut crabs as big as your head? Yup. Never saw a brown snake.

I feel deprived.

But, Lori got me to reminiscing. So, here's a post from a couple years ago on my old blog (Life as a Parent). I thought I might re-post it here because, well, I love the picture of yers truly at around 90 feet! The water runs about 85°. How lovely...

First posted 4/21/2007:

Many, many years ago (I really do hate to think just how long ago it was) I lived on the island of Guam in the Mariannas Islands. Guam is one of those places that causes polarizing opinions. It's a place you can love, or you can hate.

I was fortunate - and I really loved Guam. While it could be said that I didn't like being just on Guam for over two years, I didn't mind taking advantage of being there. I was single, into water sports, and ready for adventure.

Having spent much of my T.V. teen years watching Jacques Cousteau explore shipwreck after shipwreck, I just had to get in the water and do some exploring all on my own. This is something I dreamed of doing, and now it would actually be possible. So, I got my PADI certification and no one could stop me.

The accompanying picture of me was taken along a very steep wall - I am
hanging between 80-100 feet below the surface, black fan coral can be seen near my feet. (This was a planned decompression dive.) Not far from here was an underwater grotto where we would dive into the cave and swim about 60 feet (horizontal) to emerge through a large hole in the side of the cave. All around us were beautiful corals and fishes. I was swimming and twirling 360 degrees, drinking in everything. My dive buddy had a camera; I was poor, and did not. Back in the days of film and plexiglas camera housings, I could not afford an under-water camera - Nikonos - or a housing for my Pentax. So, the precious few photos given from dive buddies are all I have from that time and serve to remind me of beauty and youth.

I need to find some warm waters -- anyone for a trip to Cozumel?

(Hey, if you're from Guam reading this, drop me a quick comment and let me know you were here. I'd love hearing from you!)