We were met by our friend Dottie who still lives on-island and we spent the day together chatting and sight-seeing. We went back to the University where the buildings in which we had offices and taught no longer exist. In their places are new, modern buildings for both the School of Business and Public Administration and the School of Education ... very up-scale.
We also saw something we were too lazy to see 28 years ago - Talafofo Falls. Back in the day you had to park and hike in to see them. Given Guam's heat and humidity that was too punishing for us. Now there is a cable car that took us from the parking lot to the base of the falls.
Item of Guam trivia: reliable availability of fresh water made Guam THE important watering stop for the Spanish empire's Manila galleons making the transit to and from Acapulco. Mexicans came to Guam with those ships, bringing hot peppers and leaving behind DNA and several items of cuisine.
Guam looks much less down-at-the-heels than it did 28 years ago. Things are cleaner, better maintained and less junky than formerly, the DrsC were impressed. It is today a place of which the U.S. can be proud, which was not true three decades ago.
A highlight of our return to Guam was lunch at Shirley's, a true Guam tradition. I had an enormous plate piled high with savory hot and spicy Spam fried rice, after an excellent bowl of egg drop soup. I topped the fried rice with finedine sauce, a Guam specialty concocted from onions, soy sauce, hot peppers, and vinegar (pronounced FIN-ah-DIN-eh). Shirley's claims to make the best-ever fried rice and I sure can't argue with the claim.
Guam and two Aleutian Islands (Attu, Kiska) were the only U.S. territories invaded by the Japanese during World War II. War In The Pacific National Historic Park on Guam commemorates that occupation in 1941and the subsequent liberation in 1944. It was our last stop before reboarding our ship, the Sapphire Princess.
Thanks to Dottie W. for the excellent day on Guam, you're the best. Our next stop is Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
