Just another Monday...

Although today was Russ's birthday I feel like I got the present.  I met a wonderful lady here on the island named Trish.  She loves to hike and organizes a 'ladies only' hike every Monday morning.  We planned to start school today so in order to go I did the part of school that needed my input with the kids last night and left them with Russ this morning.  He told me to go...  even though it was his birthday!  He's a great husband!!

 We went to Paicpouc Cove and Matala Beach which is Guam's only black sand beach.  The hike is listed as a 2 mile round trip 'wet' hike and I was told to bring gloves, shoes that can get wet, a snorkel and mask, and quick drying clothes.  Hmmm... how hard can a measly 2 miles be??

Well... I've NEVER been on a hike like this before!  From about 5 minutes into the hike we were all making our way along the coral rock around the bay - in the water.  About half the time we couldn't see where to put our feet and had to use the coral cliff to help us move forward.  We walked through 2 caves which were a nice break from mostly knee to chest deep water.  We hiked this at low tide... I couldn't imagine how dangerous it would be at high tide.  I'm know each of us ended up with a couple scrapes here and there - the coral is not very forgiving.

I must say that I LOOOVED it!  It took us about 1 hours and 15 minutes to make it around the cliff to the beach.  The sand was black.  It is actually magnetic.  I carried back a gallon size baggie of sand to show the kids and it probably weighed 5 lbs! 

I found a whole bunch of long bamboo poles on the beach and more in the caves.  I couldn't help think of Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, and other adventure stories we've read of being stranded on a tropical island.  I was wishing for a way to bring them back to shore and build a raft to float on... My only idea so far is to get some rope, go back and tie them up, and float them to shore.  We are just starting the book Kon Tiki and building a raft out of bamboo would go along with that nicely.  :)

The ladies on the hike with me agreed that this was a great hike - but then said that there are even better ones on the island!  Well... I can hardly wait for just another Monday with Ursula, Mindy, Michelle and Trish!  (Michelle is missing since she's the photographer for this picture).

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