The Ocean

I suddenly woke up Saturday morning in the middle of a vivid dream. In the dream I was scuba diving down to a sunken ship in Apra Harbor. The ship was in excellent condition and I ventured inside the wreck into someone’s former living quarters then I awoke.

Later that morning as I was trying to remember the dream it dawned on me; I have been here almost two months but I still haven’t snorkeled or even so much as dipped my feet in the ocean! So Saturday I decided a snorkel trip was long overdue. After a leisurely breakfast of oatmeal and coffee, I lathered up my torso in 1000 SPF sunscreen so that my pale skin wouldn’t spontaneously combust after contact with direct rays of the sun. I was once a lifeguard and although I am in all probability doomed to skin cancer, I don’t want to further antagonize either the sun or my skin.

I set out to Tumon, the tourist Mecca and also the best beach on the island. Amid the towering beach front resorts and hotels is a small public park, Ipao Beach. After fighting the weekend traffic, I arrived at Ipao. Clearly Ipao is a beach for the locals. Nestled in between the Hilton and Marriott resorts, the beach parking lot was loaded with the run down cars and Chamorro people that tended to clash with the swanky resorts and Japanese tourists a few yards away.

Perhaps the public beach park is merely an attempt to placate the local people so that they might not notice that hotel chains and resorts have gobbled up the best beachfront property on Guam. I parked my run down sputtering corolla next to another run down sputtering corolla and made my way to the white coral beach. I gathered my newly purchased snorkel gear and waded into the surprisingly clean teal water.

The ocean is almost always a perfect 82 degrees. Many people have told me about the fantastic snorkeling at Tumon, but never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that it could be so amazing. A few dozen yards from the shore, I was suddenly inside an aquarium.

I couldn’t believe the tremendous amount of fish and coral. There were large schools of fish of a vast rainbow of colors and shapes. After swimming around for a while I just floated still and watched the show. Several times I surfaced to look around, certain that I had unwittingly ventured miles out to sea, only to realize I was still less than fifty yards from shore and a few feet from kids playing in the water.

I don’t know what impressed me more, the tremendous sea life, or the fact that that sea life could exist and even thrive despite the impact of millions of tourists. I left Ipao blown away and more determined to get a scuba certification.