Coasteering Rick's Reef and Alupang Island

I grew up here. We own an apartment at Alupang Cove Condominiums. This whole area was my backyard. I have wonderful memories of this beach. I would walk to Alupang (Alupat) island at low-tide, pretend to fire a machine gun from the Japanese pillbox below Sheraton Laguna, trek from Ricks Reef around the cliff-face to Alupang Cove, fish for freshwater tilapia in the stream that empties into the ocean just below Lights Disco, and play inside the bunkers behind the pair of Japanese coastal defense guns that sat where Onward Beach Hotel now stands.

With regard to the the Japanese gun battery placements, here's how the National Park Service describes them in their Historic research Study:

Dungcas Beach 20cm Battery

The Japanese constructed this two-gun 20cm, short-barrel battery at Dungcas Beach on the east side of Agana Bay, on the same beach that the Japanese Special Naval Landing Force came ashore on December 10, 1941. Both guns remain in place, their field of fire being over Agana Bay, Adelup Point, and the Asan landing beaches. Behind Gun 1, a long tunnel was cut through the limestone ridge to a protected clearing in the rear. This tunnel, remains intact. At Gun 2, a long natural crevice led to the rear.

The battery is on private property and no on-site interpretation is provided. (It is listed in the brochure, "Guide to Guam's World War II Sites.") I his is the most impressive Japanese battery surviving on Guam. It is recommended that this easily-accessible site be considered as an addition to the list of Other Significant World War II Sites on Guam.

Well the gun battery is gone, and I am truly disappointed that Onward did not make effort to preserve it or build around it. The Japanese pillbox was filled in with rubble so you can no longer crawl inside. The trek around the cliff-line promontory isn't nearly as precarious as I remembered, although it seemed so as a nine-year old scaling the jagged limestone karst while waves crashed against the rocks at high tide. I recently had the opportunity to revisit my old stomping ground as I spent an afternoon at the waterpark nearby. I walked over to the island at low tide, hiked the trail to the top of the island, walked the reef behind it, and snorkeled just beyond it.

Every beach or bay has its own character. The fauna in this area, the northern end of Agana bay, Dungca's beach, Alupang island and Rick's Reef are predominantly bottom feeders and scavengers. There is an abundance of balate' (sea cucumbers), sea urchins, starfish, eels, chitons, rock skipping blennys, and crabs. Most beaches in Guam have all of these, but this area is defined by them! Nearly every crevice, rock, and pit is occupied by one. The water within the bay is clear but with a greenish tint, the floor is mostly flat and rocky toward the reef but sandy toward Dungca's beach.

Not surprisingly, just beyond the reef is a different story. The shallow reef gives way to deep blue ocean through groove-like channels created by blue-green algae that extend perpendicularly from the reefline and both widen and deepen as they descend into deeper water. All manner of marine life can be found here. I twice had the opportunity to see a large pod of spinner dolphins playing much further out at sea when I lived here.

The tide level within the bay changes dramatically in elevation, from 5-6 feet in some areas, to barely a foot at low tide. This probably explains the selection of fauna. A baby shark was trapped in the bay once at low tide, and all the fishermen had to do was herd it into the shallow sand by slapping the water, and then pick it up. The fisherman told me it couldn't bite us because the shark had to turn on it's side to do so, and the water was too shallow. I've never caught a shark myself, but I used to catch eels quite easily with a paper clip and thread. We would hook the butt of a hermit crab and drop him into the shallow water, and within minutes, eels would appear. When they attack, they bite deeply and wrap tightly into a ball around the crab to immobilize it. Then you simply pick up your string, and shake the eel into an awaiting bucket. After we had caught ten or so, we released them into our swimming pool and watched them swim about. The following morning, the chlorine had killed them and the whole pool had turned green! Perhaps a reaction to the chlorine? Anyway, our building manager had to dump the pool water which was no small task (it was about 30' x 30' and had a deep end) and refill it. The pool was out of order for two days. I found out recently that after 25 years, we still have the same building manager! So if you're reading this Clayton, sorry. Here are a few more photos of some marine life I came across.

The Synapta maculata sea cucumber is also known as the Giant Medusa Worm and is the worlds longest holothurian. This is just the tail, although this one was only about five feet. More common are the black balate' Actinopyga palauensis, and Holothuria flavomaculata which looks like a black version of the Medusa Worm, found reaching out from under the rocks, and rarely out in the open.



Arothron hispidus or White Spotted Puffer. Also quite a few blue/yellow chromis and other coral dwelling fishys.



A well-camouflaged crab. Don't know what kind. Also sea crabs, coconut crabs, hermit crabs, etc.



Linckia laevigata or Blue Starfish. Also a few white starfish, and oh so many cool black brittle stars.

A Natural Indifference?

I can't tell the difference between: squirrels and chipmunks, turtles and tortoises, a wolves and coyotes, sea cows and manatees, alligators and crocodiles, newts and salamanders, frogs and toads, dolphins and porpoises, Rays and Skates, Eels and Sea Snakes, and most of the great cats when they are colored black, like black panthers and jaguars. Can you?

For that matter, there's also Debbie Gibson and Tiffany, Equal and Sweet & Low, V for Vendetta and Z for Zorro, Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie Mac, Roseanne and Rosie, Julia Styles and Erika Christensen, Deep Impact and Armageddon, and metros and the brand-concious (esp. those that think there is a fundamental difference between Nissan & Infiniti, Toyota & Lexus, and Acura & Honda other than price).

Chicken or Beef?

Wanna learn flight attendant-speak? Begin all your sentences with "Once again", "At this time", and "In just a few moments...". How to say chicken or beef in multiple languages? Japanese: toriniku or gyuniku, Spanish: pollo or carne, and my personal favorite, Hawaiian pidgin:"eh brah, like beef"? ...oh maybe you chicken? Be sure to try that last one in Hawaii, its a favorite joke with the locals and its a great way to show your cultural awareness and sensitivity.

Gee, that looks just like my ba... #$@&!

So just as boarding began on my flight today, I saw this "incident" transpire right outside the aircraft. Apparently, someones luggage was dragged for about sixty feet before disintegrating enough to finally roll under the luggage cart. When I stepped onto the catering truck to get a better view, I could see the trail of shredded luggage began well behind the tail of our plane. The funniest part was that the guys standing over it were not the guilty party. That guy just kept going and perhaps didn't realize it even happened. No, these guys stopped to look at the luggage tag, and after confirming it wasn't from their cart, swept the shredded contents into a small pile with their feet as a token gesture of concern, then sped off. We had to call the captain to have someone in Ops collect it because it might be considered FOD (Foreign Object Debris) near the ingestion area of the number one engine. More importantly, no passengers had taken notice yet, and we wanted to keep it that way. Someone eventually came over with a clear garbage bag and swept everything up. Now, being there when an airline representative presents the luggage (or whats left of it) to the passenger in a clear garbage bag... priceless.