Guam:Island Paradise
Guam sits like a jewel in the tropical Pacific, a paradise of
beauty and contrasts. Roughly shaped like a boot thirty miles
long and ten miles wide, the island contains high cliffs, white
beaches, and swaying palm trees. Jets spew vapor trails in the
bright blue sky as waves topped with white foam break away from
the sea, washing ridges in the sand of the beaches. The Pacific
lies beyond, a deep blue, untinged by gray or green.
Sometime every day, some part of the island receives rain. One
resident may find rain pouring in his backyard while the sun
shines in the front. One neighbor may work in his yard while
another watches a shower from his window. A short time later,
skies clear over all the isle.
Across the road from the outer edges of the housing projects
stand the boondocks, a tightly woven mass of vegetation, the
island jungle. At night the mating call of the wild bucks can be
heard, followed by the pounding of hoofs and antlers as two
amorous males fight over one doe. The snort and bellow of the
wild boar echoes in the late dark hours of the tropical night.
The beach glistens under the warm winter sun as bodies of
different shades of brown, black, white, and sunburn parade in
and out of the water. Native Guamanians swim side by side with
military and civilian personnel from the military bases. A coral
reef nearly one mile toward the ocean separates large waves from
the beach. At each end of moon-shaped Tumon Beach, a towering
cliff stands guard. Away from the sunny area of the sand, palm
trees stir in the gentle breeze. If one looks closely, native
huts can be seen far back in the trees.
With little warning, the serene blue skies and calm sea can turn
into an inferno of wicked winds, pounding rain, and black skies
when a typhoon hits. The rain seems forced through the walls by
the fierce winds that whip, that drive the storm. The typhoon,
the enemy of the islands, sweeps over and through with extreme
destruction, laying waste all that does not yield before its
fury.
Guam portrays calm seas and whipping waves; jet trails and wild
boar; native huts and housing projects; white sands and military
bands. The paradise, a place of beauty, a place of contrast,
lies like a jewel in the Pacific.