Kayaking Pago Bay

Yesterday Nick and I deviated from our regular Sunday afternoon golf plans. A few weeks ago friends from our church offered for us to use their kayak to explore Pago Bay near their home. That is exactly the type of offer Nick and I don't turn down, especially since there aren't too many areas of the island left that we haven't ventured to already.

Pago Bay is on the east side of the island, definitely the part of Guam we have explored the least in our time here. Part of the reason for that is the Pacific side is a lot rougher and less protected, so it doesn't have the gorgeous soft coral-covered, tropical fish-packed reefs that the west side of Guam is known for. Also, this side of the island is mostly tall cliff faces, so there aren't nearly as many stretches of coastline that are accessible. Pago Bay, however, is the exception. It's a long stretch of coastline that is extremely shallow within the reef line. It's most known for great fishing and boogie boarding.

 

Our first task was making it through the surf line, which broke on the very shallow and rocky reef. Nick and I got absolutely pummeled by 3 and 4 foot waves that decided to crash right on our faces. Always an adventure around here...

 

Once out in the Pacific, we were soaking wet but still smiling. Even when we realized we lost a pair of fins and a mask and snorkel off the back of the kayak.... whoops! Those waves were ruthless. We kayaked along for a little while until we got tired of wrestling with the 6 foot swells we were dipping in and out of. The Pacific definitely does not mess around! Nick did take a dip to look for fish and sharks, but none to be found.

So we surfed back across the reef line into Pago Bay to see if our fins and mask could be found. Pago Bay is this shallow across the entire thing. I bet you are wondering who took this picture. Funny story - A random guy was standing on the side of the cliff overhead. We saw him taking pictures of us and kayaked over. He yelled out "What's your email address?" We yelled it back and I had pictures of our Pago Bay adventure waiting for me in my inbox when we got home. How awesome is that? Nick and I usually only have the cheesy self-tripod (long left arm) shots doing stuff like this. Instead, thanks to our good Samaritan photographer, this time we have shots of the two of us from afar.

After no luck finding our gear, we paddled over and beached the kayak. Nick found a shady bush to sit under on a pile of bamboo poles.

Pretty fantastic view from under the shade tree. And there were butterflies everywhere! It was as if we had stumbled upon our own personal butterfly sanctuary.

Signs of spring... even here in eternal summer.

 We took a walk down the beach looking for sea glass. Unfortunately, we found a lot of glass but not much of it sea glass yet.

We saw some beautiful plants and flowers, including these berries. Gonna guess these aren't on the Guam jungle treats list or I probably would have seen them at a farmer's market by now. We opted just to look.

All in all, a beautiful day on Pago Bay... 

complete with surprise photos thanks to our new friend Bill!