First a quick stop at Home Depot to get a replacement light switch for one of our ceiling fans, then a quick stop at Kmart for some bread and milk. At Kmart we saw at least four buses bring Japanese tourists from the hotels. It was BUSY inside!

To get a quick lunch, we stopped at this McDonalds, with a retro look, on the way. Actually it is on Navy property, but open to the public. The fence of the Navy property goes around three side. There were two large refrigerated semi trailers parked behind the store to provide extra cold room capacity, so it must be quite busy at times.

The road to Ritidian became quite full of potholes after the last main gate into Anderson Air Force Base.

Just before descending to the beach, we came to this overlook.

Ritidian Point and Beach from the overlook. On the horizon, it is possible to see another island.

The island of Rota is about 40 miles away. Although smaller than Guam, Rota’s mountains are higher. As of July 2013, there were just 131 registered automobiles on the island of Rota — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rota_(island) — compared to tens of thousands on Guam!

After descending down a winding road we arrived at the nature center (closed on Sunday) at Ritidian Beach.

Looks like we will not be swimming today, not only because we did not bring our swimsuits!

We found a nice map that was used to plan our excursions for the afternoon.

Our first trail originated at the nature center and headed toward the beach. We’re off to find “Casa Real (Site of Old Spanish Church).”

We looked all over for Casa Real, but found no signs or anything else, except maybe this ‘clearing’. Doing research later, we found that although there are photographs of ruins taken in 1952, that the area was bulldozed in the 1960s for a Navy Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), which was decommissioned  in 1992 after the Cold War. This information should be on the provided maps, or at least on a sign.  We wonder how many other people have searched and found nothing!

Each butterfly would land, folds its wings and then open them once, or twice, before keeping them folded. It was a challenge to try to catch one with its wings open and get it in focus, especially with the time delayed shutter of our small camera.  Here’s the best we could do.  These are Blue Banded King Crow Butterflies.

After passing through the ‘butterfly forest’, we reached the beautiful white sands of Ritidian Beach. This is looking to the left (west).

The view to the right (east) intrigued Larry even more. There were lots of huge tower bases and anchors. There are two tower bases and three anchors in this photo.  After much searching on the internet, we found a clue that it might be the remains of the Pacific Scatter Communications System — http://vw1assoc.tripod.com/crossroads_nov_62_pg13.html

These two anchors were behind the photographer in the previous photo.

In the distance, more tower bases and anchors can be seen. They are in a restricted area behind the rope attached to this tower base. This must have been a massive communications installation!

Looking up at Ritidian Point from the tower base.

We picked up a pretty shell off the white sand beach only to find it was inhabited — by a hermit crab!

We returned to the nature center and followed a trail away from the beach hoping to find a cave with paintings. Soon we entered what is called a ‘historic coconut grove’.

There were lots of coconuts on the ground in the grove and many of them were sprouting,

We also found a few bread fruit laying on the ground. This one is about 6 inches in length.

When we got to Ritidian Beach Cave the trail was closed. The cave entrance is just tall enough to walk into without bending down. Apparently the caves and trail are closed for archeological reasons — this should have been noted on the trails map! We did not go inside, but returned to the nature center.

We drove down the beach road to the next trail to the beach.

One young boy was enjoying himself on the beach!

We drove to the end of the beach road and explored the Latte Loop trail. We did not find the Latte Stone that was supposed to be on the loop,  Maybe because the trail is rather primitive and not well marked.

Ritidian Trail Lower Cave

Ritidian Trail Upper Cave

Historic Stone-Lined Well (couldn’t find any detail on the history of this well).

We may not have found the Latte Stone, but did see several research traps for brown tree snakes. This trap contained a small chicken.  Other traps contained mice. The ‘prey’ was inside a small cage, with its own food and water, inside the trap.

It’s not very obvious in this photo, but the trail had been ‘plowed’ up by wild pigs in several places.

At the end of Latte Loop was another trail to an ancient burial site.

After following several faint trails, we think we found the burial site with only one grave that was marked with stones.

There was lots of standing water and it was still raining when we looked outside this morning.  If it keeps raining like this in days ahead, there will be a jungle in our ‘front yard’.

As we started south, we noticed that there was a very low tide. It appears that it would be possible to walk to these two islands in Agat Bay, which are normally surrounded by water, without getting wet feet.

This photo of a picnic table was taken on 28 June 2014.

This photo of the same table was taken on 12 July 2014. Wonder if tropical storm Neoguri did this or did too many picnickers sit on the wrong side?!

Nimitz Beach at low tide as seen from a pavilion at the park. The leaning picnic table is at the right.

The rains from tropical storm Rammasun was enough to temporarily start the flow of the waterfall on Mt. Lamlam.

At Cetti Bay overlook, a newly-wed Japanese couple were taking each others’ photo. We offered to use their phone so they would have a photo of both of them together. Afterwards, they insisted on using our camera to take our photo.

It is possible to see the TWR antennas from Cetti Bay overlook. Cocos Island Resort is also easily seen.

Across the road from the Cetti Bay parking lot, is this small, easy-to-miss, sign marking the trail to Mount Lam Lam.

This is the start of the one mile trail up Mt. Lam Lam. Partway up there is a branch to the right going to Mt Jumullong Manglo.  We did not try to hike this trail today, because it is extremely slippery from the rain of tropical storm Rammasun.

Mt Jumullong Manglo, to the south of Mt Lam Lam, is the second highest peak on Guam at 1,283 feet. Hundreds of Guam Catholics make an annual Good Friday pilgrimage to the top where about a dozen crosses are located.

This Merlyn G. Cook school in Merizo was originally built in early 1941 by the US Navy for radio communications just before the Japanese invasion.

The school’s doors were open, so we got a chance to see inside.

On the wall inside the school were some photos of the school after a typhoon.

This photo show how the windows pivot in the middle to provide ventilation.

Immediately south of the school is Merizo Pier Park. It was just off this pier, less than six days ago, that two men drown when their boat capsized due to tropical storm Neoguri.

The bathrooms at Merizo Pier Park had murals painted on them.

Now we know why it never moves!!

About 0.2 mile southeast of Merizo Pier is this old bell tower, built about 1914 — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merizo_Bell_Tower

Virginia by the Merizo Bell Tower — looks like it needs some upkeep!

The Our Lady of Camarin statue is in a park next to the Bell Tower.

Malesso Kombento, located across the road from the Bell Tower, was built in 1856 and is supposedly the oldest building on Guam.

Behind Malesso Kombento, is San Dimas Catholic Church. The road to The TWR transmitter site runs up the hill along the other side these two buildings.  There is a trail to an overlook that starts in the corner of the parking lot from which this photo was taken.

Virginia navigating the trail from the church.  The trail has not been maintained, nor used, for a long time.

The Way of the Mellinnium Overlook — looking down on the church and Malleso Kombento.

Cocos Island Resort as seen from the overlook.

Looking the other way from the overlook, it is possible to see the TWR towers and the road winding up the hill.

Hiking back down the trail, we found this mushroom.

Also on this trail we found this nest on a pole. The crosspiece at the top is about 8″ long.  We have not been able to determine what is is, but there were ants all over it.  Is it some type of ants’ nest?  It was made of some type of plant material.

Walking on the shore, it was easy to see the Fort Santo Angel on top of the rock. [Sorry this photo is out of focus and our camera’s battery died before I could retake it. Will try to replace this photo with a good one]

The steps up to Fort Santo Angel were fairly easy to find. It is obvious that they are not often used. Halfway up the stairs, I met a young couple with a dog on their way down.

All that is left of the fort are these deteriorating walls.

The steps on the wall seem to show that, at one time, this structure was much taller.

The view from Fort Santo Angel toward the village of Umatac is amazing from about 60 feet above the sea level.  The old courtyard of the fort can be seen in the foreground.

This is the view from Fort Santo Angel towards the north. This is a great place for the Spanish to defend Umatac Bay

Forty of these steel post will be cemented about 6 feet into the ground to support the structure for attaching the solar panels. There will be 4 rows with 10 posts in each row.  Each post will support 6 solar panels.

Each post will have one of these brackets bolted to its top. These will allow some adjustment of the inclination of the array.

These aluminum extrusions will be bolted to the brackets and the angle braces will then be attached to a hole about 2 feet lower on the posts

Four of the six curtain antennas can be seen in this photo, if you know where to look!

This is one of the highly directional 4X4 curtain antennas that is aimed toward China.

This is actually two antennas with a reflecting screen between. The one on the far side is a 4X4 curtain aimed toward China and South East Asia. The one on the near side is a 2X2 curtain aimed toward Australia/New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

The shutters are held closed by deadbolts at the top and bottom.

The shutters over the windows are closed — now to close the shutters over the door.

We have a problem! The screen door has to be open to close the shutter from the inside. Not possible!

The Lord provided a beautiful sunset this evening before the coming storm.