![\"140713](\"https:\/\/mcguirereport.mcguireclan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/140713-Septet.jpg\")
<\/a>After church we headed north to Ritidian Point. This is the place we arrived at last week too late to enter.\u00a0 We wanted to get there as quickly as possible.\u00a0 Here is a photo tour of our afternoon:<\/p>\n<\/a>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!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>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.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>The road to Ritidian became quite full of potholes after the last main gate into Anderson Air Force Base.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Just before descending to the beach, we came to this overlook.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Ritidian Point and Beach from the overlook. On the horizon, it is possible to see another island.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>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!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>After descending down a winding road we arrived at the nature center (closed on Sunday) at Ritidian Beach.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Looks like we will not be swimming today, not only because we did not bring our swimsuits!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>We found a nice map that was used to plan our excursions for the afternoon.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>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).”<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>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\u00a0 in 1992 after the Cold War. This information should be on the provided maps, or at least on a sign.\u00a0 We wonder how many other people have searched and found nothing!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Walking through the ‘jungle’ towards the beach, we did find hundreds, maybe thousands, of butterflies — they were everywhere! It was hard to get a photo of them, but a few can be seen on the branches.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>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.\u00a0 Here’s the best we could do.\u00a0 These are Blue Banded King Crow Butterflies.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>After passing through the ‘butterfly forest’, we reached the beautiful white sands of Ritidian Beach. This is looking to the left (west).<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>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.\u00a0 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<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>These two anchors were behind the photographer in the previous photo.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>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!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Looking up at Ritidian Point from the tower base.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>We picked up a pretty shell off the white sand beach only to find it was inhabited — by a hermit crab!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>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’.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>There were lots of coconuts on the ground in the grove and many of them were sprouting,<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>We also found a few bread fruit laying on the ground. This one is about 6 inches in length.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>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.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>We drove down the beach road to the next trail to the beach.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>One young boy was enjoying himself on the beach!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>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,\u00a0 Maybe because the trail is rather primitive and not well marked.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Ritidian Trail Lower Cave<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Ritidian Trail Upper Cave<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Historic Stone-Lined Well (couldn’t find any detail on the history of this well).<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>We may not have found the Latte Stone, but did see several research traps for brown tree snakes. This trap contained a small chicken.\u00a0 Other traps contained mice. The ‘prey’ was inside a small cage, with its own food and water, inside the trap.<\/p><\/div>\n