Gorgeous Guam – Time for a visit?
Posted by Michelle Moquin on June 20th, 2011
Good morning!
I HOPE that everyone had a wonderful day celebrating Father’s Day with their father yesterday! I certainly did! I was so excited to spend time with my father that I completely forgot to blog it in my rush to post yesterday.
You see my father is NEVER around for Father’s Day. He travels quite a bit, and this was the first year in I don’t know how long, that he was actually going to be around so that we could celebrate his day. So, I have to admit, I was pretty much in my own little world.
I HOPE that my male readers will forgive me. So let me say it now….”Happy Belated Father’s Day to all the fathers out there!”
Speaking of travel…this one is for my friends and fans in Guam, and especially Anna, Peter, and Lea. Hafa Adai:
Travel to Guam: The South Pacific’s Secret Vacation Destination
I’m embarrassed to admit that before traveling to Guam I knew very little of the destination. My limited knowledge: Guam is a U.S. Territory, a tropical island in the Pacific and closer to Asia than North America.
But wooed by my taste buds and the lure of the island’s annual Maila Ta Fan Boka Festival, (Come, Let’s Eat) I visited, I learned and I fell in love. For the delicious details of my voyage, keep reading.
Let me set the stage: Picture Hawaii, then subtract 30 years from your vision, for Guam is lush and tropical but heralds the simplicity of an off-the-beaten-path getaway. Here life is beautifully uncomplicated – 35 miles per hours is the standard speed limit, cha-cha is the adopted dance and country is its favorite music. It’s also a land of turquoise waters, palm silhouettes, Kodak-moment views and a contagiously welcoming spirit where the local Chamorro greeting “Håfa Adai!” is warmly and widely offered.
Discovered by Magellan, its history is impressive. Guam and its sister Mariana Islands were formally claimed by the Spanish Crown in 1565 and its role in World War II’s Pacific Theater was critical. The island is proud of its multi-generational investments and no where is its pride and love more evident than in its food and fun.
Come, Let’s Eat!
Maila Ta Fan Boka Competition – Attended by foodie fans and fanatics this festival spurred my visit, and disappointed I was not. Showcasing the island’s Asian and Spanish influences, amateur and professional teams competed with three dishes: chicken, eggplant and banana. Favorite food: eggplant in coconut milk, flavored with red peppers.
Outdoor barbeque – Ever wondered how to throw a fiesta? Ask the Muñas. Entertaining is the lifeblood of the family of Guam senator, Tina Muña Barnes. Required ingredients: outdoor grill, multiple pounds of meat and hardy appetites. And the generous invitation from the Muña’s family is not unusual – this is life on Guam. Favorite food: Chamorro barbeque ribs.
Chamorro Village – Start with a Spanish setting. Add an energetic guest list. Throw in some live music, island dancers and fresh food from local vendors and this gregarious gathering is a happening, an every Wednesday night happening. Favorite food: shrimp kélaguen (made with fresh island coconut and lemon juice).
Hit the Road
The best way to see Guam is to rent a car, cruise along Marine Drive and let the island unfold before you like a Polaroid picture. Stops can be as frequent or infrequent as your desires dictate.
Latte of Freedom – As early as 500 A.D. ancient Chamorros built their houses on stone pillars known as lattes. These stones are symbolic of Guam and the 80-foot-high Latte of Freedom on a point overlooking the bay was constructed to be for the West what the Statue of Liberty is to the East: a welcome to the United States.
Asan Beach – On July 21, 1944 the Americans landed on Asan to recapture the island from occupying Japanese forces; it has since represented Guam’s role in World War II.
Lina’la’ Chamorro Cultural Park – Offering a back-in-time visit into Guam’s rich cultural background, the island’s newest sight (all phases completed January 2012) features animal encounters, ziplining and an authentic peek into long-ago island life.
Two Lovers’ Point – Legend holds that a pair of star-crossed Chamorro lovers, whose parents would not allow them to marry, jumped to their deaths from this 378-foot cliff. Today it’s an open-to-the-public lookout over the Philippine Sea.
Memo to Luxe Lovers
Being no stranger to five-star luxury, Guam is where a day at your hotel is as simple as deciding which umbrella-topped drink to order and what strength of sunscreen to apply. Situated on the island’s favorite playground, Tumon Bay, the brand names Westin, Nikko, Outrigger and Marriott are only a sampling. Westin was my temporary home, where a day at the waterfall pool competed with more active options – outrigger canoeing, windsurfing and scuba diving (with shipwrecks from WWI and WWII, experts consider Guam among the world’s best diving spots).
Guam’s aisle action includes topnotch namedropping: Gucci, Prada, Versace and more. Found at DFS Galleria, shopping this impressive collection of high-end boutiques is sweetened with the tidbit that Guam’s goods sell duty free.
Leo Palace Golf Resort (four nine-hole courses with one designed by Jack Nicklaus and two by Arnold Palmer) runs through the hills, valleys and wetlands of Manenggon Hills. And for a made-in-Guam treat, play a round at Mangilao Golf Club where the hilltop clubhouse provides a panoramic ocean view, and holes #12 and #13 demand daring tee shots stretching across the Pacific.
Spa Bali, Guam’s only authentic Balinese Spa, is found in the Holiday Resort Hotel. With “natural” as the guiding principle, my treat was the Island Paradise Massage – a hypnotic blend of Balinese and Lomi Lomi techniques.
Tips Only a Local Would Know
Final Word
Situated approximately three hours from Manila, Tokyo and Taiwan, Guam’s proximity makes it a prime stopover when in route to Asia. It was after 14 hours of travel via newly merged Continental/United Airlines that I reached this distant change of longitude. Was it worth it? Yes. Will I return? A definite yes. At 212 square miles, what Guam lacks in size, it makes up in flavor. My only question upon departure: Who’s Michelin?
Readers: It is a beautiful day here in the Bay Area. And so tempting to don my bikini and head to the beach. Whether you’re here or Guam, or basking on some other beautiful beach, just remember to eat plenty of watermelon. It is rich with lycopene. Eating 2½ cups of watermelon provides a dose of lycopene sufficient to increase sun protection by 33%. So sometimes when I don’t feel like eating the watermelon, I stick a few slices in the blender, and make my fave drink – lately that’s been a watermelon sparkler – my own little concoction of freshly blended watermelon juice and a shot of my favorite sparkling juice. Sparkling Peach Izze usually does the trick for me.
And for you Joel: I read that studies also indicate that lycopene may enhance male fertility, while another watermelon compound—the amino acid citrulline, found mostly in the rind—may function as a natural alternative to Viagra.
As with all health advice give here, don’t take my word for it, make sure you do your own research.
That’s it for me today. The forum is open. Blog me.
PEACE OUT.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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June 20th, 2011 at 9:26 am
HEALTHY DIET DRINKS — CAN YOU TRUST THEM?
Is anyone surprised to find beverage giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo scrambling to reposition themselves as producers of drinks that are good — or at least not bad — for your health?
Both have introduced new diet drinks formulated with their own versions of stevia, a sweetener that comes from nature rather than from a laboratory.
Coca-Cola worked with the giant agribusiness company Cargill to develop a purified derivative of stevia that it calls Truvia… and PepsiCo followed shortly thereafter with its own very similar version called PureVia. So, for several years now, consumers have been drinking Coca-Cola’s Sprite Green and PepsiCo’s 0 Calorie SoBe Lifewater made with their new stevia-based sweeteners — but, are they really, truly safe for your health?
WHY SHOULD WE BE WORRIED?
To understand why anyone would even ask that question requires a bit of history. Made from the leaves of the stevia plant, stevia has been used for medicinal purposes and as a sweetener for centuries in South America.
It’s a popular sweetener in Japan, but here in the US we require more evidence of its safety than is yet available. While research has largely shown stevia to be safe, some questions remain — it has possible harmful effects on blood sugar control, the kidneys and the cardiovascular and reproductive systems.
That’s why the Food and Drug Administration refused to approve importation of stevia as a sweetener. But as wily types always do, importers figured out a way around that.
They decided to call stevia a supplement, for which the regulations are far more lax. As a result, you now can find stevia sold as a supplement in health-food stores and online, but people in the know use it as a sweetener.
Stevia is sold in powder and liquid form. You can even buy plants to grow yourself a ready supply of leaves! And none of these products carries any label warning of health dangers.
But, you may be wondering, how is it that Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are using their forms of stevia as a sweetening food additive? Indeed this situation bothers many consumer advocates.
I called Daily Health News medical editor Andrew Rubman, ND, for his take on the stevia conundrum. You may be surprised when I tell you that he said we actually can trust the soda sellers on this one… they did their research!
HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?
It’s all about quantity, Dr. Rubman explained. He said that the reason for restricting any substance, including stevia, to supplement status only is to be sure that people will use it in limited quantities.
In contrast, food additives will be used in many foods and drinks that people consume daily, which — the FDA assumes — adds up to far higher quantities.
But, Dr. Rubman said, in this particular situation, consumers are safe, at least in the short term. After carefully reviewing the literature for Daily Health News readers, Dr. Rubman told me that the toxicological studies of Coca-Cola’s Truvia and PepsiCo’s PureVia revealed nothing that would be cause for concern healthwise.
Both PureVia and Truvia are more than 90% rebaudioside A, a refined extract of stevia which the FDA has labeled GRAS — generally regarded as safe. If you feel you must drink very sweet beverages, Dr. Rubman said, in his view you’d do far better to select the Sprite Green or the Sobe Lifewater than a diet soda sweetened with aspartame (which is associated with numerous health risks, including migraines, abdominal pains and asthma) or a regular soda loaded with sugar.
Similarly, he believes using stevia to sweeten tea or coffee is preferable to NutraSweet or Sweet’N Low.
There is a caveat, however. Dr. Rubman told me that some folks may find that when they quaff drinks made with Truvia and PureVia, they feel a bit bloated and gassy.
The impact is the same as with other sweeteners on the market. It’s a problem for some, Dr. Rubman told me, but not others — only personal experimentation will tell.
But in any case Dr. Rubman’s overall advice is to limit your consumption of any sweetener — natural or not — including this one.
Source(s):
Andrew L. Rubman, ND, founder and director, Southbury Clinic for Traditional Medicines, Southbury, Connecticut. http://www.SouthburyClinic.com.
June 20th, 2011 at 9:49 am
We are in 1881:
Tension sprang up over the past year between the Earp gang, in Tombstone, Arizona, and rowdy rustler associates of the Clanton family. Gambler-dentist “Doc” Holliday and the Earps had been robbing stage-coaches.
When Wyatt Earp decided to pin the blame on three outlaws, he asked Ike Clanton to help by betraying the men. Ike agreed, but the plan went astray and the outlaws were killed.
At this point the Earps and the Clantons feared the exposure of their double-dealing, and mistrust between them grew.
On October 26, Marshall Virgil Earp learned that the Clantons were at an empty lot once used by the OK Ranch. He swore in Holliday as a deputy, and went with his brothers Wyatt and Morgan to the old corral, where he ordered Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank ad Tom McLowery, and Billy Claiborne to surrender.
The Clantons – none of them gunfighters – prepared to disarm, whereupon shooting broke out. It seems that Wyatt Earp fired without warning, injuring Frank McLowery.
Billy Clanton fired back, while Billy Claiborne ran for cover. Morgan Earp killed Billy Clanton. Ike tried to wrest Wyatt’s gun away, only to be told: “Go on fighting or get away. “Since Clanton was unarmed he, too, fled for shelter.
Doc Holliday blasted Tom McLowery with a shotgun, and turned his pistol on the injured Frank. Frank fired back, hitting the dentist’s hip. But Morgan Earp despatched Frank McLowery with a bullet behind the ear. Bill Clanton went down shooting, and Wyatt joined Morgan in killing him.
The whole incident lasted about half a minute. It was, in effect, the murder of three unprepared men: the victory of the Fighting Pimps over the Rowdy Cowboys. Of such stuff is western heroism!
June 20th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. Martin Luther King, Jr.
June 20th, 2011 at 6:14 pm
Guam looks gorgeous, if only they can keep us white folks out of their bidness, they’d be IN bidness…I just want a week on the beach, that’s all. Luv, ZL
June 20th, 2011 at 7:54 pm
It is said that though humans behave as the animals they consume to each other, there are a few among them that will be given the opportunity to show they have mastered the influences of
Greed, Wrath, Infatuation, Desires, Lust and Ignorance.
June 20th, 2011 at 8:00 pm
I would leave humans in their perpetual cycle of birth and death. They are but animals themselves. They easily revert back to being insensitive to the sufferings of their fellow humans as any animal is to the suffering of the one he is torturing or killing.
Hence, what is the difference between the human animal and the animals they have subdued on their planet? Things are the way they should be. They manipulate and eat them, we manipulate and eat them.
iola//4j
June 20th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
I agree with iola//4j. We should leave the humananimal alone. Why teach humans to train their minds?
I do not believe that if the humananimal were to cleanse and purify its mind that it would rise to a level equal to ours and be able to maintain it against the temptations it has trained its mind to master.
To us the body is our servant, and our mind is our master.
The humananimal has a third component, Consciousness. It filters and controls the human’s mind. Beware freeing the humananimal’s mind and teaching it how to keep it untarnished.
I will always vote to keep the humananimal from bringing to the living galaxies the that which always follows the manbeast, the subjugation of his fellows for the benefits of wrath, infatuation, greed, lust, ignorance, desire, and bigotry.
They fit their purpose as farm animals. Why, because the TWO has chosen to walk among them, should we give them more than a passing thought?
N11m3
June 20th, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Once when asked why he chose to leave the Federation, the Emperor said that Power should be possessed by those who deserve it.
He was vilified for making that statement. Yet, He has wielded power so well that hardly is it noticed that He is in charge.
While others proclaim “submit yourselves to “us” we are your protectors now. He has never asked for submission of any kind. Would it not be more relevant to believe that THE TWO are here not because of the humans but because it is the area in which the Emperor offers his protection and personal presence?
I choose to believe so.
i0ke