Going... going... Guam!

I’ve been to Guam, the US Territory in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (which appears like a dot on the map; a nunal sa tubig, to quote the title of an Ishmael Bernal film), four times but only for one-hour stopovers on PAL flights from Los Angeles.

So when Rowena Coloma and Luchie Sta. Ana of Travel Specialist invited my friend Raoul Tidalgo and me to a four-day familiarization tour, we grabbed the chance for a look-see of the largest island in Micronesia that spans about 212 square miles. Yes, that small.

Mention Guam and the first name that comes to the minds of Filipino movie writers and artists who have been there is Emilio Uy, the community leader and philanthropist/businessman concert-producer also fondly known as Ninong ng Mga Pinoy. Raoul and I were meeting Emilio for the first time, although we have heard so much about him (from friends like Carlo Orosa and Nestor Cuartero), but we felt like we had known him all our lives. He’s easy to like. You instantly felt comfortable in his company, and it did help that, being pure Chinese who has been in Guam for more than 34 years, he speaks Mandarin (which I don’t) and Fookien (which I do tolerably enough).

Described as “The Host With The Most,” Emilio was ready to act as our tour guide (with Annie Payne, a US National Defense retiree, as our “driver”), even if he was supposed to be taking it easy after an illness.

It felt like we didn’t leave home at all. There were Filipinos everywhere we went (almost half of the population is said to be long-time residents and migrants from the Philippines, next in number only to the native Chamorros) and all of them wore a smile, which meant that they were happy in that self-contained island that’s so serene, so calm and so stress-free. “Everybody here is almost a relative of everybody else,” volunteered a waitress at the coffee shop of the Pacific Star Resort & Spa which is located, like most of the hotels, along the beach (come, jump in, the water is fine!). “We are like a closely-knit family.”

Sept. 1 (Monday) was Labor Day (our luck!) in Guam and the rest of the US, so Emilio was free from work (managing his big school-supplies stores). Including brief stops to answer the call of nature and to hydrate ourselves with either bottled water or buko juice, the end-to-end tour took us half a day.

Some of the historic and scenic spots that we visited:

• Senator Angel Leon Guerrero Santos (Latte Park) Memorial Park, also known as Latte Stone Park that offers a glimpse into ancient Chamorro culture which used seven to eight lattes as foundation for homes and other buildings.

• Fort Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (or Fort Soledad), the last of four Spanish fortifications built in the village of Umatac, located at the top of a steep bluff. Did Ferdinand Magellan really first make a stop in Guam before proceeding east to the Philippines 1,200 miles away?

• The Baptist Church in the Inarajan Village (the church façade reminded us of the one in Cagsawa, Albay, which was destroyed by the Mayon Volcano eruption years ago). Inarajan Village is rich in cultural flair, home to the Gef Pa’go Chamorro Cultural Village which is a favorite visitor spot.

• The Mabini Historical Marker. Read the marker: On this site (Asan Point) lived Apolinario Mabini, immortalized in Philippine history as the Sublime Paralytic, the Brain of the Philippine Revolution, and the secretary of Foreign Affairs of the First Philippine Republic under Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo together with 51 other Philippine heroes among them Generals Artemio Recarte, Pio del Pilar, Mariano Llanera, Col. Maximo Hizon, Pablo Ocampo, Leon Flores, Pancracio Paltin and Maximo Tolentino…

• The Pedro Calungsod Monument, built only recently, showing the future Filipino saint on the beach being subdued by a villager chieftain who resented the 17-year-old shielding the leader of a religious mission.

• The Two Lovers Point, located at the top of a cliff overlooking the sea into which, according to legend, leaped two lovers who tied their hair (men were said to have worn their hair long) together because their families disapproved of their romance, very Romeo and Juliet! Visiting lovers usually leave heart-shaped key chains on the fence the way they do at a bridge in Paris, with locks whose keys are thrown into the river.

It was at the Two Lovers Point where we bumped into Black Pearl, an all-Filipino band from Manila which has been performing at the Chic Boy Bar owned and managed by Techie Torres, another long-time Guam resident. (If you happen to be in Guam and you want to enjoy the Black Pearl music, call Techie at 482-6874.)

The “quickie” tour was capped by a buffet dinner hosted by Emilio (but, of course!) at a five-star hotel with, among other guests, actor Bojo Molina and his family (more on them later), Sen. Dennis G. Rodriguez Jr. (who’s running for his third term in this November election) and his wife Lena, and Philippine Consul General Marciano R. de Borja who arrived in Guam only three weeks earlier (after having been posted in Japan, Madrid and New York as Philippine man in the UN) with his wife Esperanza with their daughter Agatha.

Our third (last) day in Guam was spent strolling at the mall where Bojo works as manager of a theater-complex owned by a Tsinoy taipan. There’s a Bench store in that mall. That same night, Emilio (again!) hosted a farewell dinner at a Japanese restaurant where — surprise, surprise! — we met Rachel Alejandro with her husband, Spanish journalist Carlos Santamaria, visiting her mom Myrna and her stepfather David Demauro (who is in construction business).

With us was Menchu Magallanes-Suarez (with the team of Sen. Rodriguez, who gladly drove us around the commercial area, educating us more about Guam along the way) and Roy Adonay, president of the Filipino Community of Guam.

Roy asked Raoul and me how to describe Guam in one word but I gave him a one-sentence answer — “Guam is a small island with a big, big heart!”

Of course, we missed other must-see places in Guam. But there’s always a next time, isn’t there?

(Postscript: Before Raoul and I left Pacific Star Resort & Spa for the airport 10 minutes away, guess who paid us a quick visit — yes, former Philippine STAR reporter Gina Tabonares-Reilly who moved from the US Mainland to Guam with her retired US Marine husband.)

(Note: For inquiries about Guam and other destinations, call Rowena Coloma at Travel Specialist office at landline 928-7487 or Luchie Sta. Ana at 0917-8361820.)

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