Talofofo River and ancient Chamorro villages

On Sunday I went on a riverboat cruise on Talofofo River.  It was fun, but you went about 100 feet in either direction and then turned around because the river is blocked..so neat!  I am not in a biology class, I was a note taker/tutor for a student in a marine biology class but the student dropped and that made me sad.  The professor liked me and told me I could just come to class if I felt like it and all of the labs...so I just kind of show up for things and he lets me come with.  I was on standby because there were too many students signed up for the tour, but the professor just told me to get on the boat so I did.  

I learned that the river has walking catfish, which pretty much sounds like every nightmare I have ever had, there are crabs that have been conditioned to come out of their sand holes when you throw bread at them because they are lazy sand crab bastards that rely on the kindness of Japanese tourists to throw enriched white bread at them.  Also there are chickens.  Lots and lots of chickens that look remarkably like mini raptors that I am positive could potentially rip out your intestines if you made them angry enough.

I also learned that the hibiscus flowers fall off of their stems in the afternoons because of the heat and that you can eat them..maybe. It might have been a different flower.. I wasn't really paying attention all that much.

This is sand that has something in that makes it magnetized.. I couldn't remember what its called.  You can google it if you want.

Trucks and stuff, cause nothing sreams "NATURE!" like random trucks and machinery sitting near the riverbanks.

This is the visitors center situated on what was once an ancient Chamorro village on the banks of the Talofofo River.

The thatched roof, raised home is not a remainder of the ancient Chamorros, they built that using not so ancient methods, but this is what a high caste member of a Chamorro tribe would live in.  The homes were built and raised up on what is called a latte stone.  The higher your home, the higher your position.

Ancient latte stones, apparently one time a cow came over and wandered into the campsite and started rubbing up against a latte stone and tipped it over.  As a visitor you are not allowed to itch yourself on the latte stones or touch them.  They were built somewhere between 1100-1700 AD.

Just some photos of the cruise.  It was a fantastic day to be on a boat.  The sun was shining and there was a cool breeze.  It was close to 90, but I still could have worn a sweater and been fine*

Darryl and I before we had to walk up some stairs.  We HATE walking up, and just walking in general.

This is a rock or something like that.  The picture is pretty anticlimactic compared to seeing it in real life. Sorry losers.

Standing in the cave, again very unimpressive in the photo, but sort of neat to see in real life.

This guy made fire with two sticks in about 30 seconds.  It was actually like 10 seconds.  I only had enough time to get a picture of the flame because it happened so quickly.

Some rocks.. I don't know.

After the riverboat cruise, we had a BBQ.  There was food and it was delicious and I didn't take any pictures so you can come up with images in your mind about how you think a BBQ at a house over looking the Talofofo River and the Pacific ocean might look.  One word. NO SNOW.. ok that was too, but there was no snow and it was hot outside and I had to wear sunglasses and stuff.  I bet all the snow in North Dakota is awesome**

*If its not 90 degrees, its cold here.

**By awesome, I actually meant intolerable.

Have fun shoveling your driveways losers!  I'm never coming back.