Hike to Talefofo Caves

Talefofo Caves, Guam, was our destination on Friday afternoon, February 1.  Richard went to work with Rob on Friday, and several other days.  Richard was Rob's college roommate, and they have been buddies ever since, so it was natural that they would want to have fun on an engineering project together.  Robin, all of our kids and I did some cleaning and got some things in order for Sabbath.  Then we drove to meet Amy Krum and her kids at Guam Adventist Academy where her husband Roger works.  Roger took us all on a tour of the academy, and then we sat down to eat lunch together at one end of the gym.  When Rob and Richard got off of work, they drove over and met us at the academy too, and ate a few bites of food.  Actually, if I hadn't worked hard to save some food for them, that is about all the food that would have been left for them.  The boys are big eaters, and the girls aren't far behind them.

 The caves aren't far from the academy, and the town of Talefofo.  You park in a wide spot, and star up the jungle trail.  It feels hot at first, but once you are under the shade of the trees, it isn't too bad.

 There are lots of interesting jungle things to look at.  Ferns grow on trees, or dangling by a root from a tree limb.  Lizards scurry to the other side of the rock.  Pandanas trees grow up from strange clumps of roots.

Vines climb over almost everything.  The Krums said they saw a Moniter Lizard here before too.

You can click on the photos to see them larger.

The Blue-tailed skink, Emoia caerueocauda, was quick to catch my eye.  But in spite of it's name, only juveniles and females have the striking blue tail.  Young blue-tailed skinks have three yellow stripes on their back which fade in adulthood.  It looks almost identical to the Azure-tailed skink, but this skink lives only on Cocos island.  You can tell the two apart by counting the number of scales under their fourth toe (if you can catch one, that is).

The curious brown skink, carlia fusca.  (Yes, curious is part of its official name.) This skink is different then other lizards in the are as it has only 4 fingers on its hands.  The blue tailed skinks and other lizards have five fingers on each hand.  It is mostly active on sunny days, and likes to find the sunny spots in the jungle.  It is quite active, investigating any movement that might be food.  It is an extremely common lizard in many localities.  It is said to be the most common food item of the brown tree snake.

Learn more about the lizards of Guam including geckos and moniter lizards here. 

Bird-nest fern

Here is our group of cavers, getting ready to go in the first cave.

The opening to the first cave you come to, just big enough to crawl into, but roomy after that.

Like I said before, the cave entrance is small.  (Actually, this is not the first cave we went into, but rather the last one, but still, it was small too.)

 Once you crawl through the entrance of the first cave, you have to slide down several feet.  There are a few hand and foot holds, but not many.  Thankfully, it wasn't wet, and it wasn't cold either, like caves in the Pacific Northwest.  After we'd been in the cave for a while, we started sweating good in the still, warm air.

 There are lots of nice limestone cave features, including these interesting places where the minerals glow and sparkle white when you shine a light on them.  (All the photos inside the cave were taken with a flash.  The ones that weren't were deleted, because you couldn't see anything in them.)

Rose and Araya

The young and agile climbed up and out of the cave at this point and then back around to the entrance to do it again.  You had to be small and brave to go out a tiny hole somewhere up there.  I wasn't brave, even though I am small, so I took care of the cameras.

The rope was already there for those who wished to use it.

 We went to the caves per Caleb's request.  There he is in the top of the above photo.  I think he really did enjoy his explorations in the dark.

 Two different caves had evidence that people had lived there in the past.  Two caves had indentations in the rock, just outside the opening, where women must have ground grain or roots.  One cave has some petroglyph  inside.  The most famous petroglyph was removed decades ago by some explorer, and is now in a museum in Hawaii.

The indentations for grinding were smaller then I expected them to be, only 5 - 6 inches across. 

One of the caves is like a wind tunnel and has an opening at the other end where the sea breezes rush through.  When you stand at the entrance, it is like standing in front of a giant fan.  The wind cools you right off.

Amy

Richard

Rob

Barbara

Caleb and William

Another cave leads to an opening that overlooks the sea.  Rob and I stayed out side of that cave and looked for skinks and monitor lizards.  I was getting tired of climbing over the jagged limestone rocks.  Rob wandered around and found a view point overlooking the whole coastline on the east side of the island, below the town of Telefofo.  So when the cavers re-emerged, we took them up there.  Wow!  It was beautiful!  And the Krums had never found this spot before.

Up at the overlook the kids found this inscription.  We are still wondering what it means, and who put it there.  It says USED and then I think it is the date 1913.

What do you think?

This seal is also in the same area dated 1963, by Guam Geodetic Triangulation.

Yona, Gaum, to the north

View straight out from the lookout

A little to the south is Telefofo Bay.