Chamorro Village

Last Wednesday evening after my first day of diving I picked up K from work and we went to Chamorro Village, which is about fifteen minutes from where we're living and about five minutes from K's office. There they hold a street fair of sorts every Wednesday night, with tons of great looking food, musicians and dancers, and vendors selling their wares. I couldn't resist buying the piggy bank made from a coconut - his ears are so cute! He will serve as storage for my tiny diving treasures.

I also saw the ugliest crab I've ever seen - this picture does NOT do it justice (click to enlarge). From below, it reminded me of the facehugger form of Sigourney Weaver's alien foes (her character, Ripley, is my dog's namesake). It's a coconut crab, the largest terrestrial arthropod. Their pincers are strong enough to crack coconuts, one of their main food sources, though they also eat fruits and may scavenge dead animals.

Right next to Crab Dude was another person holding (I think) a monitor lizard. The video I took wasn't that great because the light was so low, but these people seemed to be hanging out here with these animals for the sole purpose of posing for tourists like me to take their pictures. How could I let them down?

After walking around a bit, we settled on a line for dinner. I ordered the Fiesta Plate and got a huge pork chop, skewered barbequed chicken, red rice, shrimp patty, and chapchae (a Korean noodle and veggie dish) all for $7.

This ended up being dinner, as well as my pre-diving breakfast for the next two days. Guam seems to be like Texas and Las Vegas in that portions are quite large here. Meats and starches carry the meals as veggies are pretty scarce/not fresh. Veggies that look good in the grocery stores are root vegetables and cabbages. As such, I've had several helpings of really good cole slaw here, and great fries and onion rings.

Can't wait for next Wednesday.