Today (11/7) we made a trip to Talo’fo’fo’ Falls, taking in more of the natural beauty around Guam. These falls are in the same part of the island as the Inarajan Natural Pools which we already visited. The falls alone are worth the visit, but there were other nice surprises here as well.

Cost: $54 for five of us

Navigating The Falls

To get to the falls you have to ride a gondola down to them. It’s a fun way to get from point A to point B, and makes for a fun experience on its own.

After the ride you end up at the lower of the pair of falls, and there is a circular walking path that takes you past the lower falls. As the path continues around to the other side of the lower falls, it eventually rises to the upper falls. It’s on this path to the upper falls where the surprise side attractions can be found.

Walking to the left of the lower falls (as seen here), you come across a cafe that was closed. Just past the cafe you see a path to the next attraction.

Yokoi’s Cave

After about a five minute walk on this path into the jungle, you arrive at a replica of the hideout of Shōichi Yokoi. A typhoon destroyed the original cave. Yokoi was the last Japanese soldier on Guam by a long damn shot.

He was hiding from the time of world war II, not realizing the war had ended, until 1972 when he was found. That’s almost 28 years that he was hiding out evading capture. What he didn’t know is that nearly all of those years, nobody was after him. It makes me wonder if he could have made it another couple decades had he just played it cool.

The way he was discovered is that he encountered some local hunters while he was checking his traps in the same area they were hunting. He freaked out and started acting crazy because he assumed the hunters would capture and kill him. In reality they fed him and notified authorities. I think if he had just smiled, waved at the locals and walked away, nobody would have thought anything of it. Not that he necessarily wanted to spend more time alone in the jungle.

Upper Falls

After coming back to the main path from Yokoi’s cave, you continue up hill to the upper falls. These were a more traditional set of falls that I’m used to seeing. They are powerful enough to create a mist cloud as you get close to them.

Haunted House

The final attraction arrives as you hit the end of the path, which was completely unexpected. It’s a haunted house which I thought would be ridiculous, but it was a legitimate fun haunted house. AC was reluctant to even go in it after she saw and heard the first hallway.

The Rest Of The Day (11/7)

In the afternoon we watched the Broncos vs Raiders, and then later in the day we watched the Nuggets vs Kings (I think). We had normal FAC activities after that.

Travel Log: Day 134 (11/8)

I slept like shit last night, getting a 58 sleep score. It was the usual thing of alcohol plus salt. On top of that though, there were a bunch of drunk assholes outside of our condo from about 3am to 4am.

JC and I didn’t run because there was a 5K going on in the Tumon Bay area. It was in the area of our running route. Also after more careful consideration I didn’t want to risk tweaking my back before flying, or having my knee get stiff from being in a bent position too long on the flights.

I was able to confirm today on the United app that our flights to Denver are not impacted by the government shutdown and flight cancellations. That’s the most important leg in my mind. If I can get mom back, I can find a way back to Guam even if that return leg is cancelled.

As far as the rest of the day, we went to a gift shop so mom could get some things for various people back in Stratton. Then we watched the Nuggets vs Heat. JC prepared Thanksgiving dinner for lunch since my mom won’t be here on actual Thanksgiving. We exchanged Christmas cards/gifs with my mom after that. In the evening we watched a movie while the kids watched kids stuff.