Tiffany's Micronesia Island Adventures : Guam

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Guam - before the conference

E/S Jex - awesome tour guides

We had doctors appointments in Guam before the conference started so we were able to enjoy a few sites. The Guam Senior couple, Elder and Sister Jex, showed us around. They are simply two of the funniest and know where everything is. President Mecham let us take his new van and Elder Tiffany drove us, (he has a Gps in his head so we never get lost). Here we are at the first site with the other couple, the Garretts, who also came in a few days early for appointments.

By the 18th and 19th centuries, travelers to the Marianas noted (lattes stones) only in abandoned areas, where they had apparently been left after foreign-introduced disease had decimated the Chamorro population. In modern times, latte stones are a symbol of Chamorro identity and are found in a wide variety of government, business and personal contexts. Concrete lattes are sometimes incorporated into new buildings, while residents of the Marianas will sometimes incorporate actual latte stones into the landscaping around their homes

Some archaeologists believe that only high status Chamorros lived in structures built on latte stones, while others have put forward the theory that all Chamorros in the Latte Period lived in latte structures, and that the height and number of the stones in the structure indicated social status.

A miniature Stonehenge-style monument in Guam, this site demonstrates a home-building technique that dates back to 500 A.D. The site shows eight pillars atop which the Chamorro people once built their homes. These pillars have been moved from different locations across the southern portion of Guam to rest here as a monument to the indigenous people. The pillars are made of limestone taken from coral, and were transported great distances, to the place of the homebuilder. These stones often doubled as grave markers topping the buried relatives of the homeowner and are considered sacred.