Today, Ashlyn, Bryan, and I went to a new park. I had seen the playground from a distance before, and as I got closer discovered that it is right next to the ocean. Most of the beaches on Guam (well, that I've seen!), are protected by a reef like 100 yards out. So the surf crashes way out there, and there are just gentle waves up at the water's edge. It's quite shallow for a long ways out, too. Anyway, this park was at the edge of the bay where the reef is. Boats were coming in and out with parasailers. There were a lot of fishermen standing on the big rocks at the edge of the water. There were surfers out catching the waves right near the edge of the rocks (and near the boats...made me think they were a little crazy sometimes). We watched for a minute and wandered on, exploring a bit as we made our way to the playground.
Besides the native fishers and surfers, it was pretty empty. There were 3 or 4 tourist buses and limos that dropped off small groups of Japanese tourists occasionally. (Can't say I ever saw that in St Louis...)
One man we walked past had just been reef walking. He had on big black boots, like extra-high-top tennis shoes, not fishing boots. He was carrying a mesh Jansport bag with his snorkel & mask inside. He asked if he could show the kids a baby octopus. Yes! Cool!
So he reaches in his bag and pulls out this little white octopus, maybe about 8" long. It kind of lays there on the ground, but we could see its suckers (um, probably not the technical term), and the man showed us where its beak is. Then, apparently since I thought this was great and not scary, he offered to show us a live one!
He reached into his bag again and pulls out a big brown octopus! This one starts crawling on the grass toward us. (I was holding Bryan. Not sure what he thought of it. Ashlyn thought it was great. It didn't bother her at all to have an octopus crawling toward her feet!)
Ashlyn had been holding a shell. She put it on the ground and the octopus crawled over and kind of grabbed it, then ditched it and moved on. We could see its eyes, and watch its whole head (?) expand and contract as it breathed. Very cool. Crazy.
He reached into his bag again and pulled out a third octopus!! This one was also white, about the same size as the brown one. I'm not the best with numbers, but I'd guess they were about 2 feet across. The head was maybe 4 inches across. I asked about the color difference. He said the brown one was trying to camouflage with the ground. The white one was was already dead because he (small hesitation) had stabbed it in the head because it was being naughty out there and biting him. (He was catching them for his friend to use them as bait for some other kind of reef fishing.)
As he put the live one back in his bag, it was suctioning to his hand pretty good. He said that one time he caught a really big one, and it was kind of suctioning to him all over his arms and neck (that would be freaky!). He got in trouble with his girlfriend cause he came home with hicky marks all over... He held out his hand to indicate that it was about as tall as his shoulder. (I can imagine that, but I can also imagine that it's kind of like a fish story...)
A few weeks ago I met another man who had been out walking the reef. (I had seen him way out there, from my perch on top of the bluff, and was surprised to find him in the parking lot when I got back to my car!) As he put the 5-gallon bucket in his trunk, I asked what he'd been catching. Reef fish. He nonchalantly said he didn't get a very good catch that day because there were too many sharks. (!)
Ashlyn told Loren about what we saw at the park. She speaks pretty well, but sometimes it takes a bit of context to interpret. He had a really hard time guessing that we saw an octopus on our way to the playground...
