Two Lovers Point

        Two Lovers Point (Puntan Dos Amantes) is Guam’s most famous visitor attraction, and justifiably ours, too! We can see it from our living room/master bedroom and it’s a quick 10 minute drive away, so we’ve driven over there sometimes just to enjoy the sunsets. Very frequently we see newlyweds in their wedding clothes with a photographer capturing the breathtaking views. Its profile at the northern end of Tumon Bay rises 368’ from the reef below, offering views of both the eastern & western sides of the island. Its position provides a unique view of the mountainous volcanic geography of the south and the level limestone plateau of northern Guam.

     Not only are the views & sunsets spectacular there, but we like their Heart Lock Wall.  We’ve seen the craze..…globally…of lovers writing their initials/date on a lock and attaching it to a public bridge/fence/gate to symbolize their love. Most look like they were purchased at some local Ace Hardware and quite unattractive. However, at Two Lovers Point, they decided to get ahead of that curve and avoid aesthetic and structural concerns (& keep the attraction attractive!) by selling beautiful little red heart locks ($4) and foam hearts ($2) in 4 colors. Hey, we were married on Valentine’s Day, so you KNEW we’d invest six bucks to leave our own heart on the wall…hahaha!

     The legend of Two Lovers Point goes like this….....

“Long ago, in the time when Spain ruled Guam, there was a proud family living in Hagåtña, the capital city. The father was a wealthy Spanish aristocrat and the mother was the daughter of a great Chamorro chief. The family owned land and were held in high esteem by all, Chamorro and Spanish alike.

Their daughter was a beautiful girl, admired by all for her honesty, modesty, and perfectly natural charm. Her beauty bestowed the greatest pride and dignity unto her family.

One day, the girl’s father arranged for her to take a powerful Spanish captain as her husband. When the girl discovered this, she was so distraught that she ran from Hagåtña all the way to the north of Guam until she found a secluded and peaceful shore.

There, on the moonlit shore, she met and fell in love with a young warrior from a very modest Chamorro family. He was gentle, with a strong build, and had eyes that searched for meaning in the stars.

When the girl’s father learned of the two lovers, he grew angry and demanded that she marry the Spanish captain at once. That day at sundown, she stole away to the same high point along the shore and once again met her Chamorro lover.

Her father, along with the captain, and all the Spanish soldiers pursued the lovers up to the high cliff above Tumon Bay. The lovers found themselves trapped between the edge of the cliff and the approaching soldiers. All the young warrior could do was warn them to stay back, and the father ordered the soldiers to halt.

The lovers tied their long black hair into a single knot. Acting as if they were entirely alone, they looked deeply into each other’s eyes and kissed for the final time. Then, they leaped over the long, deep cliff into the roaring waters below.

The girl’s father and all who remained rushed to the edge to stare in great anguish.

Since that day, Chamorros have looked to the jutting peak above Tumon Bay with reverence. The two lovers remain a symbol of true love–a love in which two souls are entwined forever in life and in death. Thereafter, the high point on the cliff was known as Puntan Dos Amantes, or Two Lovers Point.”

South Pacific Memorial Park

     We enjoy exploring Guam, armed with an excellent map and a GPS. We literally just drive in/out side roads that are dirt/paved to see what’s at the end! One beautiful day we drove north along Route 1, headed towards Anderson AFB, trying to find the Pacific Memorial Park that was shown on our map… roads are notorious unmarked:-( What we found was so solemn, yet beautiful, that we chastised Guam for not putting a sign off the main road pointing towards it.

     In the Pacific War, waged from 1941-45, more than 500,000 Japanese lost their lives during combat on the beautiful islands scattered throughout the Pacific Ocean.  In addition, many Americans, as well as local Chamorro people who had lived a peaceful life in this region, died or were wounded in the fierce battles during these disastrous years. This location, at the foot of Mt. Matagi, marked the final, fierce battle for Guam between the Japanese and the Americans. The Japanese commander committed suicide and most of his men died here. In 1965, the South Pacific Memorial Association Mission visited Guam and the Micronesian islands with the purpose of locating and paying respect to the war dead (there were still numerous casualties of the war unaccounted). The leader met with a Msgr. Calvo (same last name as current /former governors here!). The priest commented on the mournful fact that 20 yrs. later they were still finding bones of dead Japanese scattered and left in the jungle or behind rocks where they died. He wanted to collect those bones and give them a formal funeral. The Japanese leader was moved by the priest’s sincerity & they collaborated in building the memorial tower dedicating their loyalty to their respective countries and also symbolizing wishes for friendship between Japan and the USA, and world peace. 

     The beautiful tower was completed five years later on the very grounds where the Imperial military was forced to give up its control of Guam. There is an ossuary in its basement as a final resting place of human skeletal remains found. Its design is in the shape of palms pressed together in prayer indicating the wishes for consolation of the souls of the dead and peace for all. Its construction & maintenance expenses have been exclusively covered by donations from the Japanese.

     In addition to the tower, there is the Queen of Peace chapel, which also houses artifacts that have been collected from the battleground & caves around this area. Also, several monuments, shrines and prayer sticks nearby.

     To the north of the memorial, there’s a flight of concrete steps down into a large depression that contains the entrances to four large, elaborate caves (that the Japanese forced Chamorro prisoners of war to build). It was the Japanese commander’s post with a large transmitter and where he and his staff died (60 Japanese bodies found in the caves…Americans sealed them with explosives). A second flight of steps descends to a spring that provided fresh water to the Japanese.