more from Tinian

an all-pink room!

the hospital put us up at the "Dynasty" Hotel & Casino

Linguistics

We found this statement in a book we are reading on island nations in the Pacific:

"These small scattered island groups are, however, amazingly diverse in terms of native culture.  One-third of the world's languages are spoken in just four places: Papua New Guinea, the Solomon islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia."  (Pacific Ocean, World Almanac Library.  Jen Green 2006)

Really?  That sounded very hard to believe.  So we looked it up.

A quick internet search turned up this and this from Nat Geo, both of which claim that the Pacific contains 19% of the world's languages, which is still impressive considering that the population of Oceania is less than 1% of the global population.

Does anyone have any more information about this?  Comments or thoughts?

Just try and guess how she got this mark... (you'll never guess)

Sea turtles

A couple of times a month, the Sea Turtle Program folks will go out and try to catch a few in order to measure and weigh and tag them (then release them, of course) to learn more about the habits of these amazing creatures.  They called us one morning to see if we were available to come down and observe while they cataloged the six they had snatched that morning.

A. held this one, then released it back into the water.  They can reach up to 35mph speeds

They take "mug shots" of the turtles, and photos of their shells since each pattern is kind of what
a thumbprint is for humans: individual and unique

Okay, but here is one of the coolest things about how they go about doing this: the man on the right, who is holding that fatty in front of us, is Jesse.  Jesse's main contribution, and the entire reason that the Program here in the CNMI can do what it can do, is that he knows how to free-dive down and sneak up on the fellows, then grab them before they know he is there.  Barehanded, at dozens of feet of depth.  How cool is that?
They invited me to serve as a volunteer sometime.  Along with other duties, I will evidently get to swim along in the water with Jesse and watch underwater while he does his thing.  Yes, please!

we flew to Tinian

You can see the island of Tinian from Saipan.  It doesn't even need to be a particularly clear day; it's just three miles away, to the south.  We went there for a week recently, tagging along while Daddy worked at the hospital temporarily.

It is about a 7 minute flight, since Saipan's airport is on the southern end of the island already.

That plane there on the right was ours

Maybe we were a little nervous...

(coast of Saipan) 

(coast of Tinian)

We do not get tired of visiting new places with stunning ocean vistas.

Hermit crabs, aka 'hermies' (By L.)

Shark Attack (by BR)

Latte Stones, part II, on Tinian (by AM)

We walked to the Taga House from our hotel (in the rain!), and saw the gigantic latte stones there. In the Marianas, Tinian is famous for this site because it is one of the only places where ruins of latte stones are easily found, and they are the largest.  The latte stones there are the actual ones left over from the Taga House that chief Taga is believed to have constructed.

I am surprised that they have not all crumbled away! Only one latte stone is still standing.  The others toppled over because of earthquakes, wear and tear, or perhaps battles.

The latte stones are made from coral rock, taken from the quarry at Taga Beach, where the ancient Chamorros dug into it. No one really knows what they dug into the coral with, or how they carved the stones.  The latte stones at the Taga house are between 15 and 17 feet high.

top view of capstone

On the sign at the entrance of the Taga House site, they posted the legend of the Man of Taga and how he became the chief of the ancient Chamorro village.  He was believed to have been a giant, and tremendously strong.

FACTS:

• The latte capstones were constructed in such a way where they curved; one of the theories of why this is so, is because it prevented rats from climbing into the buildings.
• There is a quarry at Taga Beach, as I have already mentioned, across the street from the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino.  Some people believe that the ancient Chamorros floated the cut-out latte stones on rafts over to the Kammer Beach area, 1 mile away and carved them there. Other people believe that they carried the stones on their shoulders and necks back to their houses.

There are a lot of unanswered questions about the latte stones and the buildings they made with them.  We don't even know for sure what the houses looked like, although some folks have made some guesses.  What we do know is that they are unique to the Mariana Islands and were an impressive accomplishment in their day.