Sumiyoshi (Tinian) Shinto Shrine - February 23, 2008

Again we were off to try to find the latte stones above the Sumiyoshi Shinto Shrine. This shrine is now called the Tinian Shrine. But as was pointed out for the January 5, 2008, hike, the real Tinian Shinto Shrine was near the current Catholic church in San Jose. On this hike there were six of us. This time I was sure we would find the latte stones because I had found them a week and a half ago, and marked their position on my GPS.

We started at the shrine as always. One of the first things you will notice is the large piga, Alocasia indica, going at the base of the shrine. This plant was most likely grown by the ancient Chamorros for food. To find out more about ancient Chamorro agriculture, click this link, but be warned this is a pdf file. This area located at the end of a drainage for the cliff area above, and has fairly deep rich soil. In the picture below, Erica stands next to the large piga plants.

A visit to the shrine is always called for on any hike near it. So the group headed up the path to the top of the shrine. In the picture below are Masa, Stacy, Mitch, Judy and Erica standing under the torii gate that marks the entrance to the Shinto shrine.

At the top of the Sumiyoshi Shinto Shrine is a small house. In the picture below Masa is leaving an offering of rice and salt, which is a traditional Japanese offering. From what I have read, salt is used for purification and rice is offered in prayer to the Shinto deities. Masa did this offerings at other places where Japanese soldiers may have died on this hike.

After visiting the shrine, we set off to find the latte site. The jungle near the shrine is some of the thickest jungle that I know about on Tinian. When I first arrived on Tinian, I visited this Shinto shrine. I wanted to see what the jungle looked like near it. So I set off to do a little exploring. Within ten minutes, I was so turned around that I didn't know where the shrine was any more. It took me another hour to find my way out. The picture below shows how dense the jungle can be in this area.

As we walked upslope toward the latte site, there is an old Japanese road that cuts across the slope. The base of the trees, in the picture below, are growing on the road bed. The slope above this road is very steep.

As you walk up hill, the jungle does open up a little bit, but is still fairly dense. The picture below was taken as we walked up the slope from the road pictured above. You can tell from this picture how steep the slope is.

A short distance above the old overgrown road is the latte site. This site is heavily overgown. Below is one of the larger pillar stones at this site, which has a nunu (banyan) tree growing on it. This stone is about seven feet tall. This is a fairly large latte stone and is part of a group of at least 14 stones, in two parallel rows of seven stones each, at this site.

The next two pictures below show another one of the pillar stones. The second picture shows me standing next to the stone.


Most of the pillar stones in this group were knocked over. Below is a picture of one of the down pillar stones.

The picture below is a capstone for the pillar stones pictured above.

Just to give you an idea of how overgrown this site is, the picture below does have a down pillar stone in it. It is right in the middle of the picture. Because of the overgrown nature of this site, it was very difficult to get a true idea of its size.

Right in front of the latte site pictured above, there is a second set of latte stones. These were shorter stones, maybe four feet high. Below is a picture of one of the pillar stones in this second site. I really did not count the number of stones, but most likely there are eight stones at this site.

The picture below shows how close these two sites are to each other. Below the whitest-gray stone, in the smaller of the two sites, is right in front of one of the downed stones from the larger latte site.

The picture below shows Stacy standing next to one of the smaller pillar stones at the second site.

After visiting the latte site, we continued south below the top of Carolinas Plateau. I can't say we really followed the bottom of the cliff, since in a lot of places there was not a cliff but a very steep slope.

As we walked south we came upon a patch of snake plants, Sansevieria trifasciata. These plants usually indicate a place where the Japanese had a settlement since they were commonly planted around buildings for ground cover. In the picture below Stacy and Erica are walking though the snake plant.
Just past the snake plants, we ended up on the top of plateau. The top of Carolinas Plateau used to be a cattle ranch for MDC (Micronesian Development Corporation). There are still fences running across it, that marked the old pastures. Most of these fences are in disrepair now. Below, in the picture, is a large corner post for one fence lines that used to run right at the edge of the plateau. This post was one of the markers I used for this hike, since I used it to tell me when to head back down the slope to the Shinto shrine on our return.

There are some small cliff areas near the latte site. They are not very high, maybe 10 feet or so, and do not run very far before just becoming a steep slope. In two of these cliff areas, we found Japanese shelters from World War II. Below is a picture of the first shelter with a stone wall that we found. It might have been large enough to hold two or three soldiers.

The picture shows one of the steep slope we had to cross between the cliffs. In the steep slope areas are a series of fox holes. The picture below does not show any fox holes but it does show how difficult it was to walk on these slopes because of the steepness and thick undergrowth.

Pictured below is the second shelter we found. It was much larger than the first one. Judy is just starting to come around the stone wall that helped to protect the entrance to the shelter in the picture. This shelter may have held between 5 to 8 men during World War II.

We continued south for a short distance past the shelter pictured above. The vines started to get thicker, because fewer trees were blocking the sunlight from reaching the ground. It was getting more and more difficult to travel through the jungle. But, at one point we did get a great view of San Jose Village, as is shown in the picture below. The dock area can clearly be seen in the picture below.

Because the undergrowth was getting thick, I decided it was time to head back to the shrine. I really did not want to follow our trail back, so I headed up the slope to the top of Carolinas Plateau, where I hoped the walking would be easier.

As we climbed to the top of the Carolinas, I almost walked in to the boonie bee nest pictured below. I felt a bee hit me in the chest and backed up real fast. Luckily that bee did not sting me. We carefully walked around this nest and no one got stung.

Below is a close up the the bee nest pictured above, after the bees had settled down once they got over me disturbing them.

Once we got to the top, the walking was a lot easier. We sort of followed an old fence line that ran north-south. I tried to avoid open fields, like the one picture below, because lantana, Lantana camara, grows in these open areas. This plant is poisonous and has small spines that are really irritating. They get under the skin and are hard to get out. Also scratches from this plant can take a long time to heal, and be irritating for three or so days afterwards.

After awhile, we found the fence post, which I mentioned above, and walked back through the snake plants to the latte site. We happened to come out a little below the latte pillar stones, but there were many capstones in this area. Most likely they rolled down the slope from the latte site, which is about 50 feet above the capstones.

It was back down the steep slope to the shrine. The picture below was taken just above the old road that was discussed above. It was really steep as you can see from how how Stacy and Judy are going down it.

Right now, it is the dry season, and for animals water becomes crucial. During the dry season, we may not get rain for 3 or 4 days in a row. If there is no rain for two weeks, it is considered a drought. The reason for this is that Tinian is a raised limestone island. Any water that falls on it drains very quickly through the soil and into the aquifer. Water puddles after a heavy rain (2 or 3 inches) rarely last more then a day.

Because of the dryness, animals have to find ways to get water. In the picture below a hermit crab is getting some moisture from an injury in a coconut tree. I really don't know if coconut crabs caused the injury or are they just taking advantage of it. It would be an interesting research project for some tropical biologist to learn how different animals get water during the dry season.

Finally we made it out of the jungle and back to the shrine. The picture below shows Mitch and Judy as they leave the jungle.

So we finally found the latte site above the Sumiyoshi (Tinian) Shinto Shrine. The problem is that it is not the one that I remember finding last spring. The latte stones had found with Dan, Aruika and John, last spring, were much shorter (may 2 or 3 feet high), with a larger set of stones very close to the top edge of the plateau. I will have to do some more hiking in the next month to see if I can find the other site I think is in this area to see if I can find the other site I remember. Well, at least we finally made it to some latte stones!

As always, I would like to thank Mitch and Judy for the additional pictures in this posting.

The boonie bee count for this hike was zero, none, zip. No one got stung. There were a few close calls, but we got lucky this time.

The next hike will be to the Lake Hagoi area at North Field. I want to look for the old Okinawan village that used to be on its west side. It has been over 10 years and many typhoons since I have been to this site. Once we find the village, we will walk all the way around the lake, most likely not seeing it at all because of the pago and tall reed that grows on its edge. Be prepared for bees since a lot of this hike will be through tangangan forest. Meet at 8 A.M., on Saturday, March 1, at Grace Christian School.

Everyone Is Welcome On These Hikes.

Long Beach Latte Site - February 2, 2008

Four of us set off on a fine Saturday morning to explore the Latte site above Long Beach. This is a fairly easy hike and I have always enjoyed it because of the variety of communities that we will walk through. You start the hike at a nice beach, climb a small cliff, walk through limestone forest and finally into secondary forest with large ironwood trees.

The hike starts at Long Beach (Unai Dankulo). This is one of the few beaches that you can find star sand at, but you have to look carefully. The picture below is of Long Beach facing north. On the right side of the picture, behind the coconut tree, you can see Saipan in the distance.
The trail starts near the southwest corner of the main beach (Long Beach is really a series of around 13 beaches). It is hard to find and you really have to know where to look to see the start of the trail. Below is picture of the trail just after it starts. It is completely covered by vines and overlapping weeds. You have to bend over a little when first entering the trail, but it soon opens up and is easy to follow.

The trail soon comes to a cliff. You want to go to the right at the cliff. As you follow the cliff, you will come to some steps that have been build into it. These steps were built by either the Marianas Visitor Authority (MVA) or the Historical Preservation Office (HPO). In the picture below Judy is standing on the steps about halfway up the cliff.

At the top of the cliff is a metal sign that gives information about the trail. This trail was setup by either MVA or HPO, for either a tourist or cultural attraction, maybe 8 or 10 years ago. Just to the right of this sign, about 100 to 150 feet away, is a series of large sinkholes. Sinkholes are occur when the top of a cave falls in.

These sinkholes are fairly deep. I would guess they are about 30 or 40 feet deep. The picture below show the first sinkhole. It shows a column and an opening that goes to the second sinkhole in this series.

Below are a picture of Mitch and Ikue looking into the second sinkhole.

The picture below give a better idea of the size of this sinkhole. From the large stalactite in the bottom right of the picture, the sinkhole must drop down another 20 or 30 feet. This sinkhole is a little deeper than the first one and connects to it.

After visiting the sinkholes, we returned to the first sign on the trail. The trail continues toward the west, trough a rocky area with a lot of pinnacles. Pinnacles are caused by differential erosion of the limestone. Some of the limestone is a little harder than the surrounding limestone. Because it is harder, it does not erode as fast as the surrounding limestone and protects the limestone under it from erosion. The picture below shows the trail, looking towards the cliff above Long Beach.

Some of the pinnacles can be quite large, as the one in the picture below.

Also in the limestone forest area are fairly large banyan (nunu) trees. The banyans in the Long Beach area do not get as large as some other areas on Tinian, because this beach is on the east side of Tinian and more exposed to typhoons. Below is Ikue near one of the larger banyans we found on our hike to the latte sites.
This trail is also used by coconut crab hunters. To hunt coconut crabs, a coconut, with a cut in the side of it that goes through the shell of the coconut, is placed on a stake. This attracts the coconut crabs from their hiding places. The coconut crab hunter comes back at night to see what each trap has attracted. Below is a coconut trap that has attracted some hermit crabs.

Along the trail, just after you leave the limestone forest, is another sinkhole. This one is not too deep and can be easily climbed down into. Below is Mitch taking a picture of the sinkhole, which has another coconut crab trap next too it.

As mentioned above, this trail has metal signs along it that explain different aspects of the Chamorro culture. Below are Ikue and Judy reading one of the signs while Mitch takes a picture of the small latte stones next to it.

When first approaching the sign, be careful and look under them. There might be boonie bee nests under them, as in the picture below. If you disturb a sign, you might get stung.
The signs are quite well done, as can be seen in the picture below, too bad the trail has fallen into disrepair.

Not all latter pillar stones are that tall. I have found that most are about 18 to 30 inches tall. As you follow the old trail, you will end up going by about four of these small pillar stone latte sites. In the picture below the latte pillar stones barely stick out of the weeds.

In the picture below is Mitch next to a latte pillar stone and its capstone.

Pictured below is my shoe, with the heel on the ground, pushing against a small latte pillar stone.
There are pinnacles that stick out of the ground that might look like a latte stone. So how do you know if you are at a latte stone site? The stones will be usually in two rows with at least four stones, or more, in each row. The stones will also be fairly evenly spaced apart. Of course, you need to be careful since some of the stones may be missing from a given site.

As we walked under the ironwood trees, Casuarina equisetifolia, the white terns would fly above us. These birds would follow us as we walked along.

One other animal that we encountered on this hike was the boonie bee, which is a common paper wasp from Asia. In the picture below is a large nest of them. Lucky for us there were not that many nest because of the rain the night before the hike.

Finally we arrived at the large latte site that is a little over a third of a mile from where the trail starts. In the picture below is one of the tall latte pillar stones that still is standing. It is about six feet tall and covered in vines.

Below is Ikue and Judy next to the same stone as pictured above. This picture give you an idea of the size of these stones at the major latte site at Long Beach.

The capstones at this latte site are fairly large as you can tell from the picture below. Mitch is just getting ready to step over a fallen pillar stone with the capstone to her left.

One of the stones is slowly being overgrown with a banyan tree as can be seen in the picture below. Most likely this tree will slowly destroy this pillar stone with time.

Ikue is a professional photographer, and she was fascinated with the hermit crabs on the coconut crab traps. She spent a lot time trying to get a good picture of one and I hope she did.

As we entered the limestone forest, on our return, I happened to spot a land crab in the leaf litter. It blended in real well with its surroundings as you can see in the picture below.

After taking pictures of the crab, someone asked if it was alive or not, because of how still it sat. I said it was most likely alive and put the tip of my machete next to it. As I did this, the crab suddenly became very active, raising its claws to defend itself. Every one hurried to turn their cameras back on, but the crab started to head toward a rock very quickly. I got the picture below just as it went around a tree, next to the rock it was heading towards to hide under.

Finally we arrived back at the beach, and spent some time enjoying it and taking pictures. The picture below is again toward the north, like the first picture in this posting. Just around the point, on the left side of picture, the beach continues. Notice that there are now more clouds then there was earlier in the morning.

The picture is taken from about the same place as the photograph above. It shows Long Beach toward the south. Just past the rocks at the south end of this beach is another smaller beach.

The video below gives a 360 degree view of Long Beach.

In the wall at the south end of Long Beach are two Japanese bunkers from World War II. The picture below shows the one nearest the ocean. It is now full of rocks and sand, and is impossible to get into.

The second bunker, pictured below, is more inland and behind some trees. Again, it is full of sand and rocks, and impossible to enter.

One of the traditonal stops on the Long Beach hikes is to look at the petroglyphs in a cave nearby. In the picture below Judy is entering the cave with the petroglyps.

In the picture below Ikue is looking at the petroglyphs. The one that sort of looks like a tunna facing up is modern, and most likely less then twelve years old. It was done by one of my former students. Please, if you visit this cave, don't damage this site anymore than it already is.

In the back of this cave is a room that has some neat cave structures. You have to walk over some loose rocks to get to this room. The picture below is taken through the mouth of the room, toward where the petroglyphs are located.

This is a fairly easy hike, and I do recommend this hike if you want a little adventure, but not too much adventure. You should have a guide to find the large latte stone site, but you can find the smaller sites by following the flags that mark the old cultural trail. If you have a GPS, the coordinates to the large latte site are N 15 degrees and 02.313 minutes, and E 145 degrees and 38.741 minutes.

I would like to thank Judy for the additional pictures used in this posting.

As for the boonie bee count, it was zero. We did see some very large nests, and even a few small ones with one or two bees on them, but no one walked into any of the nests.

The next hike will be on Saturday, February 9. We will be going back to the Mt. Lasu are to explore the cliff line from the Shinto Shrine toward the northwest. We will visit the old Japanese radar and the window cave (see the January 28 hike). After the window cave, I really don't know what we will find. We will meet at 8 AM at Grace Christian School.

Everyone Is Welcome On These Hikes.