March 14, 2017 – Tuesday
When in Guam 🇬🇺 there is the beach; Ypao Beach that is! 🌴🌊☀️ A day before Tuesday, I had the most BORING day ever… the Guam hot weather really did not make my whole day any better. I thought about what to do the next day and I thought about going to the beach for a refreshing swim just to be out of the house to beat the heat and relax. I also brought along my handy GoPro with me ’cause you know what’s more fun to take videos and photos from underwater? and let me just say that this day was worth the swimming with the fishes.
Ypao Beach, also known as the Governor Joseph Flores Beach Park, but we mostly prefer to call it Ypao Beach as it’s also in the map. Ypao beach is located in the village of Tumon, the busiest tourist industry, or as I would call it a ‘mini Waikiki’, near the Hilton hotel. This is the biggest public beach on Guam where every activities like parties, picnics, festivals, and concerts happen, which is indeed the most busiest beach park on Guam, especially on weekends. There’s also a small playground where kids can play and small cottages plus one big one for either parties or BBQ and a pavilion. But what’s most fun about Ypao beach is it is one of the best snorkeling places in Guam beaches.
What To Bring: Sunblock, Snorkel Gear, Tabbies or Fins, Life Vest, and Waterproof Camera/GoPro, and Friends/Parents (to accompany you in case something happens while swimming)
This day I had the best snorkel time of my life, considering the fact where I have been snorkeling has been on the wrong side of the beach from the times I came here to swim. All that time I have been swimming in the middle part of the beach where there were not much of the corals, at least one, and the same kinds of fishes. It was then I realize all the way down on the left side of the beach is where all the corals were and when there’s corals there is fishes. The reefs were just further down on the left almost towards the side of the Hilton hotel. I noticed there were tourists with their snorkels and fins swimming from that side and so I went there to check what’s more over there turns out I was correct, there were many different fishes.
Now I finally know the perfect snorkeling spot I couldn’t help but ‘keep swimming’ with all the fishes from the coral rocks while video recording, sadly I couldn’t find Marlon, Nemo, or Dory anywhere. But that’s okay someday it will happen and I would definitely would want to get a photo/video. (Tip for GoPro users: go to ‘Video’ mode, change resolution to ‘1080 x 60fps’, FOV to ‘Wide’, Turn on ‘Protune’ and change the following: White Balance: Auto, Color: GoPro Color, ISO Limit: 400, Sharpness: High or Medium, and EV Compensation: -0.5. Hope this helps get the best results with your underwater shots.)
P.S. Be very careful not to step on top of the corals as they are living organisms and they take about a long long time to grow back and we don’t want that to happen. Also don’t take a piece of the corals otherwise could end up in jail from beach patrols.
The more time I was enjoying the waters, it was then I never have I ever went snorkeling like this before. I mean I lived on Guam my whole life and never did much of these fun activities. Because of this I got to do I look forward for more like this in different beaches, possibly scuba diving soon, maybe take away my fear in swimming in deep sea and hopefully get to see a real sea turtle.
Also, please enjoy watching this video I put together with all the videos I took with the fishes. I apologize for the shakiness of the video.
There you have it! This is the best snorkel activity I ever did in my lifetime. Now I’m up for more and more adventures around my island home to some places I would like to go and experience and share them as my GUAMventure series. We’ll just see about that, until next time.
– LianaJae
Acknowledgements:
- All photos and video footages property of LianaJae
- Camera used GoPro Hero 5 Session
lianajae.wordpress.com 