Rota - Home of the handwave...

Rota is by far the most peaceful island you could ever visit. It is roughly 45 minutes away from Saipan and is about half the size. It population is about 2,000 and truely feels small town. We were in the middle of nowhere... cell phones didnt work, only a few markets on island to buy food, hardley a radio station came on in the car, and everyone was so friendly! If you ever come visit us, plan a few extra days to take you on a mini vacation to Rota.

There are ony 3 villages on the island of Rota. This is the main one, songsong, and you can see wedding cake hill in the background....

While on Rota we played real tourists and rented a car... we spent a good 3 hours taking a drive around this beautiful island and taking in all the must see attractions throughout the weekend.

The beaches are a little different then Saipan. Their reefline is much closer to shore then ours is in Saipan. So needless to say it is much rockier and rougher. While we were there it was pretty windy making it real rough, so we were unable to swim. But it was still beautiful just hanging out on the beach looking for sea glass and old chomorrow pottery.

For the first two nights on Rota, we stayed with a friend at his home. The third night we needed some time for just us. So we rented a great room at a local resort called the Coconut Village. Each of the rooms are raised up off the ground, have no TV, no phone and have beautiful views. We felt like we were truely staying island style... it was awesome! I can't wait to go back!

Our Room is the one of the left with the door open, and up top is mark still in bed enjoying our beautiful view of the ocean...

Rota has alot of Chumorrow history on it... Saipan has lost alot of it, but Rota and really taken pride in theirs. Here is Mark and a Latte Stone Quary. The locals used these stone 3,000 years ago to make their homes... They are taller then Mark...

And almost taller then me. Can you image how long it would take to chip away at these to get them just right, move them and make homes out of them... how many men would it take to move them! Yikes!

Our last day, Monday morning, we spent on the beach in front of the Coconut Village.... It was the most beautiful beach i think I have ever seen. We felt like we were really in paradise.

It was an awesome and relaxing trip. One we hope to take again very soon. We saw some amazing places and things (fruit bats - going exstinct, we saw them in their natural habitat)... We can't wait to go back to Rota! God definatly knows how to make things beautiful....


To see more photos of our trip and just life, go visit our new photo blog site: http://www.markandbrittany.shutterfly.com/

We will try and keep this updated as much as possible so that you can go and see our life happenings...