I came to the Mariana Islands to visit a family member who was working there at the time.

Initially my impression was one of indifference. It was so incredibly hot and humid, we had a typhoon warning and it rained an awful lot.

My second week here, enlightened me. The Mariana Islands have an amazing history particularly pertaining to the Japanese occupation and the Americans in WW2. The stories that I heard were both incredibly sad and memorable. Tinian was where the Enola Gay departed to bomb Hiroshima.
I visited Guam, Saipan, Tinian Rota whilst on this trip.
The colour of the ocean was absolutely stunning. It looked as if someone had painted every hue off blue in stripes. The Marianas Trench which is the deepest part of the ocean in the world.......colours that emit above it are the deepest blue/black. It is hard to describe the beauty in simple words.

The tropical flowers were just gorgeous and abundant. Though is was the sunsets that were so breathtaking.
It is one of those destinations that I would really not have considered going to without a reason. This however was my second trip. I also travelled here in January 2005.
OK, the diving, always a good reason to travel. The diving here was a different experience. I loved it. The Grotto dive off Saipan was beautiful. The dives off Saipan Tinian to see the WW2 wrecks were great.....Japanese planes, tanks, US jeeps, u name it. A word of warning...the ammo is live.......and some bombs unexploded, another warning Tiger Sharks...all part of the excitement !!

Rota was definitely my favourite, tropical rainforests, a bird sanctuary, caves, beautiful beaches, rock pools, gr8 diving and unspolit.
I found the most amazing large swimming hole complete with it's own ecosystem of tropical fish and corals. Just wonderful, I stayed there for hours. Rota is a geologist's heaven. The volcanic rock formations are unusual and fascinating.