Guam, the metropolis of Micronesia, is an American military outpost bristling with antennae, dishes and domes.  At the same time it’s a busy resort for Japan’s “office ladies” shopping till they drop in slick shopping malls, frolicking on manicured beaches.  Yet in sleepy villages around the coast where Magellan dropped anchor in the 16th century, you’ll find Chamorro villagers preparing for fiestas, their pre-Christian traditions alive if heavily overlain by centuries of Spanish – and now American – rule. 

For many the great attractions of Guam are waiting in the silent depths.  Australian diving entrepreneur John Bent is attempting to salvage one of the 17th century Spanish galleons, laden with Mexican silver, which floundered on the reef separating the island from the abyss of the Marianas Trench.  Others seek out the legacies of World War Two, above or below the waterline.

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