Pacific Magazine > Magazine > June 29, 2007

Pac Travel

A Walk In Paradise

Sometimes Government Gets It Right

By Frank S. Rosario, Saipan, Photos by JACQUELINE HERNANDEZ

The Beach Road Pathway is most popular with locals in the early evening.

Sometimes government gets it right. There aren’t too many examples of that being the case in the Pacific, but if you ever want to see how a good idea can have consequences even better than initially imagined, one need look only to Saipan.

There, along picture postcard perfect beaches and rugged limestone cliffs, a network of public pathways gets hundreds of islanders off their couches and walking off the pounds and stress. And it has become a picturesque way for visitors to enjoy tropical weather, stunning views and meet scores of friendly
locals who are working up a sweat.

In the mid-1990s, the Northern Marianas commonwealth began putting in a series of concrete pathways along some of Saipan’s most scenic and historic beaches. The initial four-mile Beach Road Pathway follows the coast from the southern edge of Garapan village to the outskirts of Oleai village.

A newer pathway, about a mile long, is further north in Garapan at the American Memorial Park. It starts at Micro Beach and meanders along the coast to an unlikely end point, the remains of the Puerto Rico dump, a man-made mountain of trash compacted and covered by dirt. The walk is much prettier than it sounds, and is being expanded.

A third two-mile trail is in the Marpi area of North Saipan, along a road that goes from the last command post of the island’s embattled Japanese defenders in World War II to the top of Suicide Cliff, the solemn cliff-top where hundreds of Japanese civilians jumped to their death rather than surrender to advancing American troops during the battle for Saipan in 1944.

All of the pathways have stunning scenery, either the beaches or views across the northern tip of Saipan to either the Philippine Sea to the West, or the Pacific Ocean to the east.

The pathways are used throughout the day, although most of those exercising are out in the early evening hours at the Beach Road Pathway. The American Memorial Park trail is the second-most popular with locals. A contractor is currently working on expanding that pathway around the Army Reserve facility to the entrance to the Port of Saipan. That would allow passengers of visiting cruise ships or military vessels on port call to be able to use that pathway to walk to island’s main tourist shopping center—Garapan—a little over a mile away.

The least used trail is also the quietest and most challenging—the Marpi Pathway—as it starts at the Japanese War Memorial and snakes up the hill toward the top of 800-foot Suicide Cliff.

It is common to see local residents walking or jogging early in the morning or late at night at Beach Road pathway. Mixed in among the joggers are parents pushing their kids in baby strollers.

The Beach Road Pathway

The people you meet on the pathways are a microcosm of Saipan’s resident population. You’ll come across Chamorros and Carolinians, as well as the many nationalities represented in the island’s foreign worker population.

Among the locals who are regular pathways users are former governor Juan N. Babauta and the current Secretary of the
Department of Public Health, Joseph Kevin Villagomez.

Babauta, an avid jogger, used to jog almost daily on the Beach Road pathway during his term in office from 2002-2006.  He has since switched to Marpi.

Babauta jogs almost daily—from the entrance of the Nikko Hotel all the way to Suicide Cliff, a six-mile run. Last year, Babauta ran that course seven days a week until he hurt his knee. After seeing three different doctors because of the pain in his leg, he was told to cut back on his routine and try other physical exercise.  So he reduced his jogging to five miles every other day, running a five-mile route under an hour.

“My record time for the five-mile run is 53 minutes,” Babauta told Pacific Magazine. “I’m in better shape now than when I was running cross country during my college years,” says the 53-year-old former governor.

Ongoing construction at the Park to Port pathway.

Department of Public Health Director Villagomez is a daily morning walker and uses both American Memorial Park and Beach Road pathways.  Exercise, he says, contributes to better health—both physically and mentally. All anyone needs, according to Villagomez, is 30 minutes of walking at least three times a week.

Anthony T. Benavente, director of the Division of Parks and Recreation, is responsible for maintaining the two pathways—Beach Road and Marpi. The other is maintained by employees of the American Memorial Park, a U.S. federal agency under the Department of the Interior.

Benavente cleans the pathways at least twice a week, but is having a tough time keeping the schedule due to budgetary constraints affecting the entire commonwealth government. Still, the pathways remain immensely popular with Saipan’s residents. About the only problem is that thieves have stolen copper wiring in the street lights that line the Beach Road pathway. What that means, in practical terms, is that you’ll want to be walking about the time the sun goes down to still have light to see the pathway. That’s not a bad thing—Saipan has some of the most stunning sunsets in the Pacific.

The writer is a regular on the Beach Road pathway, walking a three-mile route six times a week.