Day Seven - March 21, 2008 - our last day in Maui

It's been a very busy two months since the last blog entry - were you wondering what ended up happening on the Maui trip?

Well, Friday was a very lovely day but since Alberto and I spent it together I didn't write in my journal about it like the others days. As a result, it never got written down and my expectations for it to magically pour out of my head and into the computer never really happened.

So, as a recap...

We had a very nice time of exploring places together for the day. We decided to take a ride up the north curve of the island, basically retracing the steps I had taken a few days before when I hiked to the nakalele blowhole.

First it was the sacred Hawaiian burial spot. I took him to where this spot was and told him the story about how all the poor dead Hawaiians kept getting unearthed by the hotel developers.

Then we walked the line down the edge of the golf course all the way to the cliff's edge, and there we found a spot that my guide book called "Dragon's Teeth". This is where the high winds and the constant crash of sea water have eroded the rocks along the edge to glassy razor sharp formations. Aren't we cute?

Afterward we drove to the starting spot for the hike to the nakalele blowhole.

I really enjoyed sharing with Alberto this hike that I had already done. I showed him the little blowhole and the craggy alien landscape, and the spongy ground right near the main attraction.

Then we went out the edge and whoosh! we were witness to a huge blast of water straight up in front of us. Here are a couple of photos of us in front of the blowhole (it never blew quite as big as when we first got there!)

Then we decided to do what I was too chicken to do myself. Hike down to the bottom and come right up along the blowhole itself. We were armed with our waterproof cameras this day, so we put all the fancy electronics safely away in my bag and hiked down. A family that had arrived right after us decided to follow suit, so there was a little gaggle of humans in the belly of the blowhole after a couple of minutes. One thing we didn't think about - the surf! Very unexpectedly, usually when someone was trying to take a snapshot right in front of the blowhole, a huge crest of water would come over the side and drench us all. What fun!

After this, we decided to go and seek out the elusive Olivine Pools from the other day. We were all crusty with sea spray, so I was looking forward to a nice relaxing dip in the natural wadepool.

This time, we had no problem finding it and I learned that, as usual, I had just barely missed it having turned around right before the landmark I was looking for. We walked out to the cliff's edge and saw the path we had to take to get to the pools....straight down.

I was pretty nervous about this because I didn't have hiking shoes, just tennis shoes, and the last thing I needed to do was be my usual clumsy self and slip. I could have tumbled all the way down! But Alberto assured me we'd go slowly and we'd be fine. And that's what we did, with me gripping the rocky landscape all the way down until we reached the bottom and found this:

It was quite lovely here. Not serenely quiet like I foolishly thought - after all it is right in the middle of the ocean! But the waters are still and cool and the pools are protected on three sides from the surf. We still needed to have some kind of footwear because the bottom was quite rocky and uneven, so I slipped on my rubber flip flops and clumsily sloshed through the water with them.

We had to be especially careful on the side that was still vulnerable to the surf. When the waves crested they did so with no warning and with a lot of force. We saw one girl whose back was turned when a wave came crashing over the side, and she was knocked face first into the pool below. Not a fun way to spend your vacation! Fortunately, that did not happen to us, though some of things in our hands were knocked away and I had to go fishing for them.

But for the most part it was quite a serene spot, and I especially enjoyed the little natural alcove that had been formed at the base of the rock wall. Back in this little corner there were lots of little fish of various shapes and colors curiously watching the people walking above them.

After all of this, it was still only the middle of the day! We had intended to be back at the harbor by 12:30 to pick up our video from the snorkeling expedition the Sunday before, but we didn't have enough time to make it. So after calling the videographer with apologies and making arrangements for him to mail it to us in San Diego, we decided instead to stop in downtown Lahaina for a repeat visit to my new favorite restaurant in Maui - the Cool Cat Cafe!

I was so ravenous I knew I was going to overeat big time, so I ordered the Marilyn (the same super delicious hamburger I had last time) plus a basket of french fries to share with Alberto. Mmmm, the Cool Cat did not disappoint and I am very happy I had one of my last meals in Maui there!

After a short post-lunch stroll downtown to pick up any last minute souvenirs we had intended to get but never gotten around to, we headed back to the car to spend our last afternoon at Alberto's favorite spot on the island: Black Rock in Ka'anapali.

The only thing I regret about our trip to Black Rock that day is that we did not snorkel together. That means, during the whole trip, we didn't get an opportunity for this once. But by then we had only one snorkel and mask left, so we had to share. I went out first, and this time I was determined to make it around the side as I vowed to do last time! I navigated around a wave of teenagers (almost undoubtedly new arrivals staying at the Sheraton with their parents) and kept swimming until I got to the curve.

I veered right, but slowed down because my mask was already starting to fog. Where was that cool no-fog stuff that the people on the boat had given us? I paused in the water to defog my mask the old fashioned way (spit and rub!) and continued on. There were lots of fish here, and they were all very interested in me. They clearly thought I was going to feed them and I was a little creeped out by how closely they watched me and kept close to me. It wasn't long though, before I found what I was really looking for - more sea turtles!

There were two, though they were a long way down, and they were resting in the sand on the sea floor. I wanted to dive down into the water to get a closer look like I did at Molokini crater, but I became distinctly aware that I was completely out of sight from Alberto and the only other people around were snorkelers who were being very careless about where they swam. So I stayed on the surface and floated for a while, enjoying that sublime quiet that only being in the water can provide.

After some time I started back around the curve to head back in, and found once again that it was a lot harder to swim back to shore than it is to swim out. I must be out of shape, there wasn't even really much current, but I was pooped by the time I got back. Alberto remarked that I was gone for a long time and I agreed and wanted nothing more than to lay out on my little thatch blanket and read.

Alberto got up to go into the water next, and stayed much closer to shore than I did. Ironically though, he got the big treat! Very close to shore, laying in the sand was a huge sea turtle that Alberto thought must have been like 60 years old. He was just hanging out, letting the people swimming nearby curiously glance his way as they swam. Alberto got a photo with his underwater camera.

As it got closer to dark we decided to start thinking about dinner. Alberto voted for Bubba Gump in Lahaina. I was opposed at first - after all, there are Bubba Gump's in every tourist spot, but he persisted and so that's where we went.

We went back to our condo just in time to see our last sunset of the trip. There was something going on out there, as a helicopter kept circling and guiding a small rowboat back to shore.

Perhaps the boaters didn't realize how far out they were, and with it getting close to dark they were in trouble.

After a brief rest at home and a hot shower, we got dressed up for our last night out and headed into town. We made a stop along the way at a lovely deserted beach along the highway where we kicked off our shoes and enjoyed a few last beautiful moments of peace, sand and surf under the stars. That was a really cool moment, and a very fitting way to say good bye to the ocean and all of our friends under the sea.

Then we arrived at Bubba Gump, where we thoroughly enjoyed our shrimp dinners. It was really good! I really enjoyed where we sat too, because we were in a booth against the far wall and I could look right out of a window and down into the ocean lapping the sides of our building as we ate. I tried to take a picture, but I couldn't capture how pretty it was.

All in all, it was a fabulous day and a perfect end to a much needed and lovely vacation. We headed to the airport the next morning and took our respective planes home. I do hope to go back to Maui again some day. There are still things I didn't get to do, and now that I've explored I'd be happy to be take things slowly and savor things even more than this time around.

Day 4 in Maui – Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Black Rock – at Ka'anapali Beach – B says this is his favorite beach. I've set myself up at the foot of the black lava rock, at the furthest north point of the sand. There are lots of families here, and kids are running all over the place with little mini masks and snorkels. The sand here is a salt & pepper looking mixture of white, black and orange. The black lava rock is really impressive up close; as it juts out into the water it is narrow and craggy and shows the wear of constant tidal splashes – the bottom is jet black, with a ribbon of rusty brown above it, slowly fading into darker black-red that characterizes the rest of the formation. There are torches mounted at regular intervals along the top of the rock, and they look from here like primitive spears used by wild people. My guide book says that this jetty called Pu'u Keka'a, was the place on Maui where recently deceased peoples' souls jumped off from their earthbound coil to eternal life with their ancestors. If there was no one there to greet them, the spirits would wander around the rocks and cause mischief for the living.
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Just got back from snorkeling. The water was just like it was at Molokini – cold to the touch upon entry, but as soon as your body is submersed it's sublime. Swimming in the waters of Maui is an awesome experience. The water temperature is so perfectly alighed with your own sense of self-temperature that the ocean feels like just an extension of yourself. You swim in the water feeling as if the water is a part of you. The waters of the Pacific in California are too cold, and the waters of the Gulf of Mexico (though quite comfortable for me) are still warmer than my own 'self-temperature'. Here in Maui, there is no sense of boundary between my skin and the water. It's quite a feeling.

The craggy rock of the jetty extends outward much more under the water than above. I thought it was an optical illusion at first! There were two main kinds of fish here – medium sized fish with white, yellow and black stripes (I think these were butterfly fish) and larger fish that were kind of a pearlescent blue. The blue fish stayed much closer to the bottom of the ocean, which dropped off very quickly from the shore, but the yellow and black fish preferred to stay close to the snorkelers. Maybe they were looking for food, but I got the sense that they liked to ride in the gentle wake of the snorkelers' fin kicks.

I swam all the way out past the jetty, where the book said I was much more likely to see more fish and maybe some turtles, but I saw very few things swimming about. Maybe next time I go out I'll round the corner of the rock and head a bit north.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the panoramic view from the sand includes a bird's eye view of Molokai off the coast? It's beautiful! I'd describe how the clouds are hovered over the isle, but a large family just decided to setup camp *right in front* of me. Drat. Guess it's time to move on….

I spent the afternoon on a mission to see the rest of the West Maui Beaches (well, the good ones) that were featured in my guide book. During the journey I found:

A memorial site at the northernmost end of Lower Honoapiilani Road – it dead-ends into a Kapalua community and just to the right of a golf course was the site. Here's what my guide book says about the site:

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel was supposed to be an oceanfront hotel. The lawn
was to be its location. The only things standing in their way were approximately
2,000 ancient Hawaiians buried in the area. The developers began digging up the
graves and, when the Hawaiian community learned of it, they began a series of
emotional protests. Nearly 900 remains were dug up before common sense
prevailed, and the hotel decided to relocate the buildings and reinter the bones
in 1990. A state law was enacted after this to prevent such a thing from ever
happening again.

Imagine, stirring up 900 ancient Hawaiian spirits and incurring their wrath! If there's one thing I've learned about Hawaiian culture, it's that they don't mess around! It is still a very savage culture underneath the surface. I wonder if there are any stories of hauntings or mischief that occurred on or around the site as a result…

Upon turning around, I found Oneloa Beach. It was deserted, just like the book promised, with about 10 other people scattered on the sand, but windy as hell! They say that the best time to go to the beach on West Maui is between 8:00 and noon. After that the afternoon trade winds start kicking up, making it uncomfortable to relax on the sand. Well, it was only 10:30 am, and the wind had already arrived! The wind was so strong the sand was blasting my legs. Some surfers were up in the water trying to make the most of the swells, which looked to be about 5 feet, but they were pretty difficult to wrangle. Here, the sands were a beautiful creamy white color.

Next stop on the guide book – Kapalua Bay. I found the access points as described but it was incredibly crowded. Apparently, I'm not the only one who heard it was a "gem". Parked cars snaking alongside the road told me I'd better accept defeat and move on.

And so it was that I got to Napili Beach. This looks like a little cove, and the shoreline is very steep. To the left is a really large lava rock reef poking out into the water, but I didn't have the right kind of shoes to explore. Instead, I decided to stake a claim on the sand and watch the families body surfing.

Tuesday Night, The Feast at Lele Luau

Tonight we went to the luau that Alberto had reserved for us, called the Feast at Lele. We got a beautiful lei around our necks and a potent mai tai placed in our hands upon entry. What a nice welcome!In purposely booking a luau that didn't have a buffet line, I overlooked the most obvious drawback to this – they have total control over how much food the guests get. The food was delicious but Alberto and I felt that, for a "feast", the servings were a bit skimpy. That said, they made very interesting use of things like sweet potatoes, taro root/taro leaf and coconut milk. We had four courses, each from a different area – Hawaii, New Zealand, Tahiti and Samoa. I did NOT like the Samoan dishes, which surprised me because I generally like everything!

Speaking of not liking something, I decided officially that I don't like Mai Tais. It must be the dark rum. Instead, I had a Blue Hawaiian which counteracted the rum flavor more effectively.

The dancers were beautiful, and there were lots of different types of dances done. Boy, can those girls shake! They have elasticity in their hips that I never would have thought possible if I hadn't seen it for myself. Anyone care to take some luau dancing lessons?

We also got a sneak peek at some of the competitors in this summer's 'best Polynesian dancer' competition. The dancers were all clearly proud of their routines and have been practicing had to win.

But the best part about the feast was the view onto the horizon. We got great seats first row on the second level, so our view of the dancers and the sunset behind was completely unobstructed. The use of the beach line below was beautiful with bright orange colors and, later, firesticks being thrown below. Yellows, oranges, pinks and purples streaked the sky, and two cruise ships anchored at sea made for an interesting landscape. As the sun continued to go down they each turned on their twinkly lights from front to back. It was very picturesque. I liked doing luau, but I think it's definitely a one-time only thing for me. One of those must-do's as a tourist, but I am happy to go back to the more down-home personal exploration of culture and food around the island.

Day 2 in Maui – Sunday, March 16, 2008

Sunday night sunset, around 6:30 pm

After staying up until 1 am the night before, it was hard to accept that we had to get up early (5:45) to be out of the condo and on the road in time to meet up with a boat from Boss Frog's called "Quicksilver" to do some Sunday morning snorkeling. Our excursion included a snorkeling trip to Molokini, a visit to a place in the water called "Turtle Town" and a BBQ lunch.

It was undoubtedly worth the trouble of getting up as early as we did.

Molokini is a little half moon piece of land that is actually the only part of an ancient volcanic crater that is sticking up out of the water. The trip was about a 30 minute cruise into the Pacific to reach Molokini, and along the way we got to see a group of humpback whales in competition for a female whale's affection. The male whales were trying to outdo each other in impressing the female, which the captain said is very common at this time of year.

Once we arrived, the crew gave us all a face mask, snorkel and fins and had us either jump off or push off the back of the boat into the water. The water was a cross between aqua and seafoam green, and you could see all the way down, 170 feet to the coral-encrusted sea floor. It was really lovely, and it didn't take long to get almost all the way up to the edge of the crater. After getting acclimated to my mask and snorkel, I took a couple of dives down into the water to get closer to the sea life.

There were so many kinds of fish down there! I saw coronetfish and butterfly fish and a little puffer fish too. Some beautiful fat iridescent blue fish, and some little tiny yellow fish also were not scared of me at all. In fact, it was obvious they've been fed by humans for a long time. They all kind of hovered around me expectantly, as if I was going to magically produce some yummy fish food from the insides of my swimsuit.

I also saw a slinky moray eel on the bottom, weaving his body in and out between rocks. He wasn't very interested in me, which I was glad for. Also there, but I did not see it (thank goodness!) was a baby white tip shark swimming around and observing the action. I don't think I would have been able to handle that one very well!

We snorkeled for about 45 minutes and it was awesome to paddle around in the water. I was so sure the water was going to be cold - undoubtedly the people on the boat wanted us all to think that because they made plenty of announcements along the way how their wetsuits were available for rental. I found, though, that the water was perfectly sublime. A little cold upon entry, but in no time your body has adjusted perfectly to the temperature and I found the whole experience to be wonderful. After dealing with such cold temperatures in San Diego for the last 6 years, I was ecstatic to be able to enjoy the water while still having feeling in my toes!

After some time passed, we were called back to the Quicksilver to head to our next stop - Turtle Town. Turtle Town is just another area off of the coast, not far from the Molokini crater, but it is known to be a favorite spot for turtles to hang out, and sleep at.

I went out with a group following a videographer (John), while Alberto stayed behind and swam closer to the boat. About 100 yards from the boat, John stopped and asked us to stay put for a moment. He dove down into the water below, and when he came back he brought a funny looking specimen from the sea floor to share with us. This was a pencil urchin, and they look like this:

He laid the urchin in each of our hands, and you could feel its tiny little scrabbly hooks trying to find a way to latch onto our skin. The pipes protruding from the body were dark red, and John told us that in the more primitive days of Hawaiian times, the Hawaiian women would rub the red off of the pipes and use the coloring as rouge coloring for their cheeks. I thought that was very creative.

Another dive down brought another surprise - this time John brought us a collector urchin, which looks like this:

It was much smaller and was black with very sharp hard little spikes. This one was even more aggressive about trying to find a way to latch on to us, and it was a little disconcerting to be holding it in my hand!

Show and Tell concluded with a brief swim further away from the boat and one more dive down into the water by John. This time, he was looking for turtles.

He went straight to a little shelf underneath the water that turtles are known to nap in, and sure enough, there was a big turtle, estimated by John to be around 60 years old, taking a morning snooze. It wasn't long though, before our presence woke him up, and he swam out from under the shelf straight toward us! He was headed to the surface for a breath of air, but I think he was curious about us and decided to survey us all on his way up. He made a couple of turns on his way up to the top, and at one point was coming straight at me and was so close that I had to back up a bit to get out of his way!

He was dark green with all the distinctive patterns on his skin. He had lots of marks on his shell - he had clearly been around for a while. His back fins were flat and wide and he had a sharply pointed tail that jutted out from the back of his shell.

After swimming over the top of some reef and taking in a few more breaths of air, he passed over to the the other side of the reef and let his momentum glide him down once again to the bottom of the ocean. A few minutes later, you could hardly see him, and the sand moving on the bottom of the ocean had already partially covered his body.

The group started heading back to the Quicksilver, and I lagged behind the group a little bit, hesitant to leave the water again. I made a couple of more dives down into the water and heard the most amazing sound - whale song! You can hear the whales singing in the ocean when you submerge. I guess the sound waves carry along the water. It is the most peaceful and tranquil experience I've ever had.

I *really* didn't want to get out of the water after that, but I was ready to get back to Alberto and share with him everything I saw. Back on the boat, the Quicksilver crew was busy barbecuing chicken and hot dogs for everyone. While we were waiting, the bar opened and the alcohol started flowing! A superb rum/pineapple juice drink later, I was gnoshing on a delicious grilled chicken sandwich with different salad greens, onion and tomato, with pasta salad on the side. Snorkeling makes you tired! It was also great to get some nourishment after taking in a few swigs of salt water during the morning's adventure.

Once people got to finishing up their plates, the crew came around with plates of delicious homemade cookies. Mmmmm, they were yummy.

On the ride back to the island, we saw a few more great things! Another set of competition whales were making a beeline toward Molokini, and they were going so fast that we had to stop the boat so we wouldn't be right in their path. They were really active, with lots of tail slapping and fin slapping causing small explosions in the water.

After starting up our journey again, we saw a couple of dolphins swimming and jumping alongside the boat. They were showing off their acrobatics and enjoying the water current being generated by the boat's engine. A little later, we came upon a sea turtle near the surface, the curved surface of his shell popping out from the top of the water. We slowed the boat again, and let a few minutes pass where the turtle bobbed along the surface next to us, picking up his head from time to time to take in his store of air. He looked at us curiously as we floated next to him, and then headed back down into the depths again.

Much closer to land, we saw one more interesting sight. A mother whale was with her calf in the water, and it appeared that she was trying to teach him how to do some acrobatics. We first saw them from a distance because the calf had just successfully breached the water! As we got closer, he was much more focused on trying to splay his tail wide out of the water. The mother did it as a demonstration, and then the calf tried repeatedly to copy her. But either he was just too young or just not strong enough because he would start off well, arching his back and heading downward into the deep, but when his back end would start to come out of the water it would just flop clumsily over to one side. Try as he might, he just couldn't get it! The mother demonstrated it once more, and then they swam out of sight a minute or so later. My guess is that he was ready for a feeding and a nap!

All in all, our Molokini snorkeling adventure was top notch from start to finish, and we bought a souvenir video from John to commemorate this most unique of experiences.

As awesome as all of this was, it had still only taken half of our day! We got back on land around 12:30. We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the condo and taking in the beautiful sights of the ocean at the end of our building. The photos of Alberto and me in this post are from the sunset that night.

Sunday evening sunset, 6:30 pm

NOTE: I'm sorry that I do not have photos of this day. We were concerned about bringing all of our digital equipment onto the boat - since we weren't going to be able to take them into the water it didn't make much sense to leave them unattended for anyone with sticky fingers. We did take some underwater photos that have yet to be developed! I will come back and post some underwater photos of the things I've described here if any of them look good!