Hawaiin Safari

Today we went on a hike through the Hawaiian "rainforest." There wasn't a lot of rain, no animals at all, but there were a lot of really cool plants! Daryl and I tried a strawberry guava, that wasn't very pleasant. I can see why the locals see the guava trees as pests, and are trying to rid the island of them. I also ate a flower that tastes like a mushroom, although the guide gave us the hawaiian name for it and I have no idea what it was (or how to spell it) We also saw a really cool fern that closes up when it is touched. It is called a "shy fern." We tried to get a video of it, but the lens on the camera didn't open, so the video turned out to be just black bluriness. The hike was only about a mile long, but it was tiring! We also drove around the back road of Maui, which was really twisty, and made me very car sick. I am still nauseous from it- or maybe that is just the sea water that I accidentally ingested while snorkeling on the beach this evening. Anyway, it was a beautiful drive, just make sure you take some sea-bands with you if you ever decide to do it! Here are pictures of the highlights!

We drove up this crazy road, got to the edge of a cliff, and the guide said "Well, our hike begins just on the other side of that cliff!" We all thought he was joking until he started handing out the hiking gear! We all made it down the cliff, but it was a bit scary!

Here we are in front of one of the small waterfalls that we saw on the hike. They weren't very dramatic because it hadn't rained in a while. The guide said they can be really impressive right after a heavy rainfall. I think they were beautiful even if they weren't huge.

Here we are in front of the banyan tree. Speaking of impressive, these trees are one of the most amazing things I've seen on earth. They grow downward instead of up, so their could be several places where one tree comes down to root in the ground. There could be what look like several banyan trees, and really it is just one big tree taking root in several places! They are pretty cool. Oh yeah, we climbed down the roots, too...

I let Daryl go first.

But I made it down too.

Another waterfall. This picture is really blurry, and I wish we had it taken closer up. Oh well, we are still cute

After the hike, we continued our journey around the crazy road. We stopped at Auntie Julia's Banana Bread stand and got free samples of some really great banana bread, pineapple-mango jam, and my favorite: Coconut candy! We hadn't brought our money though (for fear of losing it in the rainforest) so we couldn't purchase any to take home. I'm almost willing to drive up there myself to get some of the coconut candy!

We stopped to see the biggest blowhole on Maui. I was a little underwhelmed by it, but I think we were just too far away to get the "wow" effect.

We also stopped to look at Honolua Bay. I'd like to go back and actually go into the bay to snorkel. Our guide said that it was the best place for snorkeling if you want to see turtles, and it was only about a 15 minute drive from our hotel.

When we got back to the hotel room, we took a long nap and then headed out to the beach for some practice snorkeling and relaxing. I still don't think I am liking this snorkeling thing. Even with the tube to breathe out of, I still feel like I am drowning. I bought an underwater camera, but it is really difficult to get a good picture, because to snap a picture you have to stop swimming against the waves to take it. You end up floating away from what you want a picture of. We'll see how they turn out when the film gets developed.

We ended the day with a little grilling!

I'm sad that our week here is almost over. We only have two more full days, then on Saturday it's back to the dreaded airport.