Day 3

This was my favorite day. I had been curious about the road to Hana ever since I first saw t-shirts for sale that read "I survived the road to Hana".
It is very whindy. I think I read it has something like 500+ tight turns and we counted at least 52 bridges. Most of which narrow to only to 1 lane. However, the part I have been most excited about were the waterfalls. There are so many that you just can't get to them all in one day. Normally it takes 1.5 hours to get to Hana. We stopped so many times that it took us 6.5 hours. It was worth it.

Many times we simply couldn't stop because the road is so narrow that only 2 or 3 cars at the most can pull over. The first place we stopped was Twin Falls. There is a short hike (15 minutes) to the lower falls, pictured here. Trust me- it looks way more impressive in person...my camera didn't want to take a good shot with the lack of light it provided. We had to track through some knee deep water just to get to this site. I did take lots of video tape though, so maybe I can get some better pictures from that.

Okay so I can't remember in exact order which came next...the black beach or Ching Ponds. Each one provided it's own unique experiences. At the beach we ate our lunch (sandwiches) and laughed as a group of Texans got their rented suv stuck in the stream. We watched surfers and combed the beach for treasures. Although I had to quickly motion for the girls to come back because I noticed they were getting to close to a truck that had a couple in the bed making out.
The black beach is neat because it was formed by lava flowing into the ocean. The Ching Ponds was probably the best swimming. I video taped a girl jump in from about 40 feet down to a very narrow opening. She had to keep all her limbs tucked close to her body. Here I didn't use my regular camera. Instead I pulled out the disposable underwater camera. There was a short, but fast moving waterfall underneath the bridge that you could swim right up to. Here's a shot of Megan going up the steep little trail from the Ching Ponds. She had her eyes closed on purpose because she said the place made her feel cozy. There were so many places we wanted to get to, but just not enough time in the day. I think I would have skipped it all to visit the 7 sacred pools that exist just past Hana, but the main bridge leading to them was recently closed. Fema came in after the earthquakes last week and deemed a bunch of bridges that are not safe. Funny thing is that the state always knew this and the earthquake didn't change the bridges at all, but once the feds came in and declared it unsafe, they had to close them. Politics.

Once we got to Hana, we stopped at the general store. What a strange store! It's the only one in town for food, but looks more like a chaotic mess. It has everything from picture frames to coconut cake all crammed into a space no larger than a 3 car garage. I thought the old place was very cool.
On the way back from Hana we barely stopped. Just twice. Once for fruit at one of the many fruit stands. I tried 5 times to upload the picture of Katie at the fruit stand, but blogger won't do it. Uh, so infuriating. We bought coconut candy, passion fruit, avocado and a coconut. I would have gotten more (I really wanted mango, pineapple and bananas) but she was sold out. We did see and felt some interesting bugs at the stand...tons of mosquitoes and this lovely spider...
After the fruit stand we only stopped one more time to check out a waterfall that you could see from the road. There is a way down to the pools, but it's much to steep to take the girls. Heck, probably to steep without gear.
So we got back in the car and made a mad dash for the house. At the house we started preparing for our BBQ with our new friends. We had all planned earlier that morning to eat dinner together. We ate fish (Marlin, Mai Mai and Moonfish) steak, salad & pesto shell noodles. It was delicious!
For dessert I cut up some fruit that MB bought from the local store...papaya, pineapple & mango. I absolutely LOVE mango! The one MB bought was amazing! It's a good thing he only bought one (they are big) or else I would have gorged myself on them.
Well folks...tomorrow is Halloween and I've got to go to work. Crew support just called me and I need to report at 5:05 am. Yikes! I haven't worked in the last 13 days! I hope I remember what to do. I am going to borrow Katie's tierra and be Queen of the Cabin.
Good-Night