It's a tough life
I’ve been here 5 days now and boy is it tiring… It seems a bit of a blur… maybe because the sun, sand and ocean kinda blend… Maui is an incredibly beautiful island… the locals are laid back… quite old school in the way they respect their elders… and in that sense quite refreshing…
the beaches have their tourists and such… but there isn’t a big beach party scene like i’ve seen in other places… it’s definitely a place to relax
so to catch you up on the last few days… Monday we took a tour to Hana... an out of the way little town, that has kept it’s traditions and culture a bit more than the more accessible towns…. the road to Hana has 600+ turns and is quite nauseating if you get car sick. It kinda reminded me of the road from Kathmandu to Chefru Basi … except the roads here were paved… I think my favourite part of the day was exploring the tide pools with Mattea at one of the beaches we stopped at along the way… I remember doing that as a kid, and it was neat to see the wonder in Mattea as she did it…
Tuesday was pretty much an all beach day… John, Mattea and I took surf lessons… it’s not too hard to get standing on the board…. but controlling the thing is hard… it’s quite a bit more different from snowboarding than I thought it would be… still it was good to try it… I think i’ll rent a board and go out a few more times before I leave here…
After lunch, we hit the beach again… more swimming, sand castles, and exploring the shallows of the beach… before heading back to the condo where we swam a bit more and sat in the hot tub… by then I was all watered out… and tired… swimming takes a lot out of you… i can see how the surfers are all quite fit… I also learned the importance of a lot of the gear… rash guards have their purpose… as do board shorts… i’ve got a bit of board rash…
Yesterday we hung out at the beach again… Makena beach this time… it’s a bit nicer, but the waves were pretty crazy… Hannah was getting thrown around quite a bit by them… and it was hard for all the adults to even stand in the surf…
At night we went to the Old Lahaina Luau which was much better than the first one… the food was about the same, but the entertainment, costumes, and atmosphere was much better… If you ever come to Maui and want to go to a luau, go to that one…
today… was…well… more of the same… beach… then we hung out at the pool in the afternoon, before making our way back to Kahalui, which is on the other side of the island from Kihei, where we were staying… Sara, Chuck, John, Syl, Mattea, Hannah, and Leilani left tonight… It’s been an amazing week hanging out with them… playing with them… and just being around family… as they say around here…
well, I’ve checked into the Peace Of Maui guest house… it’s quiet, clean, and seems quite organized… I haven’t met the owners yet cause I checked in late, but I’m sure I’ll run into them in the morning… anyhow, I’m beat, and I get an actual bed to sleep in tonight… as they say here in Maui…”All riiiiight…”
Maui ... Finally...
Well, I got to Maui last night… 36 or so hours after I left Calgary. At least the weather in Vancouver was really nice.
As for Maui, well… I got in late last night so I couldn’t tell what it was really like. My eye was at it’s worst last night so that didn’t help. John and Syl put some antibiotic ointment on it and then proceeded to put on diaper patch on it. I kinda look like a pirate, but not quite…
This morning the eye was quite swollen but after some compressing, it was better. Tonight, it’s much better but I’ve put ointment on it again and it’s patched again… Arrrrr…..
As for the day, we spent the day sitting on the beach, swimming, and building sand castles. Tonight we went to a luau… I’ve never been to one before and it was quite fun… They had this pig cooking in a pit all day….mmm… cha seew… They also had the other 3 main food groups covered, teriaki steak, honey chicken, and turkey… and also fish, but that’s not one of the main food groups.
After dinner, there was some entertainment… dancers… in grass skirts and coconut bikinis… Syl picked out a girl for me… she has good taste… the fire dancers were cool too…
we have a tour of Hana tomorrow…gotta be ready by 6:40am… eesh… early…
