Once again, we woke up a little before sunset, and again we wouldn't have survived without our Peet's. The sunrise from the lanai (well, the sun bouncing of Molokai at least) was even prettier than yesterday. The water was wonderfully calm, a good as we were making our first attempt at snorkeling this morning. We slathered on the sunscreen, packed up and were off by about 8am.
We decided to go just a couple miles up the road to Kapalua bay, which had been recommended as a good place for beginners. We were only about the second people arriving at the beach. We staked out a shady spot on the beach and prepared to snork. I've done a little snorkeling (at Tel Dor in Israel, snorkeling around the foundation of archaeological ruins), but Alison had never snorkeled before. I splashed right in and saw tropical fish within seconds. WOW! PRETTY! After I paddled out a bit, I realized that Alison had stalled at the shore, so I went back. It turned out I had chosen a poor place for her to start out. There was sharp coral where the water was only waist deep, and there were just enough breakers to make it very difficult for her to get her mask on while trying to stand up. She ended up getting a mask full of water a couple of times, and was about ready to call it quits. We sat down on the sand for a few minutes to rest and dry out, then I went down the beach to see if I could find a better entry spot. Luckily there was a good spot right near the beach entrance (on the south side) where it was sandy for quite a ways out, and the breakers weren't breaking. Once she had a chance to relax while getting used to the mask and flippers, she did just fine.
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| Humuhumunukunukuapuaa |
We stopped at Maui Tacos in Napili for lunch (fish tacos and burritos, pineapple salsa, pretty tasty and dirt cheap), then went back to the condo to change and shower. We also took a little nap. Refreshed by the nap, we decided to go to Lahaina for awhile. First stop was the mall, because we HAD to get a snorkel camera to get fish pictures. They were having keiki (kids) hula dancing going on at the mall so we stopped to watch that until it got to the audience participation portion of the program. Then we ran.
Though the whole town of Lahaina is a historic monument (it was the main whaling town on Maui), it felt more like Pier 39 in San Francisco- Very touristy, geared towards shopping and overpriced eating. There were many old buildings, but you could hardly see them through all the aloha print clothes and postcard racks hanging on them. We wandered around a bit, bought a Tapa cloth (beaten bark) covered picture album (for our trip pictures) and looked at 'aloha wear,' of which none appealed to us in the least. We were very tempted by the horned chameleons someone tried to sell us on the street, but we decided our cats have enough toys already.
Because we had come late all the historic sites were closing (most close at 4pm Sundays), so we couldn't see anything. We were getting pretty hot (sunburn rather than sun) and tired by 6, so we headed back to the condo for our sunset and another deli dinner. As we were getting ready for bed (early again) we realized the price we were going to pay for our morning at the beach: both of us were pretty well char broiled on our backs. A lesson to be learned: even if you slather on sunscreen, you need to reapply after you've been snorkeling for awhile. We slept on our stomachs for the rest of the week. Luckily we had brought aloe vera gel with Lidocaine (ahh, drugs!), so we were ABLE to sleep.
Day: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - Notes/Resources
Last Updated 27 October, 1999
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