Waterfall, Jungle, and Surfing – Typical Maui

The day after we hiked 13 miles into and out of Maui’s volcano, we navigated the island’s eastern edges, checking out a couple places we had gotten rained out of in 2009. We were all a sorry lot. My right foot was so overly-adorned with blisters that it was actually swollen, and all our calves would shout vociferously that we ought to just never stand up again.

But we are intrepid. Or at least we are wise enough only to tackle minor adventures. We stopped several times along our “backwards” drive to Hana (all the guidebooks tell you to go the other way for some unknown reason), but our first real outing was at the Seven Sacred Pools.

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You can’t go to Maui and not snorkel

With abundant corals, urchins, fish, eels, and turtles, Maui’s reef ecosystem offers a visual cornucopia just steps from the beach. Like many visitors to the island, Tony and I were in the not unique position of wanting to spend some time exploring Maui’s coral reef. In the course of a week, amid other excursions, we fit in four solid snorkeling trips, and I squeezed in a short fifth outing while we relaxed on Hana’s red sand beach.

Hiking Haleakala: A Trek through Maui’s Volcano

Two more posts about our trip to Maui and then I’ll get back to loving on northern Michigan. Last Monday we got up at 5am to get to the summit of Haleakala for our hike. I cannot recommend a six-hour time difference enough. We were up early on Monday, but only about an hour earlier than our usual for the week, and if you know me, you know that’s seriously early. The thing is, I didn’t even need an alarm clock. Now that we’re back, it’s a different story. I digress.

Sunset over the La Perouse Lava Flow

Last Saturday, Meg took Tony and me (and Jack the Yorkie) on a sunset walk through the La Perouse lava flow to watch the sunset from a natural infinity pool. It was the only sunset we were on the beach for during our week in Maui. We were so busy having other adventures each day – or recovering from them with much-needed food – that we just skipped all the over-water sunsets.

We got to La Perouse Bay at about 5:30pm – a little over half an hour before dusk. I snapped pictures of the lava flow, one of the most recent on the island at about 600-800 years old, before continuing along the beach. I use the term “beach” lightly here, because there’s little sand. But the turquoise water crashing into the red-black lava piles is stunning nonetheless. Also, I took entirely too many pictures of the feral goats that miraculously eke out a living in the rocky desolation.

Jet Lag with a Side of Flora

We’re getting back to our regular schedule, but it’s slow going. Maui is currently 6 hours behind our EDT schedule (they don’t participate in daylight saving time, so in less than a month, they’ll only be 5 hours behind us eastern time zone folks), and the west-to-east transition is at tough one. We got home from grocery shopping last night this morning at 2:30, and went to bed at 3:30. I realize how ridiculous that is, but it’s not too far from our usual. Well, the super-late grocery shopping is not at all normal, but those Cliftons sucked us right in to some good hang-out time and we didn’t leave their house til almost 1:00. What’s a person who needs food to do?