Highway to Hana... can you please define "highway"?

OK, I'm a nerd. I'm sitting here in Maui and thinking how nice it is to have high speed Internet. Clearly, Robin (the one sitting in the Sun right now) has her work cut out for her. This is a kickback day. I'll go down and swim later, but wanted to catch up a little on my writing.

In my defense, we took the Highway to Hana yesterday and we're both bushed. It was about 8 hours of driving, 620+ turns and like 50+ one lane bridges. We joked that we should have taken pictures of the "yield" and "do not pass" signs, but I didn't have that much memory in my cameras. It was both a blast and a great upper-body workout. Fortunately, we had a nice little Jeep that made the curves very nicely. It was a kick and we only got behind two tour buses which actually pulled over to let me by. No, I'm not making that up... they pulled over for me; I'm so proud of myself. Robin tried to take a movie and I'll put that up on Facebook so you can get an idea of how it was.

Oddly, it was much dryer this year. I say oddly, because this side of the island is the wet side, with places getting over 300 inches per year... among the top 10 wettest places on earth. The second wettest place on earth is on the opposite side of the island of Maui. I guess they've had a bit of a drought this year and our Monday and Tuesday rain was the first significant rain they'd had this winter, most of which seems to have been sucked up by the ground. You could tell from the streams and waterfalls, which were much lower or non-existent this year than last. Still, it was a beautiful drive. I think if I were to do it over, I would plan to stay or camp in Hana. The drive up and back in one day just doesn't do it justice and you have to move right along to keep from having to drive back in the dark. Since I'm not one for getting up at the crack of dawn, that option was not exercised, thank you.

When I talk about a lot of curves, it's really just a succession of curves linked together... seriously. There are probably a dozen, what you'd call, straight sections; none more than a 100 yards. Driving reminded me of going to Malibu Raceway, so I really enjoyed the driving part. We stopped at a few places to take pictures and just drank in the green lush tropical scenery. Just reminded me of National Geographic type views... constantly.

On the way back we stopped at Ho'okipa Beach to watch the wind surfers. The wind really kicks up there in the afternoon and there was plenty of action to see.

Sea Turtles Rock

Just had the most amazing experience. The place we're staying is on a small bay that is frequented by sea turtles. I went down today for the first time. The bay is very volcanic and reminded me so much of the Azores. I got in and started cruising around. After about 20 minutes, I started getting a little bored and thought I'd start heading back in. As I was halfway back, I suddenly came across an 8 inch cornetfish and stopped to check him out. He seemed to be doing the same thing, so I just floated there with him for a few minutes.

I was just starting to relax when from below and behind me came a sea turtle on its way up to get a breath of air. Talk about a shock. This guy/gal must have been 450 lbs... about 30-35 inches across. A real beauty. They say they can get up to 1600 lbs., so my estimate may be way off.

She didn't seem to be the least bit concerned about me, so I tagged along, giving her plenty of room and keeping in her view so she wouldn't get spooked. Actually, I don't think that was as big of a deal as I thought. I stayed with her for about 15 minutes as she foraged along the coral... then, just a unexpectedly, an even bigger turtle showed up an arms length beside me. He was probably 30% bigger than the first one. He just came up for a bit of air, stopped and checked me out for a moment and then went back to a hollow that he fit in very neatly. He put his head under an out cropping of coral and appeared to be sleeping because he didn't move much after that.

Another neat thing with the first turtle, there was a colorful fish that stayed very close as she grazed and would pick up bits and pieces that were knocked loose. I had a hard time getting a good look because it stayed very close to the turtles mouth and usually below the or just to the side and below.

The water was still a bit murky from the rain and storms that pasted through Tuesday and Wednesday, so hopefully that will clear more before we leave. An amazing encounter and definitely left an impression.