The Road to Hana

The lovely beach, on the way
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Everyone told us, leave at 7 am, the road gets real crowded. We left at 9 am, with packed sandwiches and no idea of what to expect. We would soon see the most beautiful tropical rain forest  we had ever seen.  Maybe the amazon basin  has prettier places, maybe the jungles in Africa are greener or denser, but this was as beautiful as we had ever seen.

The drive starts closer to the airport, so about 30 minutes from Kihei. A small town at the beginning of the drive carries signs that these are the last facilities you will see for a long time. There are also shops selling packed lunches, we had our with us. Just beyond the town is a beautiful beach with a lot of surfers. This is where we unpacked the sandwiches and had a short break. Beyond that, the ocean becomes a more distant feature and is replaced in the foreground by lush greenery and trees loaded with fruit, beautiful birds. Its a curvy slow road with a lot of vistas and waterfalls. There are also a lot of secret side trails, but we didn't find many. Though I don't think we missed much, what we saw was stunning in itself.

Its a curvy slow road with a lot of vistas and waterfalls

Drive on the Road to Hana
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We stopped at a small market made of about 5 shacks for a quick snack. The smoked Mahi Mahi taco was delicious and to add to the fun we were treated to fresh coconut juice, straight from the shell. There were also macademia nuts and lots of other fruits.

Driving further closer to Hana, we came across some banana bread shacks which we decided to visit on the way back. Then there was this sign to a Lava Tube. Another good impulsive stop. It was a incredible cave made by lava flow underground some 1000 years ago. The cave itself is about half a mile deep and high enough to walk comfortably. There are interesting features, some stalagmites, stalactites and weird boulders. There was perfect darkness inside and we carried flashlights provided by the guy who was charging the entry fee. It was a good half hour. Some of those chocolate colored features are fun to look at and its more fun to learn how they were formed.

The Lava Tube
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Driving further into Hana, we found a black sand beach. Very pretty and inviting for a swim. Nitin and I did not resist. The water was really salty but we had a good time, while the ladies enjoyed the sun on the beach.

After the shower, we started the drive back. We stopped first for some banana bread and then in this place called Mama's Fish House. This was right next to the surfing beach we had stopped on the way up. I had expected it to be a small shack but it actually was a real high end restaurant with a lovely view and some of the most fresh and exotic fish I had. Their cocktails are great too. We debated sometime between Mahi Mahi stuffed with lobster and crab and freshly caught Opah, and chose the former. It was yummy!

View from Mama's Fish House
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That ended the tourism part of our day. We would get home and use the bar-be-cue right outside our condo. Good food at home and we called it a day.