They’re on about every square foot of the island. Supposedly the great hurricane of 1992, which practically leveled the island, demolished most of the chicken enclosures and they’re now everywhere. Pretty soon you get so accustomed to the crowing that it’s no bother.
Most of them are the breed known as Red Jungle Fowl.
It wouldn’t be difficult — heh-heh —to have barbecued or stewed chicken at any time (pellet gun or snare).
This is a recreated traditional Hawaiian village, on the banks of the Wailua River. There are maybe a dozen buildings and walking around (not many turistas) you can get a feeling for what life was like pre-gringo.
Yesterday I discovered the espresso hangout in Waimea, called Aloha-n-Paradise, run by the very lively Candy Baar. While waiting for Candy to make my latte, I spotted a dust-covered bottle on a shelf on the porch. It was an exquisite little bamboo house, complete with 2 people and a palm tree impossibly ensconced in a bottle with a rusty cap with a diameter of about 1-1/4 inches. Did they build it inside the bottle, or have it folded so they could slip it in and then pull it erect?
I had to have it. Candy and I agreed on a price and when I get back, it’ll be a star exhibit in the Shelter office.
Coffee is excellent and there’s an art gallery and wi-fi connection.
Yumi started the restaurant in 1978. She passed it along to her daughter, from whom Gina bought the business. As a tribute to the founder she calls it “Gina’s at Yumi’s.” In the southern Kauai town of Waimea.
Chantal, Gina’s mom was helping out when I was there.
A great breakfast.
The 2nd part of my hike on the Na Pali Coast consisted of going 2 more miles from the beach up a canyon to this 300′ waterfall, upon which I swam in the pretty cold water over to the rock face and got under the falls. I worried a bit about a rock or branch coming over the falls, but figured the chances were slight. A bunch of young people we doing the same.
By the time I got back to my car, I’d covered 8 miles (round trip) in 5-1/2 hours. It’s about 11 miles to the end of the trail (you can’t get through to the road north of Waimea (or at least it’s very difficult), so you have to backtrack, and this means spending at least one night camping. I talked to a guy who went in for 2 days and ended up staying 11.
By way of asking around in Waimea (southern part of Kauai, where I’ve come today), I went to the Kaleheo Steaks & Ribs restaurant tonight, had a half order of baby back ribs with Hawaiian cole slaw, two local beers, and listened to local band Waiola do a bunch of covers (a perfect rendition of Percy Sledges’ “When a Man Loves a Woman”), and then a stunning Hawaiian song where the singer hit impossibly high falsetto notes, the occasional yodel, and the maybe 25 customers were cheering.
This is out of chronological sequence with my trip, but I’ll backtrack when I can.
The southern part of Kauai is WAY different than the northern part.
This is a steep, rugged section of land at the end of the road on the north shore of Kauai. I hiked in 2 miles to Hanakapiai Beach and it was tough! This is a mother of a trail, steep and slippery in parts. When I got to the beach, the surf was (sorry to use the word) awesome. 15’+ shore break. Anyone in the water would be more or less instantly killed, if not by the bonecruncher waves, by the rocky (no sand this time of year) shore.
A few observations:
1. There were just too many people on the trail.
2. I couldn’t believe how many overweight people were making this trek.
3. There were also runners — running no less.
At left, part of the trail going up…
This day’s adventure to be continued…
From my friend Mickey
(Full screen please):
“Speaking of Tiny Places to live, here is an interesting video.
Each bright light is a star cluster or supernova. All the other points of light are stars. 100 million of them. They form a section of the Andromeda Galaxy which, in turn, is only a tiny piece of what we see in the night sky. And so many of those stars have planets orbiting them; many more planets than stars in this video, but unseen.
Makes our Earth seem very small. Tiny, actually.”
Note how the porch is created by subtraction.
