We stayed at the Banana Bungalow Maui Hostel Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Great thing about hostels: meeting people from all over the world. An extra great thing about this hostel in particular is the free tours it offers each day. Tuesday, Tammie and I took the Road to Hana tour. What we didn’t know was that we’d be in the van with the Matthew McConaughey looking (but with a shaved head), Georgian-born (as in the country), former Israeli Army fearless driver Shlomi. Thrown into the mix were George, the 60-something ZZ Top looking guy from Philly who’d bought a one-way ticket to Hawaii, the two Karens from Germany, Kurt the underwater photographer from New Zealand, Ben from Portland OR, Andrea from Italy, Helen from Germany, and Olivier (as in Sir Lawrence) from Brussels, who was beautiful to look at.

The Road to Hana is 42 miles of nearly 600 hairpin turns and 54 one-lane bridges. Most of these details were irrelevant to Shlomi. Did I mention that we were in a van and didn’t have seatbelts? Made me scoff at some of the one-lane “roads” in Ireland 15 months ago…those seemed like superhighways.

Our first stop was Ke’anae Point on the eastern shore of Maui, which is some of the newest lava flow on the island. New is a relative term here…about 500 years.  Even with the amount of pounding the sea gives them, the rocks are still jagged and rough. Nearby was Aunty Sandy’s local roadside stand…best homemade banana bread I’ve had in a long time and killer coconut strips cooked in raw Maui sugar.

Back into the rockin’ van  (with Shlomi’s mix of Bob Marley, White Album Beatles, and local music) to black sand beach

and caves at Wai’anapanapa State Park. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I don’t really do caves, but I went to take a look anyway. You can jump into the water in the caves; some of the braver souls dove into the darkness, holding their breath, and feeling along the cave walls to come out the other side of the cave. Me? I went to the black sandy alcove beach. The sand was not hot, which I expected it to be. The water was turquoise and warm; the swimming was perfect. Just offshore is a beautiful black lava arch.

Next stop was the red sand beach at Kaihalulu. Unlike the previous beach created from black lava, Kaihalulu is red because of red lava cinder. Hiking down to the beach was a bit treacherous (just fair warning should you go there); the cinder crumbles with every step and the trail is right at the edge of the cliff. Once you get to the beach, though, it’s amazing. There’s a natural breakwater formed by a large jagged lava formation.

Lunchtime at Brudduh Hutt’s BBQ…a roadside vendor working out of his front yard in tents. Stop there if you can. The food is fresh and delicious and he is hilarious. As far as I can recall, he’s located past Hana Town and Koali, closer to Kapahulu. Everything was about $10-$14, whether you wanted chicken, steak, salmon, or just grilled veggies. All grilled right in front of you and served with rice and a sort of veggie cole slaw (I don’t even like cole slaw, but this was different and really great). Also could get stir-fried noodles, the good local kind. All the portions were huge and we were stuffed.

We piled back in the van in our food comas and headed for the southeast coast of Maui to the tip of Haleakala National Park and Kapahulu area trails. We passed over the Seven Sacred Pools. We hiked the Pipiwai Trail (just under 4 miles round trip), which follows the Oheo Gulch. Our fearless guides Shlomi and Matt (driver of the other van) went barefoot, several others were in flip-flops (called slippers here), others in tennis shoes, others in sandals. My over-50 ankles aren’t what they used to be: I would have preferred my hiking boots over the tangled roots and rocks, but I managed to not kill myself, so it’s all good. The guides set a somewhat death march to Bataan pace; Tammie was very nice and walked with me at my pace. The only person older than me on the trip (George) opted out of the hike, so I was just pleased with myself for going at all. HA!

The huge banyan tree along the way was amazing. Then you enter the guava and bamboo forest, both of which are “alien” introductions to Hawaii. The bamboo forest was eerie and dark, even though it was mid-afternoon. Several of the guys in the group shimmied up the bamboo trees, most of which were 50-60 feet tall. As you’re walking along in the bamboo forest, which lasted at least a half mile, it’s silent except for the knocking of the bamboo all around you. I kept thinking it was sort of a Lord of the Rings moment (OK, there’s no bamboo forest scene in those books, but it was the feeling)…like Tammie said, “It’s like the bamboo is speaking some sort of alien language about you.” And it’s almost as thought the knocking is following you.

Most of the bamboo part of the trail is on raised platforms, making that part of the hike very easy. If you get there any later than 5 pm though, take a flashlight; it gets DARK.

On a bit more and finally to Waimoku Falls, the largest waterfall on Maui, falling 400 feet down sheer lava rock. The water was a bit low the day we were there, but how amazing to look up at the height and watch the water pour over!

By the time we made it back to the trailhead, it was 6:45 pm and Shlomi had a mission: make it to the only grocery store in Hana before it closed. The Hasegawa General Store (est. 1910) closes at 7:00 pm. Let me just say that the only way to get from the trailhead to the store in 15 minutes is via the Harry Potter Hogwarts night bus, the one that magically squeezes through space and time. I don’t even want to think about it. <Jenifer turning green> But, we made, where most everyone bought alcohol. Go figure.

Back in the van with one more quick stop to see the stars at an overlook, then endless games of 20 questions to make the now-dark return road from Hana trip home. The most popular question from the hostelers was: Can you smoke it? (OK, and a few others I won’t mention here) Another of my favorites was from the non-native English speakers: Is it in the Nature?