Disclaimer: Back in May of 2006, when I started posting about our vacation to the Hawaiian Islands, we were severely limited regarding photos I could share due to bandwidth limitations. Here in 2022, I’m updating these posts using the original image and text I shared, but I’m adding the rest of the photos I would have liked to share if bandwidth and storage had not been issues 16 years ago. 

While we are yet to visit Kauai, that’s tomorrow, I can’t help but think that Molokai is the most authentically Hawaiian island in the chain. The western rampage on the other islands is obvious, while things here seem to still be operating on islander time. If you want a sense of the place, just take a listen to the Hawaiian song E Hihiwai by the Rev. Dennis Kamakahi.

Our last day on Molokai, we were supposed to be kayaking on the coast and into a mangrove forest, but the low tide wasn’t cooperating with our scheduled ferry return to Maui.

Canceling the kayaking was a disappointment, but we made up for it with some more sightseeing on Molokai – the most peaceful island in Hawaii.

Here we are back at Kualapu’u Cookhouse, and I’m noticing that Caroline is taking notes about our trip; at this moment, I can’t say they’ve ever been transcribed onto the blog. This means there could be more details coming to these old posts in the future should we find this paisley-covered notebook. Of course, we squared our bill from the night before and, at the same time enjoyed a great breakfast made all the better because it was had on Molokai.

Should you want to visit the old leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) colony at the Kalaupapa National Historical Park, you’ll be traveling by mule or by foot. Sadly, we don’t have enough time to make the lengthy trek.

Yesterday, we made it out this way, but the lighting didn’t work out, and so here we are again on our way into the Pālāʻau State Park.

That’s the peninsula where you’ll find the Kalaupapa National Historical Park.

At the end of state highway 47, near Kalaupapa Lookout, is this famous phallic rock called Ka Ule o Nanahoa; I just call it Big Penis.

Seems that this horse enjoys its lower jaw being tickled.

If only Molokai could be preserved in the state it is right now, and that no further development could take place, this shouldn’t ever be the exclusive playground of billionaires, but isn’t that exactly what happens to perfect places when the only thing worth doing is giving greater value to all things in order for capitalism to continue to inflate the coffers that grease the wheels?

Apple bananas may be the greatest bananas we’ll ever taste, seriously better than anything we’ve ever had before.

Hawaiian hibiscus, I wonder if it makes a tasty version of the Mexican drink known as Agua de Jamaica?

Is this part of the 1/3rd of western Molokai (about 55,000 acres) that is in private hands? Cattle ranching, pineapple orchards, growing wheat, and at one time the world’s number one producer of honey, this incredible natural environment should be set aside in a trust to preserve it for future generations to remember what places look like without the destructive mindset of mankind to destroy what it touches.

We are at the Kapuaiwa Coconut Grove, a historic and dangerous place. The grove is historic as it is one of the last royal groves planted for a Hawaiian King and dangerous as those 10-pound coconuts acquainting themselves with gravity pose a significant challenge to your head to deflect one.

Would this really remain such an idyllic location if a massive dock were built here to park the giant yachts of the rich and famous? Why do we humans feel this overwhelming need to shit on paradise?

Just how does a tiny piece of driftwood buried in the sand find a way to grab hold of my pinky toe and bend it to being in a perpendicular state as compared to where it had been? Great, now I have a broken toe, my very first

Wow, there’s a sight: a dozen Hawaiians rowing single-outrigger canoes into port. These boats were likely the same kind that the Polynesians first sailed to this chain of islands some 1,600 years ago. Just consider this act of faith, 2,000 miles from the Marquesas, that was how great their belief was in navigation skills and the ability to capture enough food and water for the journey.

The day before, on the ferry to Molokai, we spotted some whales; today, on our way back, we saw a few dolphins.

On the right is the whale and on the left a svelt dolphin.

I should end this post right here by saying something about sailing into the sunset, but I still have a few photos I want to share.

Such as this one that’s seriously difficult to decipher, but it’s a Banyan Tree right in Lāhainā planted back in 1873.

This effect of turning things into silhouettes by white balancing my camera on the sun might make it look later than it is, but is nothing more than me hunting for an aesthetic. You’ll see from my last photo for the day that it was definitely light enough for other fun stuff.

Fun stuff as in one more opportunity for snorkeling on Maui. Dinner was at Cheeseburgers in Paradise before driving back across Maui for another night at the Banana Bungalow Hostel in Wailuku.