Day One
Today we went driving around the island with our friends from the boat Blue Zulu. We woke up packed some stuff including snorkeling gear, snacks and changes of clothes, then we went to shore. It wasn’t a very beautiful day, because I was rain and overcast. Then we hauled our stuff up to place where we rented the van. Our friends from Blue Zulu got some coffee then we loaded our stuff in the van and took off. Patrick (from Blue Zulu) drove because they are from the U.K. and are used to driving on the left side. Our first stop was hiking to a chasm. We hiked through the woods for about 20-30 minutes then we emerged from the woods and saw the ocean. The rock formations were incredible! We kept waking on the path among the rocks for 8 more minutes then got to a long, steep ladder that lead to the chasm. After everybody was safely down the ladder we walked over some big rocks and saw the chasm. I don’t think it would have been nice for swimming because it was murky, muddy, and disgusting. After walking back up the ladder we took in the beautiful view from the point. We even saw some humpback whales (a mamma and a baby). When their tail flicked up, I saw it was black on one side but white on the other. After whale watching for a while we trekked back to the van. When we all got back into the van we all shared a bag of balsamic, vinegar potato chips. We then stopped at this area that had sculptures made from trash found on the island. We were about to go back but stopped to look at a little hut that was a memorial for an art teacher that that died. It was full of pictures made from painted can tops and bottle tops, sink faucets ad some poems too. We kept driving and driving and driving and driving down the road until we got to the place we were going to eat lunch called Hio Café. The food was scrumptious. I got a burger (it was a super yummy burger), but the salads and the chicken wrap also looked good too. After lunch we drove off to the next hiking area. There were two trails one to a swimming chasm and another to the arch with water flowing in and out of it and we decided to hike to the arches first and then go swimming so we didn’t have to go hiking all wet. We hiked for 30 minutes through the woods like the last hike and them we scooted through this very slippery and wet cave. When we popped out of the end I could see the arches. We walked around and hopped on the rock to see other arches. When everyone was ready we hiked back to the van to change into our swim suits and go swimming. After changing into our swim suits we walked about five minutes to the chasm. We swam around for a good 25 minutes. There were quite a few fish and a ledge on the side of the cliff where all sat and the kids jumped off of. Finally, we walked back and changed. Our last stop was the grocery store. We got quite a bit of food and headed back to the dingy and then to the boat. I was tired from the long day and slept well that night. It was a really exciting day.
Day Two
The second day wasn’t as exciting as the first but it was still fun all the same. We lounged around in the morning went to town for the coral/ocean festival and then in the afternoon we decided to go to this other chasm with Blue Zulu in the van. We loaded our snorkeling stuff and other things into the van because it was a good swimming and snorkeling chasm. We then hopped in the van and drove to this new chasm. When we arrived, we lugged our stuff down the steps to the chasm. Since I knew we would be going swimming I already had my swim suit on. I lathered on the sunscreen and jumped into the water. We snorkeled around for a while looking at all the cool fish and beautiful coral. We also discovered an underwater tunnel to swim through. We got out of the water and discovered a path to another chasm. At this one there was a place to jump off into the water. We jumped into the water and snorkeled around once Anna (from Blue Zulu) saw a sea snake, I swam back and hung around near the steps where you can get in and out. After swimming we went to this place called the Sails Bar and had a drink there for happy hour. I got a ginger ale. With Stella and Fin (the kids from Blue Zulu) we found a path and walked down to the shore. Then we walked back up and finished our drinks. There was also some free books and we took a few. Then we drove back to the boat, ate dinner and went to sleep.
Day Three
I think this was my favorite day out of all of them. We woke up early so we could visit some chasms you could only visit at low tide. We got everything ready and went to Blue Zulu to see if they wanted to come too because we were sharing the van. They wanted to go but they had just woken up and it took about another 45 minutes for them to get ready. Finally, we all got to the van and zoomed off the first chasm. This swimming area was inside a cave and it was very beautiful. We found and underwater tunnel in this chasm too. There weren’t many fish but the coral was pretty. When the kids got bored of swimming we went to this cave that didn’t have water in it and explored it. We named it bunk bed cave because there was a second level you could climb up to. When it was time to go, we all clambered up the steps back to the parking lot. While people changed/dried off we opened a pack of rice crackers. The chasm we were going to go to before lunch was called Anapala Chasm. We walked through the trees about 20 minutes and came to this narrow cave with steep steps. This was a fresh water chasm. When I was almost there, Fin zoomed ahead and splash! He plunged into the water. He hadn’t seen the water because it was so clear and still also it was pretty dark and you could hardly see. Only a sliver of light came through at the top. Once every one was down the kids swam through the cold narrow water to the other side. We climbed all the way up the other side and saw some coconut crabs at the top. Then we climbed back down and swam back. Back at the van we all changed into clothes because we were heading for lunch at the Washaway café. We parked the car then walked down the hill to the café. We ordered our food and then sat down at a table in the shade. I had ordered a pizza. When the food came it looked delicious. We had so many fries because we had ordered three to share among all eight of us and Blue Zulu ordered two so he had five baskets of fries! After eating all the kids wanted to play hide-and-go-seek. Camille was the seeker and she counted to 50 and we all hid. She looked around for 10-15 minutes then gave up and we didn’t even know that she had quit. The last thing that was on our list to do was go to do the mini golf. We got to the course that was owned by the café next to it. We got the ball and club then started. There were eighteen runs in all and we only got through ten because there was seven of us. For the last ones we had to do them quicker and not record points. When mini golf was over, we drove back to the dock and dinghied back to the boat.
Nice descriptions of your adventures, Kyra.
Thanks for sharing!