We had another early wake up. We visited a beach a couple miles north in search of turtles and found several Hawaiian green sea turtles (can you spot all three on the beach?). They are pretty marvelous creatures - we even got to see one shuffle down the beach and launch themselves into the water. Then we threw down a few miles at Sugar Beach north of us - at 2.5 miles, it is the longest stretch of uninterrupted sandy beach to walk on the island and it was invigorating and beautiful.
Our main adventure was driving up to the beaches of the northwest coast, including driving through Lahaina. Many roads are closed in that area due to the devastating fire almost a year ago. The ruins of buildings and cleared land could be seen in every direction from the highway. I can't even imagine the force with which the fire tore through the area. It is tragic, but citizens are using it as a chance to address some of the problems that had arisen over time with tourism. Power to this movement! We stopped in Ka'anapali to check out the scene there: big resorts on a beautiful, long beach punctuated with restaurants and shops in the bottom of every resort and many people enjoying the water. Not really our scene - lol. We went further north to Napili Beach, which Jess had read held good snorkeling on a reef in a protected bay and a nice sandy beach for relaxing. It was just as described and the turquoise water sparkled. We went snorkeling for quite awhile and saw many fish, including some new ones to us like the Moorish Idol and the Humuhumunukanukapua'a (the state fish of Hawaii). Chilling on the beach was pretty wonderful, too.
We also wanted to also explore Honolua Bay - which is described as the best snorkeling on the island and an impressive for sealife density and diversity. So we drove a little more up the coast, hiked a half-mile through dense jungle canopy and came out on the rocky shore. After getting in and swimming along the right coastline, it was quickly apparent that it was a stunning snorkel spot - even better than Coral Gardens that we previously took the catamaran to. In addition to more new fish species and larger fish (enormous parrotfish!), we got to swim with a sea turtle - likely a Hawksbill! It was absolutely amazing to be near such a graceful and large creature that was just doing its thing (eating coral) and entirely uninterested in Jess and I watching it from a distance. Hands down a remarkable experience and I feel grateful to have shared a long time in company with the giant turtle. We were pretty beat after such a long day, so we caught sunset across the street from the condo and called it an early night. Just another day in paradise!
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