Lavender fills the house. The Paia-made prayer flag decorates our living room. A tiki sits silent and powerful on the fireplace mantle. I’m wearing the uber-comfy Crocs¹ that I bought in Lahaina.

It’s been almost three weeks since we went to Maui and had the best vacation we’ve ever had, and I still don’t know if I have the words to describe it.

Some people crave the density, history, and amazing culture of Europe. Others desire the thrill of outdoor adventure in remote or dangerous places (think mountains, deserts, safari, etc). I crave the beach and tropical environs.

Why? I have no idea. Ever since I can remember, I’ve dreamed of living and visiting places like Maui, St. Thomas, Belize. The crystalline and amazing waters draw me in. The sheer abundance of natural beauty calls me like a siren, and my imagination is powerless to resist.

Maui was planned well in advance, and I’m thankful we did that. It gave me something to look forward to, something to daydream about when the fall and holidays swooped in like the materialistic vultures they are. It was a joy to save for it and think about what we wanted to do. Mostly? I wanted to take photos. And to have some fun.

Boy howdy, did we. Snorkeling turned out to be way more fun than I anticipated. Somewhere along the line I had gotten this idea that only SCUBA could really be all that and a bag of fish hooks. But you know, snorkeling really had it perks. It’s:

1. Cheaper
2. Requires less equipment
3. Can be done in a lot of places
4. Still lets you see a lot of cool stuff

When we were making our initial travel plans, snorkeling was sort of an afterthought to me, a means to an end- that end being underwater photography. I didn’t think much about the mechanics or details of snorkeling, only that it would get me to the photos!

Short-sighted, aren’t I?²

The necessities of snorkeling were discussed a bit prior to the trip; I did some research into possibly buying our own gear before we left, getting masks that had vision correction for our blind asses. In the end, I ran out of time to do the necessary legwork to get masks before the trip. Later, I thought it was fine and we’d wing it.

A few blogs and other things we’d read talked about said you could purchase decent snorkel gear at Costco in Kahuli. That’s what we ended up doing. At first, I wasn’t displeased. Our first snorkel experience was… well, an experience. Bayou and I never do anything the easy way, that’s for damn sure.

We selected our maiden voyage to take place at a place known as the Fishbowl (aka Kanahena Point), so named for its dazzling array of fish in a relatively calm little spot on the south coast of Maui. I kid you not, the directions we had went something like this: “Go three miles where the road narrows to a single lane and look for telephone pole #18. About 2/10 of a mile after that, when the telephone poles switch to the ocean side of the road, there’s a trailhead.” Sweet jeebus with a GPS, people. I thought we’d never find it. But, we got very lucky in that another couple who’d successfully made the trek (and, incidentally, looked like they could barely think themselves out of a wet paper bag) were exiting the hidden trailhead. Eureka, I thought. We were close!

HA, not a goddamn chance. It’s hard to put it into perspective, but this photo kind of gives you an idea of the lengths we literally went to in order to snorkel at the famed Fishbowl. Click to see it in all of its stark glory:

That barely visible gray trail is what we walked for all eternity a mile. A mile of HELL. Let me tell you, I’ve hiked some tough trails- this was by far the most dangerous. The footing was vague³ in places and quite treacherous and slow-going. You cannot rush walking in lava fields like this, to do so is to risk horrific gashes and bad bruising. I was lucky to survive the trek with only a heel blister and no major scrapes. I guarantee you other, less prepared tourists didn’t fare so well. At least we knew what we were getting ourselves into.

After the tricky hike we came to a luminously blue pool. There was black sand and smoother terrain to the south side where it looked like we might put in. Carefully we made our way over, the anticipation building. I was dying to get into the water, and not because it was 80+ degrees.

More to follow, stay tuned for another installment soon.

Technorati Tags: Maui, visiting, natural beauty, snorkel, hiked, lava fields

1. Not these exact colors, but that style [↩]
2. I can be a bit goal-focused on occasion [↩]
3. What a kind way of saying non-existent [↩]