The Road to Hana

Yesterday we made the trek on the road to Hana, There are 600 curves and 54 one lane bridges along this 50 mile drive. You constantly have to watch for cars coming the other way so that there is room for you to get by each other. But the views and scenery are nothing short of incredible. Not many places can boast the variety of tropical plants and flowers and the amazing ocean vistas.
We pulled off at several waterfalls and did a few short walks through the gardens along the way. It took us about 4 hours to drive the 40 mile portion we covered. Our new cottage is about three miles before the actual village of Hana so we haven't actually seen it yet. (editorial correction: Hana is on the east end of Maui, not the west as I wrote yesterday). This side of the Island gets the most rain and is a virtual rainforest. Hence the lush vegetation and humidity. Right now the sun is shining, but they are calling for rain anytime during the day.
We plan on exploring the beaches today as there are different colors of sand beaches in this area.
Happy Birthday to Nancy today, she is now 39 just like me!!

The east side of Maui is a lush, tropical garden.

Flowers and tropical plants everywhere.

We saw our first whales close to shore at one of the pull-offs along the coast.

 

Ah, paradise found!

The roots of this palm tree are exposed above ground.

Bamboo growing in the forest. This is a species of grass. I'm glad I don't have to mow it.

Beautiful colors and varieties of tropical plants.

A flower of one of the palms.

Rainbow Eucalyptus trees have shades of greens, pinks, greys and blue in their bark.

The rugged lava coast.

The waves were dramatic as they crashed ashore.

Massive lava formations on the sea shore.

One of the waterfalls we stopped at along the road to Hana.

More flowers.

This is our new digs for the next four nights.

Two bedrooms, one bath on four acres. (A spare bedroom if you want to join us for a couple of days).