Rain Forest
Z and I had a fantastic and pretty busy weekend. We worked a bit on Saturday but took off late in the afternoon for the beach with two of our housemates – Scott and Brandon.
After a few hours of surfing and body surfing we were hungry and decided to be a bit wild and go out for burritos and ice cream. It is an interesting thing when you realize that the most “unseemly” thing you have done all week is sneak away for some Mexican food and chocolate ice cream. There’s something to chew on…what tawdry things have YOU been up to this week?
Enough of that.
Today we all awoke pretty early and headed off towards the rainforest at the top of the mountain. It ended up being a good size crew – nine of us in total – and we had to take two cars. Anne – Myra’s friend – used to work at the nature conservatory so she was able to get us in and give us a first rate tour.
It was really incredible being there. Apparently there are very few native plants and birds left in Hawaii and those that are still around live exclusively in the conservatory. If the birds go lower they die from a bird flu that is transported by the mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes are not native to Hawaii, nor are many of the other creatures and plant life that occupy so much of the land. And – if you can believe this – there are only TWO mammals that ARE native to Hawaii – one is a seal, the other a bat. Unfortunately, many species acclimate easily to Hawaii’s climate and often end up destroying the native inhabitants (humans included).
Everyone felt very privileged to have the opportunity to visit the preserve and it was a rainy but outstanding trip.
After hiking in the cold rain for three + hours we were happy to return to the sun and ultimately headed down to the beach. More body surfing and we even got Myra’s feisty terrier, Rama, on the board. He actually really enjoyed it and kept trying to come back out. Who would of thought?
posted by Erin at 6:17 PM
2 Comments:
Erin there is a good book called
'Fatal Impact' written about the
explorer John Cook and his travels
to tahiti australia etc. and the
impact to the islands. In the late
1700's the population of Tahiti was
something like 40,000 people and
due to the introduction of venereal
diseases, small pox, etc. Processed
foods, war like social behavior the
population by the early 1800's was
about 12,000. Wonder what the island would have looked like way back when ? Hey if you ever get a chance read a book called "A Short
History of Nearly Everthing"by Bill
Bryson. It is lovely reading and
has alot of geological history in it. Sounds like you are having a lot of fun there.Mark had a ball in Africa. Uncle Dan
I dunno, this photo reminds me of a scene at the Ewok village... a good scene obviously, but involving ewoks nonethless - maybe its the hoods.
Post a Comment
<< Home