Day 3: Snorkeling

As today began Janine's weekend, I was extremely excited to be able to spend the entire day with her. To my delight we broke out the snorkeling gear and took a drive to Hamauna Bay Nature Preserve a breathtakingly beautiful bay that is home to large populations of endemic marine life. After a brief educational video instructing us to "look but not touch," we hiked down to the bay and got in the water. As the last time that I'd used a snorkel was 18 years ago in my grandmother's in-ground pool, Janine gave me a quick (and very valuable) lesson on how to breathe and swim while using the snorkeling equipment, then threw me to the sharks (horray for metaphors!). It took some time to get used to breathing through a snorkel for extended periods of time. Eventually I succeeded in taking long, full breaths to avoid hyperventilating. Every 15 minutes or so my face mask would fill up with a few inches of water and I would have to find a sandy clearing (you're not supposed to walk on or touch the reef) to stop and adjust.

In some parts of the bay the reef was so shallow that my body scraped the reef. In these moments I would panic and flash back to the extensive list of dangerous sea urchins that I'd scanned moments before getting in the water, expecting one to launch out of the reef and spear me as I touched its home. At one point the combination of shallow reef and a high surf advisory left me beached - like a whale - on a reef. I had to gently claw my way back into the water, cringing at the thought that my physical contact with the reef was killing it. Janine and I snorkeled hand-in-hand at times (like otters) to stay together. Most notable among the marine life we viewed was a sea turtle munching on something near a patch of reef. As I hadn't thought to purchase an underwater camera, I took pictures of the educational signs at the entrance to the bay of the species we saw in the water (below).

On our way back from Hanauma Bay, we stopped at the Halona Blowhole, a rock formation that shoots sea spray from the Pacific Ocean high into the air like a geyser. As it was a windy day and the tide was high, the Blowhole was very active, causing one little girl to screech in fear as water shot upward from the cave below to a height of at least 30 feet.

Halona Blowhole Footage

We ended our afternoon adventure with acai bowls (acai na tigela) - a local treat made from the mashed and frozen fruit of the acai palm, blended into a smoothie-like-consistency, and topped with bananas, strawberries, granola, honey, and other toppings of choice. Mine had pineapple and toasted coconut on top. I wonder if we can make a homemade version of this (Zac Bittner/Kate Cragg)?

Left: Traditional + blueberries & strawberries, Right: Colada