Where the laid back Kauaians are

Day 5
Lihue
low 80s

Each island in the chain has a unique personality; Kauai is more laid back and more “local' then the other islands, and the west side of Kauai seems to be more laid back and local then the rest of the island. I spent my morning in the west side town of Waimea, gateway to Waimea Canyon, which mark Twain called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.

I drove into Waimea, parking and walking along the storefronts. The place is much less developed and a bit less looked after then the rest of Kauai, giving it a feeling similar to what I picked up on in Mexico when I was there; the laid back attitude permeated most facets of life, including maintenance of the infrastructure. White and soft pastels are common colors for the buildings, but most everythign had a reddish tinge of Volcanic dust, from the soil. Dirt on the Hawaiian islands isn't black, it's reddish with various composites from volcanic activity, and it will permanently stain anything it gets ground into. Waimea is a bit more covered in the dust then a lot of places, on Kauai. Also, there's more pidgin spoken here, and it's more evident in listening to people talk; the accents are thicker.

But the people are extremely friendly, and looking to make a visitor feel comfortable. The place where I settled for a bit was the epitome of this feeling... an art gallery/coffeeshop/free wifi hotspot named Aloha in Paradise. This little nook featured the work of local and state-wise artists depicting various themes- historical, modern and natural. Also there was a variety of jewelery, sculpture and crafts.

No ice tea, so I had to settle in with some sort of latte mocha thingy. I sipped it very slowly, as I am not really a coffee person. I did a bit of work and chatted a bit, only pausing to offer my laptop to an Indian girl who came in, thinking it might be an internet cafe. She was -really- shocked when I told her I didn't need any money for the use of my laptop for five minutes, to check mail.

Exciting, eh? : )

Anyway, after that Charles, Doris, Tia and I regrouped and headed up into the mountians on the west side, to see Waimea Canyon and go to the Kokee lookout point, where you can look out over the Na Pali coast from the cliffs onto the ocean from he northwest side. The view was spectacular. If you remember in the movie Jurassic Park, the part where the helicopter carry the characters first approaches the island, it comes up on huge cliffs straight into the ocean... that's Na Pali.

We did a hike along what's called the Ditch Trail, only two miles in but in the mountains and under rather hazardous conditions; obscured trails near the edges of sheer drops, that kind of thing. Through the jungle and mountain forest we wound our way, until coming to the end of the trail at the point of one of the jutting cliffs running along the side of a mountain, extending into Waimea Canyon. It was like having a balcony seat to a truly amazing view. All around us, space... dropping off thousands of feet in most directions and then eventually rolling up into steep cliffside, waterfalls and cool pools gathered, spilling over down mountainsides.

After getting back and resting in a serious way for about a half an hour ( mostly on my account... I'm not a great mountain hiker : ) we drove down the mountain, back to Waimea. This takes about a half an hour in itself, and is tough on the breaks. You can sign up for a sort of tour that will drive you up to the lodge in Kokee, give you a bike and let you ride down the side of the mountain in the breeze... I've done that before, but this time I was happy to drive and relax on the way down.

It was a slow day after that, winding down and watching movies until it was time for bed. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.