"Aloha"

The first leg of my trip is not too far from home. I am still on American soil, dealing with higher than American prices. My saving grace is staying with someone who lives here which definitely cuts down the cost for 10 days in Hawaii. I am staying in the town of Lahaina, on the west side of the Island of Maui. I've been here before and came back to visit a friend Alex who I met the last time I was here a little ofer a year ago.



We hiked up to and swam in Twin Falls...the water levels were very low due to lack of rain. Alex wanted to jump in from above the waterfall, about 25 feet up, but the pool was only about 8 feet deep. We also went to the Old Lahaina Luau which was amazing! the food was great and the dancers were beautiful. I had my photo taken with George, the chanter from the ceremonies. Alex works for the company that manages the Luau so we were able to get in for free and drink Mai Tai's to our hearts content!


I've also spent some time alone while Alex works in the afternoon/evenings. He lives right across the street from the ocean so I try and grab a beer just before sunset and stroll across to watch sea turtles poking their heads above water. It's my favorite time of day and I feel so peaceful watching them, or whatever else happend to float by as I watch the sun go down.




On the way to the beach from Alex's house there is a small buddhist temple. The Buddha statue that sits on the ground is about 20 feet tall. Its a beautiful sight.



I've been trying lots of fun new things to eat and drink which is one of my favorite parts of traveling. We purchased a HUGE fruit that Alex thought was a bread fruit but it turned out to be an unripened jack fruit. We had fun cutting it open but were sad to have to throw the entire thing away because it was hard inside and tasted like paste.



I also did get a chance to take a scuba refresher course. It was my 15th dive, and my first ever beach dive. We dived right off of an old broken fishing pier in Lahaina. We saw a HUGE sea turtle, and my first ever white tipped reef shark. he must have been about 5 feet long and swam within just a few feet of us. It was exhilerating and exciting to be so close to such a feared animal. I maintained composure, but I really sucked in a lot of air because my tank ended at 500 PSI! I have two more days to enjoy the island before I move on to the next. I couldn't be happier.

"Get busy living or get busy dying"

The day has finally arrived for me to embark on my three month journey around the Pacific. I leave this afternoon for Hawaii. It is with mixed emotions that I go. I am so excited to see the world, dive in amazing waters, experience new cultures, tan on some of the world's most amazing beaches, get sick on random street foods that I can't help but taste...and at the same time leaving so many friends back home is tugging at my heart strings. I don't like being sad so I am trying to avoid it as much as possible. It's not that I don't care about leaving close friends or that I won't miss everyone dearly, I would rather just choose to be happy so that's what I do. (Hopefully I can keep that philosophy up on the road!)

The last several weeks have been so full of preparations that I am glad to be done with the planning and finally to be going. My bag is packed weighing in at a mere 22 pounds. That's pretty light to live off of for 3 months and I feel proud of my minimalism. I probably could even take less, but a few creature comforts are hard to give up (i.e. one very tiny blow-dryer, face moisturizer, and other girly necessities).

I guess the last two weeks since I left my job, I have been busy living. Playing with friends and packing have taken precedence over other things. Alas, one thing on my list of "to do's" before I left was to continue my Mallorca posts. Those of you interested in seeing more pictures follow this link. Many people asked me about the photo I posted of the dolphin (no I didn't take it) but if you check out Tom's album on the link you can see the actuals dolphins we saw.

http://www.georgejenson.com/gallery2/main.php

Username - friends
Password - jennifer

I will be updating my blog along the way so check in and see photos and be jealous. I'll try and update things weekly as I find internet cafe's.

peace, love
(as a beautiful little girl I know says)