Sailing away

Last Friday we decided to take a hop on over to the island of Molokai. We can see the island from the balcony of our hotel. It doesn't look that far away. In fact, it is only 8 miles away (about 1 hour 45min. each way). So we found a day long tour that includes a ferry ride over and then an all day tour of the island along with lunch and shopping.

Molokai is very different from any of the other islands. The residents want to keep everything authentic Hawaiian culture so they are not the least interested in modernizing their island or attracting much tourism. Our van driver/tour guide was a really unique guy. He talked non stop. He shared history, culture, Hawaiian language, local political issues and lots of jokes. It was a very informative experience. The island is very dry and not at all how I picture Hawaii. It has a very small town vibe. Most people live here because they want to be isolated.

You may be aware that back in the 1800s there was an outbreak of leprosy and many people we banished to this island as a way to deal with this disease. They established a town, Kalaupapa, in a very remote location (even today it is accessible only by hiking down a 1700 foot sea cliff trail or taking a helicopter ride. We drove to an overlook location and this is a picture of the town. At one point there were about 700 infected residents plus lots of other non infected family members residing here. Back in about the 1960s a medication was developed that stopped the spread of the disease but because of the effects of the disease on the body and how people look that are affected, most people have chosen to remain here. Today there are only 31 people registered as leprosy afflicated. They are mostly in their 80s. After the last registered person dies then this town can be opened to the general public and maybe even a real road will be built to access the town. But most residents don't want that.




Another highlight of our tour was going to a Macademia nut farm. I love macademia nuts so I was very interested to see how they are grown. The farm we went to is a very small operation. This guy has 50 trees but he produces a lot of nuts. His trees are at least 90 years old. The macademia nut tree produces fruit 12 months a year -- non stop. Its' life cycle is taking place from blossoms to mature fruit all at the same time, on the same tree, non stop. They don't pick the nuts; they just wait for the ripe nuts to fall on the ground and then they know they are ripe. This green shell around the nut is called the husk. After it is peeled off, there is a hard shell underneath protecting the nut. That shell has to be cracked with a hammer - reminded me of cracking a pecan. The raw nut is tender and delicious and very healthy. At this farm they sell the nuts either raw or dry roasted. They will last about a month. When the big companies mass produce the nuts for general consumption, they have to add a lot of stuff to preserve them for a longer shelflife and that adds more calories and other less healthy ingredients. I wish I could grow one of these trees in my yard at home. We are consuming as many nuts while we are here as we can! You know, we try to be as healthy as possible!