Maui, HI: 4/4/10 - 4/7/10

For Uyen's spring break this year we went to the Hawaiian Island of Maui! We didn't book it until the middle of March when we saw a Pleasant Holidays offer on Travelzoo for 3 nights + air for $500/person. Adding an extra day increased the price by 40% so we stuck with the 3-night itinerary.

Day 1
Our flight on Sunday also didn't leave until 5PM, but that actually worked out well for us as it was Easter. While we were waiting for our flight at LAX we felt the 7.2 Baja California earthquake. Afterwards, we felt we needed to have a $13 margarita at El Cholo to set the vacation mood. Our flight was nonstop to Kahului, Maui on Delta. We arrived just before 8PM Maui time, picked up our rental car from Hertz, and drove directly south to Kihei for dinner at Da Kitchen. For less than $15, we had one of our best meals here. We shared the "Hawaiian Plate," which consisted of Pork Lau Lau, Kalua Pork, Chicken Long Rice and Lomi Salmon. I had read reviews prior, so I knew the portions were big and everything was on the salty side, but I think that's partly what made it so good. We also did drive to Maui Tacos, which was located in the plaza next door, but it was closed by that time and we were plenty full from Da Kitchen. It was about 45 minutes up the west coast of Maui to reach our lodging, the Kaanapali Ocean Inn in Kaanapali. This is pretty much the base hotel in Maui for Pleasant Holidays packages, and as many visitors before have stated, it is definitely a budget hotel. There's no elevator but there's only 3 floors. The walls were thin, the bed was lumpy and soft-ish, and we only used the chairs/sofa for putting stuff on as they all had dark (I'm guessing dirt) stains on them. It was certainly livable, though, the beach was steps away, and the service staff was good.

Day 2
So the next morning we woke up bright and early (by our standards) so we could return to the south side of the island for our reserved Molokini-Lana'i Snorkel tour with Pacific Whale Foundation (PWF). Long story short, we were notified of boat problems shortly prior to our 8:30AM departure time and around 8:50AM the entire tour was cancelled. We did get a full refund, but the tour would have been 7.25 hours so this really jacked up our plans for the day. There are snorkeling tours that leave all over Maui, but because we also didn't want to wake up super early and booked a "later morning" tour, all the other tours had left by this time. There are sometimes afternoon tours, but those were all cancelled because it was already windy at this time and only pick up in the afternoon when the tradewinds really set in. Even given what happened to us, I would still consider PWF in the future as it was the cheapest and only option for these 2 destinations (Molokini AND Lana'i) and PWF is a nonprofit, so all the proceeds support a nonprofit. Of course, being a nonprofit probably explains the shoddy boat, and they do have a reputation for being unreliable. Still, as long as things are always smooth when they do get out in the water, I'll forgive them for not having six sigma reliability.

And this did give us the chance for an impromptu adventure. First, we headed back to Lahaina's Front Street on the waterfront for brunch. We decided on Cheeseburger In Paradise. Frequent Vegas go-ers may recognize the logo as being very similar to Cheeseburger at the OASIS in Planet Hollywood next to the V Theatre. The one in Vegas is a branch of this very same store in Maui, which opened in 1989. As far as the burger went, it was definitely good and we plan to visit the store in Vegas sometime, but, for me, I don't think anywhere is ever going to beat Shake Shack in NYC.

We walked off our brunch by perusing Front Street and eventually walking to the Lahaina Maui Tacos. Despite being full, we figured we had to try Maui Tacos while in Maui so we got a combo and each had a fish taco. It was grilled fish, which is nice, but I realize I like fried fish better in my fish tacos, a la Taco Nazo. I'm definitely glad we tried it, though.

Determined to still do some snorkeling on Maui, we stopped by the Lahaina Cannery Mall and bought snorkels at Longs Drugs and fins at Boss Frog's. We then drove back south and snorkeled off the west coast of Maui at Olowalu. It was about 1PM at this time and, as it turns out, it is quite windy come afternoon on the west coast of Maui. The water was also colder than I imagined (and hoped) it would be. We did see lots of reef and fish and at least satisfied our itch to snorkel.

We then set out to do what we were originally planning to do after our PWF trip: circumnavigate the west lobe of Maui and drive the unpaved road on the Northwest of Maui (possibly breaching our rental car agreement). I rented a SUV expressly for this purpose and for the upcoming, similarly unpaved, "Road Beyond Hana." I followed this Frommer's article, except backwards as we were going from Central Maui to West Maui. Per Frommer's, we first stopped in the Wailuku area to see the Halekii and Pihana Heiaus. Heiaus are ancient places of worship that were generally located in beautiful / spiritual locations. These 2 were located on a hill that overlooked Central Maui and the northern coast.
After the heiaus we were soon on our curvy 20-mile drive along the northwest coast that showcased: "steep ravines, rolling pastoral hills, tumbling waterfalls, exploding blowholes, crashing surf, jagged lava coastlines, and a tiny Hawaiian village straight off a postcard" (Frommer's). The town being referred to is Kahakuloa, which is home to Julia's Best Banana Bread. A small green stand that can't be missed on the drive, I mention Julia's because it actually shows up in Google Maps when you zoom-in and even has a website! Naturally, we had to try it and it was very good, probably the best I've ever had. It was also reasonably priced and very well packaged (pointed out by Uyen). Just before Kahakuloa, we also stopped by Kaukini Gallery, which sells art by local artists.


Nearing the end of our drive, we stopped by the blowhole. There was a very short hike to get to it. What is a "blowhole" you ask? Below is a video of it. Of course right after I stopped recording a huge spurt came, but this captures the gist of it.


By this point in the drive the road had widened and was smooth. Then, after rounding the northernmost point of Maui, we looked for an outlet to Honolua Bay. Our first search brought us to a private residence in the middle of a jungle and me falling into a river.
We decided to head to dinner after that; I had made reservations for the Plantation House Restaurant in Kapalua. Just driving up to the restaurant in its country club/estate atmosphere signaled that we were not dressed appropriately, so we delayed our reservation and headed back to Kaanapali. Unfortunately, this meant we wouldn't be able to enjoy the sunset at the restaurant (which is a big reason why people go to this restaurant), but at least we were clean and I was dry.
Although we couldn't enjoy the sunset at the restaurant, we were still able to enjoy the beautiful Maui sunset from the balcony of our room.

Day 3
This day was dedicated to the Road to Hana. The Hana Highway is a 68-mile long windy, twisty road that follows the coastline of the eastern lobe of Maui. I opted to also do the "Road Beyond Hana", which completes the circumnavigation of Eastern Maui.

We left Kaanapali around 6:30am and arrived at the town of Paia, our first stop, around 7:30am. Here, we filled up our car and picked up a picnic lunch from Hana Picnic Lunch Co. They make your lunch fresh and claim that they have studied the art of sandwich-making to ensure that it will still be in tip-top shape when it's eaten hours later. We also picked up a Hana Audio Tour CD there that the very pleasant worker sold us on (and we're glad she did).

Our major stops were:
1. Waikamoi Ridge Trail, btwn miles 9-10: A short loop nature walk through lush trees, bamboo and ferns that took roughly half an hour.

2. Puahokamoa Falls, btwn miles 10-11: I initially drove past the lower falls and had to backtrack. Located off the ocean-side of the road, there were no signs and the best view of the falls came after crawling through a fence.


3. Keanae Peninsula, turnoff btwn miles 16-17: After the turnoff, it's less than a mile to get right up to the coast. The dark jagged lava rocks and the crashing waves made this a particularly beautiful stop.


4. Keanae Arboretum, btwn miles 16-17: The arboretum houses over 150 varieties of tropical plants and is a great place to see indigenous flowers and painted bark eucalyptus trees.


5. Waikani (Three Bears) Falls, btwn miles 19-20: While the falls were beautiful as viewed from the roadside, the really cool part was climbing under the bridge and taking the short jungle-like path to get an up close view of the falls.


6. Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside Park, btwn miles 22-23: This is where we ended up having lunch. There are picnic tables and a small waterfall nearby. Our lunch was in great condition and was perfect for our journey, just as advertised.

7. Waianapanapa State Park, mile 32 / Hana / Hamoa Beach, btwn miles 51-50 (the mile markers descend once beyond Hana):


8. Wailua Falls, btwn miles 45-44: What makes Wailua Falls so amazing in my mind is that this 80 ft waterfall is entirely visible just driving along the road.

9. Waimoku Falls / Oheo Gulch (in Haleakala National Park), mile 42: We first did the Pipiwai Trail, a 4 mi roundtrip hike that includes a 650 ft change in elevation, bamboo forests, and Waimoku Falls at the end. The hike was simply incredible. A half mile in was Makahiku Falls, which, at 185 feet, was quite magnificent on its own. Then, about a mile in, began the bamboo forests. At the very end was Waimoku Falls, a gigantic 400 ft waterfall that's the tallest on Maui.

As if Waimoku Falls wasn't enough, the trailhead also splits off to the Kuloa Point Trail, a 0.5 mi loop trail that passes by the ocean and Oheo Gulch, aka the Seven Sacred Pools. Unfortunately, we were notified upon entering the national park that swimming in the Pools was not permitted on this day due to weather conditions and the risk of flash floods. Doing so was high on my list of things to do, but it has to wait 'til a future trip.


We left the park a little after 6pm. We tried to look for Charles Lindbergh's Grave but couldn't find it. It was getting late so we decided to continue on, which turned out to be a good idea as it started to rain heavily just as we connected with the 7 miles of unpaved road on the southeast of Maui, i.e. the Road Beyond Hana. There really is nothing out there, but it was great seeing untouched Maui (aside from the road, of course). Many are concerned with the safety of driving this road. As the last picture demonstrates, this road can be extremely dangerous (and we actually didn't see it until we randomly decided to stop and Uyen had stepped out).


We reached Lahaina around 8:30pm and decided to have dinner on Front Street at Mala Ocean Tavern. We had the seared ahi bruschetta and kobe burger. For dessert, I had the dragon fruit sorbet, which is now my favorite dessert.


Day 4
For our last day we pre-scheduled with Haleakala Bike Company to do a bike tour down Haleakala volcano. Many people do a sunrise tour, but we opted to do the "Summit Deluxe Tour" so we wouldn't have to wake up at an ungodly hour. Our tour started at 9am and met in Haiku, which is just a little bit past Paia along the Hana Highway. We left the Kaanapali Ocean Inn for the last time at 7:45am and arrived in about an hour. After signing waiver forms and such, it was an hour+ van ride to the summit. Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks of going at this time is that it tends to be when the fog rolls in. We really couldn't see much of the crater at all because of the thick fog. I still got an appreciation for how big the thing is, though. We made 2 stops at the summit area: the visitor center and a site where we got a clear look at some observatories, telescope and missile defense facilities!?


To Be Continued...

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Cost Breakdown

$1,018.00 - Package for 2 with roundtrip air via Delta + 3-nights at Kaanapali Ocean Inn from Pleasant Holidays
$191.13 - Rental car from Hertz (using prepay option that gave an extra 10% discount)
$94.80 - Dinner at Plantation House Restaurant
$10.00 - Entrance fee for Haleakala National Park
$71.70 - Dinner at Mala Ocean Tavern
$167.88 ($79.99+$3.95 for optional bike insurance+tax x2) - Haleakala Bike Co.'s "Summit Deluxe" Bike Tour
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$1,553.51

San Juan / Rio Grande / Fajardo / Arecibo, Puerto Rico: 8/9/09 - 8/13/09

We bought our package to Puerto Rico from cheapcaribbean.com, which included flight (Ft. Lauderdale to/from San Juan) and hotel for 4 nights. Thanks to the financial crisis, many tourist destinations aggressively stepped-up their marketing and none more so than Puerto Rico (I saw ads on radio, TV, and internet). We also seriously considered Hawaii, Bahamas, and Aruba, but with our package coming in effectively below $900 for both of us, the price couldn't be beat (plus we get the opportunity to hit up Miami).

Day 1
We flew in the night before and stayed at Hyatt Place Ft. Lauderdale, which offers free airport shuttle service. Once we arrived at the terminal, I was immediately thankful that PR is domestic travel; the line for international travel was out the terminal and wrapped around several times on the sidewalk! We flew Spirit Airlines, which has notoriously low rates for travel all around the Carribean, but is literally a bus in the sky. It was extraordinarily cramped and pretty dirty. This will more than likely be our last time flying them. We were not forced to fly them because we bought a package (we could have flown JetBlue for the same price) but we chose them because they had more flights. However, in the future, I will work around JetBlue's schedule. Thankfully, Spirit did get us there safely and on-time. The flight schedule was to leave at 10:35AM and arrive at 1:10PM, with no time difference.

Our first order of business was to pick up our rental car, which gave us our first experience with "island" service. After getting our car, we drove about a 100 yards to a place we saw on the way to the rental car office from the airport shuttle. To say the least, we were starving. Having no doors and being a local establishment, Bebo's BBQ forced Uyen to quickly brush up on her Spanish to get us our half chicken. It ended up being the best chicken both of us have ever had. The skin was perfectly cripsy and the chicken fell off the bone. It was amazing and a wonderful way to start our trip. And, yes, that is a McDonalds behind me.

After our first meal, we headed to Old San Juan. Parking is horrendous and, after circling around more than a few times, we parked in a questionable spot. We asked a lady if it was okay to park there and she walked us to the police station to ask. The officer told us it depends on if the individual police officer decides to ticket on that day. If he does, we're screwed. If not, we're safe. He also added that since it was Sunday, we were probably safe. Weird, I know. So we just left it in our questionable spot and went to La Bombonera for mallorcas. This place was featured by Rachael Ray and has been around since 1902. After mallorcas and jugo de china (orange juice), we strolled around Old San Juan. We went to the official visitor's center, where we got free rum punch and travel size Bacardis for being the last visitors of the day. We walked around the outskirts of the city, marveling at the fortifications that used to surround it and getting a preview of the forts we'd visit the next day. We also ran into a lot of stray cats.


For dinner we stayed in Old San Juan and ate at Restaurant El Jibarito. We shared a grouper fish plate with fried yucca on the side, which was $13.95. Luckily, we got the last empty table as there was quite a line when we were leaving. After dinner we headed back to our car (no ticket!) and made the roughly 1 hr drive east to our hotel, the Wyndham Rio Mar.

Day 2
We slept in and picked up a quick lunch at a cafe in the hotel, eating outside so we could enjoy the scenery. We then made our way back to Old San Juan to visit the 2 venerable forts: El Morro and San Cristobal. Built by Spain to protect San Juan, which was a key entry-way to America, the forts are UNESCO World Heritage sites. We paid for parking this time, finding a place near El Morro. To get to San Cristobal, we hopped on Old San Juan's free trolley service that took us directly from fort to fort. For each, it takes at least an hour to fully walk around and just peruse the readings on the exhibits. In my opinion, the 2 forts are unique enough where it's worthwhile to visit both. Also, admission is slightly discounted if you purchase both ($5 for both as opposed to $3 each per person). Old San Juan itself has many points of interests in addition to the forts. There are many museums, historical buildings, restaurants and nightclubs. Old San Juan is also where the cruise ships stop when they visit Puerto Rico.


We had dinner nearby at a place a good friend recommended: Cafe Puerto Rico. We had sancocho, an awesome soup that was recommended by the regulars sitting next to us, sausage, and mofongo. We weren't crazy about the exorbitant amount of yucca in the mofongo, but the soup was incredible. The restaurant also offered outdoor seating which allowed us to soak in the ambience.


Day 3
We stayed at the Wyndham Rio Mar, located in the city of Rio Grande. We were extremely satisfied with our room. The resort has its own private beach, two pools (we went swimming just about every night), and iguana feedings every morning! I wanted to make sure we got this into our trip so we took this morning to comprehensively explore our resort and feed some iguanas.

Although we were about an hour away from Old San Juan, we were practically adjacent to and minutes away from El Yunque, the only tropical rain forest in the US National Forest System. The first decision visitors have to make is whether or not to visit the El Portal Visitors Center. The cost is $3/person and most people say you can skip it as the exhibits aren't very interesting. I don't disagree but we decided to check it out anyway since this is kind of a once in a lifetime experience. There was a short introductory video that was nice (narrated by Benicio Del Toro), and I just considered it a nominal donation fee. There's also a cafe there, but it's not anything special. We heard there were shacks on the drive up and our first objective became finding them and getting lunch. Shortly after El Portal, we passed by a shack that was selling food but decided to keep going as the map indicated a large grouping of food places further down the road. Unfortunately, we would discover that it was pretty deep into the forest and was the same freaking place as the restaurant in the Visitors Center, which was mostly standard fare that could be had anywhere. Except here, the line was long, so getting the food took forever. The food was okay, though, and we did meet a friendly couple that was in PR for their niece's wedding and staying at the same resort as us. But for any fellow shack-lovers: the first food shack near the entrance is the only one! After lunch we took the sub-half hour La Mina Trail to La Mina Falls. The water at the base of the waterfall is deep enough to swim around in, but it was very crowded. We then drove about as far up as you can go by car then began our descent (you come out the way you enter). There are a number of longer trails near the top, one of which goes to the peak. If only we had more time...

On the way out we made it a point to still stop at the food shack, which can be seen in the last of the pictures above with our faithful rental: the red Kia. We had various fried goodies and smoothies. It was well worth the stop and necessary as our day wasn't over yet.

We left El Yunque around 5pm to drive to the city of Fajardo, located in the upper north-east corner of Puerto Rico, for a "Bioluminescent Bay Kayaking Adventure." Fajardo is home to one of a few bioluminescent bays in the world. What this amounts to is a bay where any motion to the water produces a bright blue-greenish neon glow. From what I remember, this is due to micro-organisms (dinoflagellates) in the water whose defense mechanism is to light up in order to attract large fish that will eat whatever it is that eats them. The bay is secluded and requires quite a bit of kayaking through a narrow channel filled with mangroves in order to get to it. Hence, the organized tour groups. We did our tour with Enchanted Island Eco Tours. While not the cheapest available, we chose these guys due to their attention to safety and emphasis on sustainability (and the cost difference was pretty nominal). Our official tour start time was 6:15pm. For the first 45 minutes we received instructions, signed waivers, put on bug repellent, and got suited up. Then we began kayaking (all the kayaks are tandem kayaks). It was about 30-40 minutes each way and shortly after we started the sky was dark. Our entire group tried to keep in a line through the channel but that was definitely easier said than done. It was dark, so we had our fair share of running into the sides and getting whacked by dangling branches. There were also bugs, most notably mosquitos that stung through clothes and didn't seem to mind bug repellent. It also shouldn't come as a surprise that we also stank by the end. The whole experience, however, was amazing as we witnessed a truly unique phenomenon. We were also much better kayakers on the way back than we were going there. The only unfortunate thing is that it was so dark that I couldn't capture any pictures of the bay. There are some on the internet that show the effect, but I'd say this is something that definitely needs to be witnessed and experienced live.

Now, it was time to head home. Since we hadn't really had a formal dinner, we stopped by a collection of food shacks (if it's not obvious by now, we like "shacks" and use it as a term of endearment). As it was 10pm and a weekday, only a couple were open but, luckily for us, one of them was Ceviche Hut. The ceviche totally hit the spot and we had a nice conversation with the owner, pleasantly ending an inspiring day.


Day 4
We reserved our last full day for snorkeling on the SPREAD EAGLE II (it's the name of the catamaran and the company). We made our way back out to Fajardo for a 10AM departure. They first took us (at least 30ish people) out to a small island off the coast to practice in shallow waters. Then we got back on board, had a sandwich buffet lunch, and made our way to a reef somewhere in the ocean. We then snorkeled until all of us were pooped (and it actually also started to rain just as we were wrapping up). Other snacks (apples, cheese, etc.), unlimited rum, punch and pina coladas were provided throughout. We returned back to Fajardo around 3:30pm. There are a lot of companies that do this kind of excursion. We chose this one because of the food (it was good-keeping in mind that it's on a boat-and there was plenty of it; nobody left hungry) and the fact that everyone keeps their snorkel. The latter was the real selling point for us; we figured it was worth an extra couple dollars to ensure an unused snorkel. There were also a couple people that brought their own equipment, fins and all.


After snorkeling we headed back to our hotel so we could finally enjoy our private beach while it was still light out. Before we got all the way back, we stopped by a market/shack right outside our resort to pick up some "coco frio" (chilled coconut). There is no semblance of local food at the resort, which was the only really disappointing aspect of the resort. There are restaurants, but they are Italian and American or something and extraordinarily expensive (and not good per online reviews). There is great stuff just outside, however, as we discovered with the collection where we found Ceviche Hut and this market. The only other bothersome thing about the hotel was the fact that we had to pay for parking. Everything else was pretty awesome. At the beach, chairs and umbrellas and towels were conveniently available. There's also a casino on the premises that is next to the cafe, which was the only place we ever did buy food from while there. The prices here were reasonable and, in fact, we had their large sausage/pepperoni pizza for dinner before turning in for our final night in PR.
Day 5
For our last day we were originally planning on returning to Old San Juan to visit the museums we had missed and so forth, but, from a flyer I picked up at the visitor's center on the first day, I learned that Arecibo Observatory is in PR (to be honest, I had no idea what it was except that it was the radiotelescope from GoldenEye). Before we went to bed on our final night we decided that we should go out to Arecibo even though it was on the other side of the island. Since San Juan is a regular stop for all the Carribean cruises, I figure there's a good chance we'll be back there, and Arecibo is the only place we could see this thing. Also, we figured we could stop by the Camuy Caves, another popular tourist stop. We left our hotel before 7:30AM with the expectation of getting to Arecibo by 9AM, which I thought was conservative given what Google estimated. Unfortunately, I grossly underestimated the rush hour traffic around San Juan. It also didn't help that it's tucked away in the hills in a rather remote region (although it totally makes sense as to why they did that). Long story short, we wouldn't reach the observatory until after 10AM. Thankfully, there was a vendor there that sold hot dogs and chips on the observation deck. Unfortunately, visitors can't get any closer than we are in the pictures. The visitor center had a "day in the life" type video and exhibits on general space science and work that's been done at the observatory. We spent about 2 hrs here before leaving at noon.


Our flight out was at 4:15pm and we knew we wouldn't have enough time to visit the caves so we made our way back to San Juan. I entered the destination into my Navigon GPS and decided to trust it even when it told me to turn onto a dirt road that we had not taken on the way up. I figured it might be a shortcut and the GPS knew about it so I thought it'd be safe (and, yes, I have seen The Office episode where the GPS takes him into a lake). Anyway, we don't know how long we were on it, but it felt like forever. Midway through, I'll never forget thinking to myself that if we get flat or something worse happens to the car, all I'd be able to say is: "um.. we're on a dirt road and between some trees." That's if we're able to get anyone to listen us at all as the cell reception is limited as to not disturb the radiotelescope. Thankfully, our car made it through and we eventually reconnected with pavement. This experience definitely moved Kia up in my book.

We made good time to San Juan so we were able to make one more stop: the Bacardi factory tour. The tour was just OK as many previous visitors have posted, but each person gets three sample drinks and the entire thing is free. An annoying thing was that your have to take a tram from and back to the parking area (even though it's no further than 100 yards, but someone got hit by a car before), which means that everyone on the tour needs to be finished. All in all, we thought it was worth it and a fitting end to our Puerto Rico trip. The location is absolutely beautiful and we never knew there were so many different kinds of Bacardi!

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Cost Breakdown

$973.90 - Package from cheapcarribean.com that included nonstop, roundtrip airfare from Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) to San Juan (SJU) on Spirit Airlines, 4 nights hotel at the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar Beach Resort & Spa, and a $100 debit card (which I literally took to an ATM in the Wyndham and withdrew the cash within minutes of checking in)
$204.24 - Rental car for 4 days from Dollar (I made the reservation through Hotwire and was quoted $96.18, or $19.29/day but opted for the full insurance coverage once there, which doubled the price but is worth it imo for the peace of mind)
$32.10 ($16.05/day) - Parking at the Wyndham; I don't know why I was only charged for 2 days but I did not complain
$10.00 - Combo admission for 2 to both El Morro and San Cristobal
$62.37 - Dinner at Cafe Puerto Rico (this total includes tax as we can't find the itemized receipt)
$6.00 - Admission for 2 to El Portal at El Yunque
$117.70 - Cost for 2 to partake in the Bioluminescent Bay Kayaking Adventure with Enchanted Island Eco Tours
$149.80 - Cost for 2 to go snorkeling aboard the Spread Eagle II
$12.00 - Admission for 2 to Arecibo Observatory
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$1,568.11