Hawaii Part 4: Seven sacred pools

We were up early because our guide was to arrive early.  I'd placed the craigslist ad the first night we stayed in Hana.  It was vague, saying two mainland girls wanted a local who could take us places we wouldn't ordinarily see and tell us things about it we wouldn't ordinarily learn.  We were just looking for someone with a reliable car, wisdom, and good energy.  That we'd found him and we getting our tour the day before we had to leave was a blessing.

Our guide arrived on "Maui Time" and he arrived in a "Maui cruiser".  And according to any other local we interacted with, this was to be expected.  In fact, anything else would have aroused suspicion.

The "Maui cruiser" - at one point the middle of the steering wheel broke off.  Our guide just shoved it in the back seat and carried on.  It reminded me of some farm vehicles I've driven.

We stopped for gas and supplies and headed down the road past Hana.  Our guide was from another part of the island, but he was "from" everywhere.  He had raised a family on the island, off the grid, and now that family lived in South Gate, CA.  That part had me saying something like, "What?  No one knows where South Gate is and for sure no one lives there."  But there it was.  We compared streets where we lived.  He never said why he was estranged from his family but what we learn later might speak to that.

First we stopped at a place on the highway where some of his friends were selling their wares.  He and some friends hung out and smoked a joint while my friend and I visited with the local merchants.

My friend checks out the braided hats and bowls.

Sharon's Elvis memorabilia - not for sale.

My friend with Sharon in front of her display.

Sharon wasn't just selling leis.  Sharon was also selling the gospel according to Elvis.  I am using her real, full name because I know she'd want me to share her message and her name here.  Share drives a black trans am with various Elvis related sayings on it.

Sharon basically believes Elvis preached the word of God and that the message is one of love and belonging.  There is more to it, but I don't want to mess up her philosophy.  She is generous, loving, and kind.  She was so open and sharing.  After sharing her message about Elvis and God with me, she gave me a lei she'd made of various shells in rainbow colors.  She told me I am a child of the rainbow, and this is what this particular kind of lei means.  It made me teary.

My lei.  I still haven't worn it.  It's just so pretty.

The drive along this highway - I think the most beautiful in the nation is actually an understatement - was slow going in the Maui Cruiser and that was perfect.  It gave my friend and our guide a chance to discuss what I will lovingly call "hippie/earth mother philosophy" and me a chance to soak in the glory of the natural world, for example:

This is actually a waterfall, but there is not enough water on Maui for commercial fruit growers, huge resorts, and waterfalls...  

We stopped at the Seven Sacred Pools located in Haleakala National Park.  The National Park is enormous, covering a large portion of the island, and it's apparently great for geologic study as it's all volcanic.  The Seven Sacred Pools were formed through volcanic activity and waterfalls dumping fresh water into one pool then then next, etc. until the last mixes out with the ocean.  Our guide told us there are many other pools, just not where we can access.

Our talked to us about different areas in the park and the different things some of the names meant, etc.  He told us old stories of the way things were decades ago and then even before that, giving us a glimpse of some of the old ways.

I think our tour guide's stories were a lot more peppery than the stories told by the stodgy, white tour guides who got off shuttles leading people down trails who complained aloud, "Is this going to be worth it?" 

I'm going to tell the next bit of the day with pictures and you'll understand why I looked at the woman who asked that and said, "Are you kidding me?"  And yes, I had to do it.

To actually get in and swim in one of the pool, you had to hike down some rocks and then around more rocks and little pools of water.  But I was wearing my "adventure shoes" (they're kind of like hiking shoes, only not high-tops) so I was ready.  We hiked over and got in the water.  Our guide climbed up, decided the water was high enough, and jumped.  My friend and I just swam around in the bracing, cool fresh water.  The water made every part of my body it touched feel good.  The water was special.  And out of all the people who came there that day, few made it down the trails to the pools, and even fewer actually got into the water).  I learned along time ago that one should probably always get in the water.

We took some time to sit on some grass and watch the ocean from a hill.  It was spiritually nourishing.  

I just got out of the pool and I was feeling both overwhelmed and refreshed.

This was the actual pool we swam in - it got pretty deep.

I don't remember the name of the place we went next, or why, or the significance.  I just remember the guide talking and talking and my friend talking and talking.  The next picture documents it.  I'm sure it was important, but I was so overwhelmed, I was climbing inside myself, wanting to just write everything down I was feeling and seeing.  He gave us a lesson on what some words mean.  I only wrote these two down for some reason.

Mana means big spirit, big power

Ponopono means the biggest I'm sorry ever, or as the guide put it "forgive me for some bad s---" and when pronounced, there should be emphasis on the last syllable, almost a whine.

See that grassy area at the bottom left, I went and rested on it while the guide and my friend contemplated mother nature and various other philosophy.

We went to our guide's friend's house for lunch.  His friend "N" owned a lot of land just on the outskirts of the national park and she had apparently invited us when we had made our first stop and he had smoked out with her and her boyfriend (or whatever).  She was the most gracious host.  She called me sister and made sure I sat down with everyone, brought me a green tea soda beverage they have there on the island, and immediately got to work chopping up fruit for us while asking us about our day.  It was absolutely lovely because we were sitting in her outdoor kitchen and the air was perfect and all the different fruit she placed before us had grown on her land.

Our host's outdoor kitchen - homey, serving delicious eats, especially the pineapple.

It turned out her entire place was off grid, self-sustainable (although they did have cell phones). Everything was it's own building.  There was an outhouse, a bedroom, several little cottages she said she used to rent out to people, and a couple more buildings.  They clearly had to work hard to keep the jungle back so they could maintain some sort of yard, with a clothesline and veggie patch, and oh, did I mention about a dozen dogs.  Two dogs had puppies and they kept trying to give them away.

Our host called our guide "uncle" but I don't think they were related. I think it has something more to do with a term or endearment or respect, but I'm not sure. He gave us a little tour of their property.  He told us about how when he lived there, one day a helicopter flew over the sky and suddenly a man with in a DEA jacket dropped down from it.  He looked at the marijuana growing at his feet and the larger quantity in the grow house, but he and our guide were the same color, so he picked up a couple of dead plants and shouted up to the helicopter, "Nothing here." And the DEA man was pulled back up inside the helicopter and they moved on.

The next day we were on a plane and didn't have seats together.  When we got off the plane, my friend told me she sat next to a couple of women who used to live there.  They knew of our guide and our lunch host.  Apparently it wasn't too long ago they'd been busted for manufacturing and selling methamphetamine.  We knew our guide was a felon and we figured it was related to drugs somehow.  But it was disappointing to hear it was meth.  When I heard this the first thing I thought was, "Well, it would explain their teeth."

Meth is a horrible drug that destroys people, I've seen it with family members.  I don't know the details or if it's true.  I do know that when the woman renting our room out to us came by and saw our guide hanging out with us, she was really startled and he decided pretty instantly to leave.

Whatever our lunch host does for a living, she was a kind, generous host, who took two people she didn't know into her home, treated us like family, served us delicious food, and nourished our spirits as well.  I'll take that at face value.  And I don't know the full story about our guide.  He was evasive enough so we wouldn't know.  But he went the extra mile in giving us the day of local color we were search for and we learned much.  I'll take that at face value as well.