Black Sand

Yesterday we took a road trip to the Northern shore of the island. This area is full of enormously lush valleys and one in particular led to a black sand beach.

In the car... reading Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali - an incredible book about a Somali girl who had been raised as a Muslim and a refugee on the Horn of Africa and then fled to the Western world to escape an arranged marriage. Now she lives with a death threat over her life as she fights for the rights of Muslim women and the reform of Islam as a member of Parliament... and listening to My Redeemer Lives by Nicole C. Mullen.

Pololū Valley

Hiking to the bottom...

Black sand. The stacked rocks and stakes are set up as alters and idols as a part of Hawaiian mythology - an animistic worship of the so-called spirits which are found in the waves, the sky, the trees...

Awesome rustic swings and even a teeter-totter made from old ropes...

So after all those miles hiking down and up a mountain and to the edge of a jungle... we hit the road again. Hawaii is stunningly diverse.

Hawaiian graffiti... white coral placed on the black lava rocks! It blankets the landscapes!

Finally we embarked upon a field of old lava which was apparently hollow underneath. There were caves and canyons everywhere, we felt like the ground could disappear beneath us! But about a mile from the road there was one particularly enormous cave with a tree growing up from the bottom... and a movie crew shooting some sort of action/adventure scene down there!

Wish I knew the name of the movie... I think it had something to do with a necklace and the actor down there was running through the cave. If you see it... I was there!