Tuesday: A magic lagoon to Magic Sands.
There’s a place here in Kona that embodies the spirit of the place all in about 4 acres, Kahalu’u beach park. It has a pavilion with a mismatched, rusty corrugated metal roof, families gathered around hibachis smoking with the coals from Kiawe trees, a tiny church, a surf rental shack, a black sand beach, and a shallow lagoon filled with coral and lots of colorful fish. This is where we began our swim this morning.
Usually we have to swim through breaking waves to get out of the lagoon, but conditions were perfect for a smooth point-to-point swim to Magic Sands beach, which has bright white sand, So it’s a black sand beach to white sand beach swim. Along the way we swam over a very healthy coral reef that extended the entire length of the swim. Toward the end of the swim, we swam under arches and through caves. One of my favorite things to do at the end of this swim is to sit atop the lava rock wall near the parking area and drink a can of seltzer, watching my guests bask in their accomplishment.
On the way home we picked up a dozen Malasadas, or Portuguese filled donuts. They served as a dessert of sorts for the salad Clare brought over, which we topped with tofu, chicken, and shrimp, then drizzled with a thai peanut dressing. Yoga next. Our friend Amanda has been working with us for years, and she has gotten to understand the needs of sore swimmers. She’s also very rooted to Hawaii, so her sessions are spiritual and grounding. I walked away feeling ready for the rest of the week here.
I credit the efficiency of our guests' swimming strokes partly to their having been on SwimVacation before, but everyone needs a refresher now and then, so we do stroke video analysis every trip. I usually pick one or two things for them to work on, like proper hand position entering the water, or increasing how much they roll from side to side.
Dang as I write this I’m realizing how much we did yesterday. After stroke videos, a bunch of us swam into the choppy bay to do some rock running. It’s an exercise that big wave surfers do to train for being held under by crashing waves, sometimes for over 2 minutes. We avoid that, and just turn it into a fun photo shoot. The sea was choppy though, and I was impressed our swimmers just took to play in spite of the sporty conditions.
Back at the Hale, I came up with 2 cocktails that used some infused bourbon that Clare had made. One was called Die Like a Man, and it had bourbon, lime, and soda water. The other was Die Like a Woman, which added a touch of Guava Nectar. They were both pretty strong, but nobody died this time.
Clare and Dan arrived with pupus of hummus and local veggies, then macadamia nut encrusted mahi mahi for dinner with a lilikoi cheesecake. Heather please check the spelling on that for just use Passionfruit. (I fixed it. - HP)
Sunset didn’t disappoint. Then again, I’m not sure it ever does here. We are so lucky to have the world’s wildest beach to watch it from.
Im rushing to finish this blog because we are leaving early this morning to our day on a boat. But more about that on tomorrow’s blog. Know this as you catch up: we are making the most of every taste, sight, sound, smell and feel this island has to offer, and it offers so much. So much.
Hopper
