Mad dogs and pooping geckos.

Before I start the narrative of Sunday, I should tell you about the first place I booked through my usual suspect, airbnb. The website has served me well over the last few years, but I bombed a little on this trip. 

Both of the accommodations were somewhat lacking in different areas. The first was a comfortable room in what seemed to be almost a commune of new-agey women. The owner of the house was on the mainland, looking after her mother, so her friend and house-sitter was our host. Also living on the property (in a yurt) was another older woman and (in a small cabin) a couple of young things who came and went at all hours.  The house was comfortable and decorated with Buddhas and Zen-like inspirational sayings. There were two cats that necessitated a lot of rules about which doors could be open to the outdoors and when, which I never seemed to quite get right. There was no microwave, of course, although the kitchen was modern in other ways. The two older women appeared to only eat fruit. 

There was a rather primitive outdoor shower, in which one had to use a flashlight after dark. The shower was right next to a pathway that was well-traveled by the other residents, which made Jeff extremely uncomfortable, being the only male on the premises. I should mention that there was no door, only the hope that no one would peer slightly askance through the opening as they walked past.

The bed was surprisingly comfortable and we should have slept well, except for the roosters crowing until about midnight and then starting again three or four hours later. More on island roosters later.

All in all, I should have spent twenty dollars more a night and gone for something a little more high-class.

We were checking out of this place on Sunday morning and into our new one later in the day.

This spider resided outside our door.

The plan was to do a minor sort of a hike in the morning, to some falls that had been recommended to us, then catch the afternoon shift at church before checking into our new place.

We drove down to Kapa'a and found the road that was the entry point to Ho'opii Falls. We had a copy of the definitive guide to Kaua'i, which described the location of the trail.

Tip #3: You need this book. They were selling it at Costco in Lihue. It is updated with a new edition every year or so and is witty and informative. We took their recommendations for tour companies and were not disappointed.

We parked as directed in the book and took what looked like the obvious trail. It was a lovely wide trail that wound between houses and was lined with fruit trees. Suddenly, what looked like two pit bulls came running at us, barking their heads off. Jeff pushed me behind him (he's chivalrous that way) and I yelled at the dogs to get away. We were immediately confronted by an angry dog owner who said NO, YOU GET AWAY! We tried to explain that we were looking for a waterfall  (damn tourists) but he kept yelling at us and told us we were trespassing. We backed away and retraced our steps, very confused because we hadn't seen a No Trespassing sign and we figured we would have to give up the search for the waterfalls and that maybe the omniscient book had been wrong in this case. 

What should we see but this, when we reached the road.

It was not particularly obvious, but we felt a little bad, because locals often feel harassed by tourists.

Luckily, a young couple turned up who were also looking for the falls, so we put our heads together and found the entrance to the trail a few yards down the road.

There's something about the instant bond that we made with other hikers on this trip, almost all of us carrying the same darn book and scratching our heads, trying to find obscure trails and marveling at the views.

The trail follows the stream/river most of the way.

The falls were not overwhelming, but the hike was fun and challenging in its own way, as secondary trails constantly led us astray.

Tip #4: Do not wear jeans on Kaua'i. Ever. You will die of sweat.

There was a second waterfall further down the trail, so on we went, scrambling up the hill and holding onto roots, hoping we were on the right trail.

This young man was sitting on a rock in the middle of the river, reading aloud. We couldn't distinguish his words because of the noise of the river.

Sometimes, ya just gotta roll your eyes and walk on.

Shampoo ginger was plentiful along the trail, only I didn't find out what it was until after we had passed it. It's the same stuff that Paul Mitchell uses in his very expensive shampoos. You squeeze the red part and it's very nice for washing your hair. 

I would have totally done it.

Sometimes the trail was like this, and we had to clamber under and over tree branches.

Sometimes it was like this and we were swishing through the undergrowth.

This flower grew abundantly in African tulip trees. Not much of the flora that thrives on Kaua'i is native.

Philodendrons are like the English ivy of the Pacific Northwest. Their huge leaves cover many trees.

This old dune buggy was in the middle of nowhere, almost absorbed by the undergrowth.

We reached the second falls, but did some backtracking along the way so didn't have time to go all the way down the cliff to them. We returned on a trail that ran higher above the river and went to our new abode to take a quick shower before church.

The church services were quite delightful, so familiar yet uniquely Polynesian. Afterwards, our rental car guy met us in the parking lot, as our 2003 old Dodge Neon had developed some brake trouble. He gave us the Hyundai Santa Fe he was driving, which we kept for the rest of our stay. A nice free upgrade. We were very happy with Gingerbread Rent-a-Car, thank you very much, at $25 a day.

We checked in at our new place, which had been described as a "rustic" cottage.

Well, rustic it was, complete with outside shower (albeit nicer than the last one) and pooping, croaking geckos, who appeared in large numbers after the sun went down and who pooped and croaked all night. And did I mention the mosquitoes who could not be kept out of the house, no matter how hard we tried.

Oh yes. Life is good on the island of Kaua'i.