Mike in the Wild

I was more excited about snorkeling at Ke'e Beach than anywhere else on my recent visit to Kauai.  Of the renowned sites on the Hawaiian island's north shore, it was the only one I'd not managed to visit on my two previous trips starting in 2020.  I might have only ever snorkeled there once before, thirty years ago on my very first trip to anywhere in Hawaii, and I remembered almost nothing about it.    Luckily two weeks before my latest arrival, I secured a mandatory reservation for entrance to the site, part of Ha'ena State Park, along with a remote parking spot and a shuttle between the sites, all for forty dollars.  However I was surprised to learn that the other travelers on my shuttle weren't going to the park's famous beach, Ke'e, but instead were setting out for a completely different adventure: a hike along the Kalalau Trail.   The trail hugs Kauai's remote and spectacular Napali coastline, a remote palisade of volcanic cliffs that tower over ...

We should have listened more carefully as we settled into our seats for our circumnavigation boat tour of Antigua.  But I was distracted—rattled by last-minute changes to the meeting spot, the start time, and a tense standoff over the condition of my American cash.  Yes, I knew there were supposed to be no rips in the bills I used to pay for the trip.  I just hadn’t noticed one when my husband and I pooled our money in our stateroom that morning.  So I missed the moment when the captain asked the group a question that would soon matter very much: Does anyone have back problems? Our friend Jackie had joined us on a seven-day Caribbean cruise out of San Juan.  For months, we’d planned excursions on each of the five islands we’d visit.  Jackie and I both love snorkeling, and she’s fond of recounting her kayaking adventures in Costa Rica and zip-lining triumphs in Roatan.  The tour I found sounded tailor-made for her: Adventure Antigua’s Extreme Circumnavi...

Almost two years ago, I rented a car on Cozumel to visit several beaches where I intended to snorkel reefs that were not too far off shore.  Windy conditions creating choppy seas prevented me from swimming to most of the sites.  And an aggressive barracuda scared me away from the reef that I actually almost reached off Punta Sur on the Mexican island's southern tip.   From a cruise ship on my most recent stop on Cozumel, I joined a morning tour that promised visits to two additional sites on my original must-do list that were not reachable without a boat: Columbia Shallows Reef and El Cielo.  I'm happy to report that this time the weather and marine life cooperated with my plans.  And not only did I snorkel those places, but the tour added an unexpected third stop for a close-up encounter with sea turtles. The short title "Snorkel, Starfish, and Beach" didn't quite convey how exciting my excursion turned out to be.  Of course reading the details offere...

As my week-long visit to Kauai reached its last day,  I had seen very few turtles .  In fact, I encountered only three.  One was sunning itself in Poipu along with two monk seals on a beach crowded with tourists.  Another floated by my tour boat as it sailed along the Napali Coast.  Finally I swam with one on the reef off of Tunnels Beach while I snorkeled from that same tour boat.  My visits to the Hawaiian Islands typically include numerous sighting of green sea turtles: usually too many to count.  So I was desperate to recapture some of that good fortune when I set out snorkeling at Anini Beach on that last day in Hawaii. Encountering green sea turtles is becoming easier and easier thanks to decades of conservation efforts.  The species was protected in 1978 under the Endangered Species Act and the results are  noticeable today.  On my previous trip to Hawaii, to the island of Maui, I never entered the water - which I did multipl...

I was reminded a lot on my recent trip to Maui that nothing is more exciting for a snorkeler than an encounter with a green sea turtle.  And it's becoming easier and easier to admire how graceful, peaceful and gentle these Hawaiian creatures are thanks to decades of conservation efforts.  The species has been protected since 1978 under the Endangered Species Act.  While its population has increased significantly since then, it is still only at a fraction of its historic level.  Meanwhile nesting sites on the biggest Hawaiian islands are still rare.   Green sea turtles are mostly not afraid of the humans that swim so close to them, gliding right by you as you're exploring a reef.  Sadly, they're oblivious to the harm that mankind is capable of wielding.  Turtles are easily entangled in the lines and nets of fishermen, in addition to the garbage increasingly filling the ocean.  And run-ins with boats and their motors' propellers can harm o...

When a tour tells you to expect some of the most spectacular scenery on Earth and up-close encounters with marine wildlife, all along accompanied by expert local guides, two meals and a mai tai bar, you have to wonder how are they going to guarantee all that in a five hour trip.  Well of course weather, seasons and luck are an important factor in any outdoor adventure, so nothing can be promised except for a bottle of rum.  But on the mid-September day I joined Kaui Sea Tours on their deluxe 60 foot catamaran, the Lucky Lady, out of Port Allen, I was destined to experience the thrills of a lifetime. Kaui is the oldest and in some ways the remotest of the main Hawaiian Islands because it lies so far west of the others.  Another distinction is that it was the first island to be settled by the ancient Polynesians.  It's also the wettest of the islands, if not of all Earth's locations, where one spot gets over 460 inches of rain a year.  As a result, the verdant i...