Mike in the Wild

I made the decision a long time ago that when I visited Maui during whale season, I would stay in South Maui.  So during my five-night visit last month, I chose a rental condo in South Kihei where from beaches like Kamaole One, right across the street, I could witness the spectacle of humpback whales breaching in the distance.   Another reason informing my decision was that I wanted to give Northwest Maui and Lahaina some space while they deal with the aftermath of last summer's tragic fire.  While the resorts and beaches outside of the city proper were unaffected and are open for business, it was hard for me to imagine driving through the devastated landscape to have a day of fun in the surf.  The much more practical excuse for sticking to South Maui was that the winter season brings frequent swells to the northern shores of the Hawaiian Islands: great news for surfers but bad for snorkelers.  In fact, the Snorkel Store's morning report was frequently advi...

Two visits to Maui and one to Oahu within eight months is a lot for even me, a person enamored with the Aloha State.  But I had never been to Maui during whale season, when thousands of humpback whales migrate to the surrounding waters for a winter of calving and mating.  While I was disappointed to discover that I had missed the peak of the season by a week, I was nonetheless thrilled to not only see dozens of the giant creatures but to even hear them.  Like when I visited the Big Island three years ago around the same time of year, the whales were easily visible from the shore.  The clouds of mist from their blows were usually the first sign they were present, often followed by their back and knobby dorsal fin cresting out of the water.  If the whales dived, their tail fins sometimes emerged high out of the water.   One evening at sunset on Charley Young Beach in Kihei, I watched a pair of whales far in the distance toward the community of Maalaea ha...

There was nothing I wanted to do more on Cozumel than snorkel.  Ringed by coral reefs, the Mexican Caribbean island is renowned for the sport.  However visiting while on a short stop off of a cruise ship, I didn't have a lot of time or options at my disposal.  Forgoing renting a car and exploring from several beaches on my own, I settled on a ship-sponsored snorkeling trip off of a catamaran.  But I was surprised to find that even before nine o'clock in the morning, very little happens with vacationers in Cozumel that doesn't include an open bar.  Yes, it seemed my excursion was a snorkeling adventure disguised not so discreetly as a booze cruise.  Sure there was a catamaran, and yes we sailed down the verdant coast just barely out of sight of our gargantuan cruise ship.  In every direction, mottled greens and blues outlined reefs just below the water's surface.  Of course we stopped and donned masks and snorkels - some of us even fins - before ju...

The highlight of my 2023 Western Caribbean cruise was the stop on the island of Roatan, Honduras's ultra-popular vacation spot.  The beautiful reef off West Bay Beach rewarded me with some of the best snorkeling of the entire trip. When I returned earlier this month on a similar cruise there was no doubt I'd head back to the site for another chance to witness the same underwater beauty.  Rather than rent a car like last year, I opted for the cruise port's $25 package tour that was not only cheaper than a taxi but included a short stop first at West End, a picturesque fishing village on the western side of Roatan.  The tour also guaranteed almost two hours at West Bay Beach, my real interest. However the tour's name was a misnomer, Hop-On Hop-Off, as it was definitely not a flexible mode of transportation, where you had the freedom to get on and get off buses at frequent stops.  Instead, passengers were obliged to start the trip in Mahogany Bay at a set time on a...

Leaving the comfort of a 3,500-passenger cruise ship after two full days at sea can induce a unique anxiety in most passengers.  If you're planning a long day away from the all-you-can eat buffet, ports of call throughout the Caribbean usually forbid visitors to bring any food ashore.  Fortunately, most ports like Cozumel or Belize have plenty of restaurants that are more than happy to sell margaritas and conch fritters as a supplement to the ship's fare.  And lucky for me, the six-hour tour I booked to the Mayan archaeological site of Kohunlich from the Regal Princess during its stop in Mahahual provided a small snack bag. Of course, touring Kohunlich wasn't about the food, it was about the history of the Mayans, the local indigenous population whose civilization dates back more than two thousand years.  The site in Quintana Roo on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico was already settled by 200 B.C. and was abandoned almost a thousand years ago after an elaborate array o...

A cruise from Seattle to Honolulu sounded like a great idea.  I liked the line, Princess; the ship, the Royal, had the best running track at sea; and the price was cheap.  Plus with five days at sea, I was bound to encounter some pelagic birds like albatrosses and shearwaters.  But rain showers while boarding should have reminded me that good weather wasn't a guarantee. In Puget Sound shortly after our sail away, I witnessed a tight flock of birds flying close to the water's surface.  Unfortunately they were so distant it was hard to identify them as surf scoters or harlequin ducks or any specific coastal bird.  The only seabird I could clearly make out in the area was a type of gull, most likely a glaucous-winged.  I wasn't prepared for the next day at sea when high swells and constant, unpredictable motion caused me seasickness.  It was difficult to focus on the shipboard naturalist's lectures, let alone indulge in the 24-hour dining options.  F...

I've been to crowded Honolulu several times, even staying a night near the airport on my very first visit to Hawaii.  It happened over thirty years ago when I connected through on my way to the neighboring island of Kauai.  I later took a couple of vacations to Waikiki, Honolulu's most famous beach.  On one of those visits I rented a car for a few hours and drove around the entire island, witnessing the quieter and more rugged North Shore along with the picturesque East Shore with its exclusive coastal communities.   On my recent return to Oahu, I stayed for only thirty-six hours after disembarking in Honolulu in the morning off a cruise ship that had left Seattle five days before.  While I planned to overnight in a hotel at the quieter east end of Waikiki, it was the North Shore that was the main subject of my itinerary.  After picking up my rental car at the airport, I planned two days of snorkeling the coastline's most popular reefs, from Kulim...