Day 3

Hi Guys,

Day three in paradise and I'm still loving it. Matt and Nick decided to explore the beach we were on today so that gave mom and me some quality time together in Lahina. We were actually for the purpose of booking a fishing boat and surfing lessons, but found ourselves ambling along random roads and historic sites along the way.

Totally rockin' the Island hair aka three days of being washed in the ocean (hehehe)

Am I insta famous yet?

And that's exactly how we ended up on Prison road a the Hale Pa'ahao Prison. Basically it was a holding cell for "rowdy sailors" and "unruly natives", sounds like a good party to me, can I join? The journal entry from a 16 year old sailor that was found regarding his night in prison (for drunkeness) made it seem more like a good tavern rather than a prison. Although the rooms were pretty small and unfurnished, so that must've sucked.

At the prison!

I may or may not have broken a couple of these prison rules already, read below and see if you can guess which ones lol

Hint: It wasn't aiding deserting seamen

Some other random historic artifacts that were located here was a whale hunting boat and it's anchors! It literally looked like the a dingy so I have no clue how they lugged a huge whale, or even fought one on this boat. Me being the idiot I am, went to take a picture sitting by the anchor, only to stand up and ram my head right into the top of it....whoops.

Whaling Boat and Anchors

The other neat artifact was an old rusty model "T" Ford. It was literally a hunk of rusting metal, but it was still cool to check out.

Mom and I got acai bowls for lunch which were DELICIOUS, I think I would move to Hawaii for the fresh acai bowls alone. They were so good!

We beat the boys back to the hotel and had just enough time for a quick swim in the ocean. However the water was being very weird with currents going in opposite ways. I literally got such a hard workout being in the water for only 30 minutes, it seemed like everywhere I was going (besides out towards the ocean) was fighting the water. So when the waves started crashing in diagonal to the rip, I hightailed it out of there, I'm not one to mess with the sea.

Throwing some shakas

Matt, Nick, Mom and I then went down to the Hyatt for their Luau! We had an AMAZING dance team, that danced everything from Polynesian dances to Maori ones. The neat part of this Luau was that they incorporated Hawaiian mythology in their show and did a good job explaining all the dances. In one of the stories I couldn't help but laugh as the male lead was captured and had to rely on the FEMALE white owls to save him. Rather than your typical prince charging to battle the dragon, the white owl tricked the captors, So we have a female rescuer who is brilliant as well? I am so okay with this story. But no matter how many luau's I see, my favorite will always be the fire dancers. One of them actually set his tongue on fire and held the flame there! If I ever took up Hawaiian dancing, for sure I would be one of the fire dancers (sorry, not sorry mom and dad).

When in doubt, hide your gross hair with a braid and some flower (not shown, the huge line of people waiting to get into the luau judging me for taking insta worthy pics #shameless)

I will never not be awed by the ocean 

Matt and Nick (they aren't #shameless like me, so they were none to pleased when I started directing them around to get the shadows off their face and said that I had one second to take the picture or I would have no picture at all...*sigh*)

And that's a wrap folks!

Can't wait to tell you all about my next adventure!

Love,

Carolyn

I'm on the Highway to Hana

Hey Everyone!

Day 2 in Hawaii and I am happy to report that I am still alive...and neither of us have killed one another...yet. Today we decided to adventure to the other part of the island and visit the black sand beaches of Hana. Moral of the story, if you ever decide to make the trek out, make sure that you reeealllyyy like that person because chances are that you will be trapped in a small car, behind a very slow tourist, and the drive will take you four hours because you're only going 20 miles an hour on a bunch of hairpin turns inside the rainforest. Oh and I forgot to add that you'll lose all cell service, aka a millennial's nightmare because you actually have to converse with the people in your car (sorry Matt and Nick). Don't worry, after the first 30 minutes or so they totally got into the hang of how us old people used to road trip in the good old days. Did you know that the Hawaiian language only uses 13 letters...and the 13th letter is a '. (Thanks mom for teaching us that fun fact). See what I mean, would have never learned this if we were all on our respective devices.

 Anyways without further adeu let me take you on our road trip!

Starting point! This is the view of our resort from the elevator! I know, I feel really lucky. 

First Stop: Twin Falls

We had to trek a little bit through the jungle to actually get to the water falls. The boys left us after like two hot seconds, so my mom and I had some good quality hiking time. Plus she was a great photographer (which I'm sure the boys would most definitely not have appreciated all my photo stops haha, the things I do to entertain you guys.) 

We accidentally took the wrong fork in the road and ended up on the road less traveled, aka at the top of the falls rather than the bottom. Perks of getting lost? Zero tourists and cool tide pools!

Okay so it turns out that I'm still a 12 year old boy. Found these brambles when I finally was sent of to relocate the boys, and well, I couldn't help but swing from them! 

Yes, I ended up doing a second hike down the other side of the fork in the road and got to see the best part of the twin falls. Bad news? Still couldn't find the boys...

At this point mom and I kinda gave up on finding the boys and just took some selfies. Don't worry, the boys showed up about 15 minutes later, and turns out they weren't anywhere near the tourist attractions, but rather down a random abandoned bike path where they found a tent with no one in it. Why? Don't ask me, I'm not an 18 year old boy. 

Second Stop: Hanawi Falls

Mom tapped out for the second hike, so the boys and I climbed down to the Hanawi Falls. 

If you're wondering why I took a picture of it, it's because within two seconds of climbing down, this was the first thing they climbed past without hesitation to get to the top of the falls. 

And if you're wondering whether or not he jumped. The answer is yes, yes he did. Matthew decided to climb back down to video. Give me a classroom of 30 5-year-olds and I can have them all sitting down and reading books during their playtime. Give me two 18 year old boys...and well, they jump off waterfalls. Sorry mom, I tried. 

Stop 3: Wai'anapanapa State Park

It's a black sand beach guys! How cool is that? The only downside was boy was the sand HOT. I mean like walking on coals hot, I literally ran to a spot, put my towel down as fast as possible and jumped on it before I had it all laid out. 

You know a beach is a good one when it's filled with locals. Apparently we were there right in time for the outrigger canoe class to race each other! It was so cool to watch the kids go through their traditional preparations before going out to sea. The very first thing they did before they even said hello to their teacher was gather together facing the ocean and chanting. Then they greeted their teachers and worked together to lift FOUR of those huge canoes into the water, and I'm talking kids were doing all this. They had some serious teamwork and strength skills going for them. Talk about the coolest summer camp ever. Can I join?

I literally spent two hours in the ocean. The black sand combined with the sunlight makes for pretty golden sparkley water. I enjoyed body surfing the waves and just floating around. But as soon as the sunshine left, I hightailed it out of there, the water turns this super ominous black color, and well, I'm just not one to tempt fate when it looks like the perfect setup for Jaws II.

Stop 4: Kaumahina State Wayside Park

No hiking here, just a beautiful lookout where we stretched our legs and enjoyed the view. I don't think I'll ever get tired of all this greenery and ocean. 

Stop 5: HOME 

We made it back! Just in time for the sunset...and no, there's no filter on these pictures, Mother Nature is just that good here. 

Anyways, that's pretty much it for the day. Oh, and we ate Chinese for dinner and my fortune cookie said "I will enjoy a vacation in the near future".....I'm interpreting that to mean after this Hawaii one, where should we go next fam? Juuusssttt kidding (kind of). 

Talk to you all tomorrow!

Love ya lots,

Aisha 

AAAALLOOOOHHHAAAA

Aloha Everyone!

Guess what? I'm traveling again and this time to Maui! Overall, Peru was super fun, and the last days spent in Lima were pretty underwhelming, just lots of chats with the General and his family and boy can Peru throw a dinner party. I was home at 3 am every night! Which definitely reminded me of Spain and the crazy hours they keep. Anyways, if you couldn't tell by my pictures, I absolutely loved Peru and cannot wait to go back! I want to go into the jungles the next time and up to Puno where the lake joins Peru with Bolivia. Who knows, maybe I'll even cross over for more adventures in Latin America. But I digress, basically I couldn't wait to start adventuring again (and one week back in LA was one week too many), so here I am in Maui with my brother, my brother's friend (Nick), and my mother.....bonus points for correctly guessing who gets to chaperone lol. But it is really hard to complain when this is my view:

We also ate at this really classy joint called Beach Bums and BBQ, which to its credit had really great food and was totally packed. I chose the place and to my delight realized that they blasted country music the entire two hours of our island time lunch (yeah service is kinda slow here). Unfortunately others in my party did not feel the same about listening to country music for so long, and I have thus been banned from selecting restaurants for the remainder of our trip...sure that'll work out well, especially since I'm in control of the GPS hehehe. Anyways today was a low key get settled day, but we are out for adventure tomorrow so stay tuned!!!

Love you all,

Carolyn

Barrancos Mural

Plaza de Armas

Downtown Lima

Downtown Lima

I wish our Dunkin Donuts were this pretty!!

The Main Church

The Main Church

President's Palace

Perfect Panorama of Plaza Mayor, thanks Natasha!!

HORSES!

Catacomb Church

Normal on the inside...

...until you look down and see bones!!

x

I See Dead People

Hi guys!

Guess what, today I'm meeting the Big General this afternoon and guess how much of the reading I've done? Throwing it back to my Claremont cramming days. However, I still wanted to update you all on my adventures in Lima yesterday so I'm procrastinating again by writing this post lol. I've spoken like a true college kid. 

Yesterday I took a hop on and off bus tour with Luisa's daughter Natasha and omg this city is so cool!

We started off in the Barranco district. Which is their artsy historical place. Legend says that there was a terrible storm and these sailors were lost at sea. Praying for help, they saw this light coming from Barrancos. They followed the light to safety and saw the light was in the shape of a cross. Thus they settled there and build a huge church where the light was. Ironically the church has been destroyed multiple times thanks to earthquakes and is in the middle of its third reconstruction project. But it was still a really cool story and the facade remained in tact. The city is very colorful, like Long Beach, and there's murals everywhere!! I loved walking around. On top of that they had this bridge where you can make a wish and if you can cross the bridge without taking a breath your wish will come true. Of course I had to try it, and yes I held my breathe the whole way!! 

Then we drove into downtown Lima where we say the courthouse, the old library, the presidents palace, and the main church. All the buildings together were funny because they were influenced by so many different architect styles in one space, you had French colonial then Art Nuevo to the simple Peruvian style in Barrancos. 

The end of the tour was the best part because we went into the CATACOMBS. At first I was really upset, because who wouldn't be seeing piles of bones and skulls just laying around UNDER a famous church, the Saint Francis Church to be exact. Shout out to Matthew for choosing the same sect Catholic school where the Saint Franciscan monks are creepy as hell. Throughout the catacombs there are these ventilation/ spy holes that look directly up into the church above...that way all those bones would never miss a single mass of course. On top of that mass was going on while we were in the catacombs, which didn't have very good lighting, add too it the voices of monks singing in Latin and you just know that something is going to pop out and get you.

What's even weirder was that the bones were laid out in circular designs inside these well like structures. So you'd see patterns made from skulls and femurs (apparently the only two bones that don't really turn to dust quickly). Also they randomly had skulls placed in the walls which is NO FUN when you turn the corner and are eye level with someone's head. But the longer we stayed down there the more I warmed up to Mr. Bones times 1000 and actually starting leading the group around being the first to peer into all the nooks and corners (Natasha on the other hand wasn't so thrilled, especially when I told her that we were breathing in dead people). Sorry Natasha hehehe. 

And that's all folks!!

Love you all,

Aisha 

More pictures!

In the jungle the mighty jungle the llamas sleep tonight (no lions here so I had improvise) 

Just in case you missed I climbed to the top of THAT

Waking around Machupicchu 

 

Back in Cusco hitting up the local markets before we leave

I was so tempted to buy this fancy bread

Even more tempted to buy this cheese

Walking around Cusco, more pretty churches

This is the archway of a saint to get into the main part of Cusco 

We make quite a crew hahaha there's no hope of ever blending in