Jungles!

Today Mathilde and I decided to head back into the Jungle. And yes, I capitalize Jungle here. We had previously ventured out to hike up the Manoa Falls (the waterfall itself was somewhat disappointing, but the trek there was simply amazing... I have a new found obsession with Banyan trees! They are perfect to climb, draw, stare and marvel at). Our new destination was the Makiki Valley Trail, which was a short 20 minute bus ride from Waikiki.

After a little difficulty in finding the actual trail head (we ended up in the Contemporary Museum and can now claim that we've been in a museum on our trip!), we started our ascent. The first part was an uphill hike on what seemed to be a mountain ridge. The vegetation was really different than it was on the Manoa trail, mostly it was drier... but most impressive to me was the ground, a crazy maze of tree roots atop what seemed like dried lava rock! Quite fun to climb actually. Then it was snack time (we learned from our previous trip out that food is a must for both of us!), and time to go back down.

We were about a quarter of the way down when the rain stared, at the halfway mark it started coming down stronger, and a few minutes after that we seemed to be in the middle of a torrential downpour! A real jungle experience! (I think it's called an afternoon shower?) It was surprisingly enjoyable, probably because we both kept our spirits high! The bus ride back was slightly uncomfortable, but still I had a great day! Made better with the addition of a mochi-icecream snack this evening. That's ice cream covered in a thin layer of mochi. Yum yummy! We tried lychee, strawberry dark chocolate chip, and vanilla chocolate. Can't wait to try the other flavours!