The Road to Hana – An Exercise in Yielding

When I first heard of the Road to Hana, I pictured a winding, muddy, dirt road that made its way through dark, forbidding, tangled jungle in an endless stretch of curves and bends. I had visions of landslides and pot holes that could swallow VW buses. People described it with such ferocity that I thought hapless tourists could die on it.

The only thing that was true were the curves. It has lots and lots of curves. In reality, just about every tourist new to the island drives the road at some point in their trip. Our rental car was testament to that fact. With a mere 15,000 miles on it, the Mazda sounded as if the suspension was made of bed springs and paper clips.

We did the trip in a day (as most first timers do), but we could have taken a week. Actually, we could have spent a month on the road, but that could have something to do with the organic farm we stayed at. Watching the moon rise from a hot tub looking out on a lush, forested valley that sloped down to the ocean certainly didn’t urge us to keep moving. But the thought of growing dreadlocks and starting to enjoy the scent of patchouli brought us back to the road. Returning to the convoy of rentals, we battled the crowds at the pullovers and yielded to oncoming traffic at every one-lane bridge. It turned out to be worth it, as the places we visited were windows into Maui’s rugged, remote and untouched beauty. Next time we’ll just take our time and eat a few more lilikois along the way.