So my husband and I just got back from our honeymoon in Hawaii and it was awesome! My one and only goal was to snorkel with sea turtles...while that didn't seem like an overly ambitious goal to me, the weather just didn't want to cooperate! There were several hurricanes off the coast kicking up the surf to dangerous levels and making visibility terrible.
The first 4 days in Hawaii, we stayed in Lahaina, Maui at an AirBnB that happens to be a tortoise and bird refuge! The woman who runs it, along with her helper, have 3 adult Sulcatas, a bunch of baby and adolescent sulcatas, several birds and tons of chickens. Because of the high surf, we didn't see any sea turtles in Maui, although the beach 20 feet from the AirBnB was a well-known turtle hot spot
On the big island, we got some glimpses of sea turtles and allllmost saw one while snorkeling...we were actually done snorkeling and saw it right at shore as we came in, lol!
After some more near misses, we bumped into a local at a random beach on our last day. She gave us very specific instructions for a turtle hot spot, and she did not lead us astray! Known to the neighbors as 'the turtle round up', the turtles come to this spot every night around sunset and settle in for the night! When we got there before sunset, there were 3 turtles, but as the sun went down there ended up being 10+ turtles tucking in for the night! It was the perfect ending to our unnecessarily long hunt to see some turtles!
(We also did TONS of other fun stuff while not looking for turtles, but they were the highlight!)
Love his eyes!
Love how he's sprawled out just like a tortoise!
Tucking themselves in for the night!
Some non-turtle photos...
Last sunset of our trip - watched it from a cove full of sea turtles!
The first 4 days in Hawaii, we stayed in Lahaina, Maui at an AirBnB that happens to be a tortoise and bird refuge! The woman who runs it, along with her helper, have 3 adult Sulcatas, a bunch of baby and adolescent sulcatas, several birds and tons of chickens. Because of the high surf, we didn't see any sea turtles in Maui, although the beach 20 feet from the AirBnB was a well-known turtle hot spot
On the big island, we got some glimpses of sea turtles and allllmost saw one while snorkeling...we were actually done snorkeling and saw it right at shore as we came in, lol!
After some more near misses, we bumped into a local at a random beach on our last day. She gave us very specific instructions for a turtle hot spot, and she did not lead us astray! Known to the neighbors as 'the turtle round up', the turtles come to this spot every night around sunset and settle in for the night! When we got there before sunset, there were 3 turtles, but as the sun went down there ended up being 10+ turtles tucking in for the night! It was the perfect ending to our unnecessarily long hunt to see some turtles!
(We also did TONS of other fun stuff while not looking for turtles, but they were the highlight!)
Love his eyes!
Love how he's sprawled out just like a tortoise!
Tucking themselves in for the night!
Some non-turtle photos...
Last sunset of our trip - watched it from a cove full of sea turtles!