Heavenly Hana

The guide books call it Heavenly Hana and it is. For the purists, there is no other Hawaii. This remote  town (50 miles but two hours plus from Paia even without stops) is relaxing to say the least. There are few clocks because time is not supposed to matter. At the most expensive hotel, actually the onlyhotel, with rooms starting at about $350 a night, there are no TVs. We didn't stay there. Most B and Bs were full, so we stayed at Bert's Place, which turned out to be a rustic lower level of the place Bert lives in, on the same property as live his parents and siblings, in separate dwellings. The grounds were beautiful (maintained by James the gardener), with orchids, orange and lime trees in abundance.  It was kind of fun to shower outside!  Rustic though it was, it was a terrific jumping off point to explore beyond Hana, which is what we intended to do.
So on we went, to the Seven Sacred Pools (which are neither sacred nor are there seven), back to the black sand beach, risking life and limb to see the red sand beach, to the Venus Pool, and to hike through a magnificent bamboo forest to get to a spectacular waterfall. That hike was worth two Y workouts at least.  I will try to post pictures here, but if that doesn't work for me I'll make sure you all see them when we return.  None of them do justice to what we saw - Heavenly but wild Hana and surroundings.  And yes, the road beyond Hana is wilder than the road to Hana!