Molokai
Yesterday we took a day trip to an outer island, Molokai, which is a 1 1/2 to 2 hour ferry ride from Maui. We travelled with another volunteer couple from here at Ha
ggai, they are from near Comox, on Vancouver Island. We all thought the boat trip was quite rough, especially in the open waters, but the ferry employees only gave it a 4.5/5 out of 10. We took a guided tour of the island which has a population of 7000 people.
The island is mostly known for a "lepers colony" which still has 15 to 20 patients. While they are now free to leave, they have decided to live out their lives in the colony on the island. A Belgian priest by the name of Father Damien is quite famous for his work here in the late 1800s and he was actually sainted by Pope John Paul in 1995. The colony is located on the Kalaupapa peninsula (see picture and plaque), which is a 1700 foot drop from the lookout point we stopped by. It looked very peaceful and the scenery was spectactular. Separate tours to the colony are available, but they are lengthy and we were busy with our island tour.
Molokai used to have a thriving pineapple industry, but Dole pulled out about 1990 and the local economy has been depressed ever since. Our guide told us the hourly salary at the time Dole left was $0.95 per hour, but they moved to Mexico and the Phillipines were they could get labour at $1 per day. I'm sure the company has a different slant to the story. The only two businesses we visited were a "macedamia nut farm" and a "coffee plantation". The nut farm was quite small (the tree in the picture grows the nuts), the owner and two part time employees. The packaging for coffee they sold at the cooffee plantation said it contained only10% Hawaiian coffee, the remainder came from South America??
The island is very laid back, two cars at an intersection are considered a
traffic jam, and our guide seemed to know everyone. The beaches are of course beautiful, which seems like a given over here.
We left Haggai at 6:00 in the morning and arrived back at 6:00 in the evening, so it was a full day, but well worth the time and the expense.
ggai, they are from near Comox, on Vancouver Island. We all thought the boat trip was quite rough, especially in the open waters, but the ferry employees only gave it a 4.5/5 out of 10. We took a guided tour of the island which has a population of 7000 people.The island is mostly known for a "lepers colony" which still has 15 to 20 patients. While they are now free to leave, they have decided to live out their lives in the colony on the island. A Belgian priest by the name of Father Damien is quite famous for his work here in the late 1800s and he was actually sainted by Pope John Paul in 1995. The colony is located on the Kalaupapa peninsula (see picture and plaque), which is a 1700 foot drop from the lookout point we stopped by. It looked very peaceful and the scenery was spectactular. Separate tours to the colony are available, but they are lengthy and we were busy with our island tour.
Molokai used to have a thriving pineapple industry, but Dole pulled out about 1990 and the local economy has been depressed ever since. Our guide told us the hourly salary at the time Dole left was $0.95 per hour, but they moved to Mexico and the Phillipines were they could get labour at $1 per day. I'm sure the company has a different slant to the story. The only two businesses we visited were a "macedamia nut farm" and a "coffee plantation". The nut farm was quite small (the tree in the picture grows the nuts), the owner and two part time employees. The packaging for coffee they sold at the cooffee plantation said it contained only10% Hawaiian coffee, the remainder came from South America??
The island is very laid back, two cars at an intersection are considered a
traffic jam, and our guide seemed to know everyone. The beaches are of course beautiful, which seems like a given over here.We left Haggai at 6:00 in the morning and arrived back at 6:00 in the evening, so it was a full day, but well worth the time and the expense.
posted by Ralph and Marlene Robinson at 11:19 AM
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