Jumping fleas, historic ships and chocolate purses...a lovely day on Maui

KA'ANAPALI, Maui - It's hard not to have a great day on Maui. There's a million things to do, even on the odd day that it rains, which is probably why this island always gets so many top awards from travel magazines and travelers.

There wasn't any rain in sight yesterday on the shores of west Maui, even though the second wettest spot in the world is only a few miles inland. Most of the rain falls on the misty slopes of Pu'u Kukui (mountain), so that's why Lahaina, which means "merciless sun" in Hawaiian, is almost always warm and dry. Very warm yesterday.

I got up and had breakfast at the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel, where I've bedded down the last two nights. It's a great spot; right on the beach next to the trendy and fun Whalers Village shopping centre. There are big hotels all around, but this is a fairly low rise affair that puts the capital H in Hawaii with tons of great touches. All guests on their first full morning at the hotel are greeted with a Hawaiian chant in the lobby, then get serenaded by a group of a couple dozen singing staff members for 10 minutes before having a free breakfast. There's free concerts every night, too, out on the patio, and folks come even if they're not staying here.

The hotel offers tons of activities, such as lei making or ukulele lessons. They also chipped in and, with a bit of a hand from some experts, built a massive outrigger sailing canoe that took four months to finish. It's quite something, and it sits proudly in the massive garden in the middle of the hotel's property.

I took advantage of Sam Ako's generosity (his Hawaiian name wouldn't even fit on this page; I think it had at least 70 or 80 characters) and learned (kind of) to play a few chords on a ukelele. It's based on a small guitar called the braghina, I believe, that the Portuguese workers brought here a hundred years ago or so. The Hawaiians thought their fingers looked like jumping fleas on the frets, so they called the instrument uke (flea)-lele (jump). I love that story.

I wrote about this in Star Travel a couple years ago, but ukelele making has become a prized art in Hawaii, with the best ones going for thousands of dollars and with an 18-month waiting list for some companies'. It's a testament to how Hawaiians have rediscovered their history, as is the building of the canoe and other, bigger ones that will be used to sail to Tahiti, re-creating the paths ancient Polynesians took when they settled these isolated islands (the most isolated in the world, by the way) centuries ago. It's fascinating stuff. Anyway, Sam lent me a ukelele to play so I have to thank him for that.

Later in the morning I had a walking tour of historic Lahaina and a nice chat with Theo Morrison of the preservation society, who has done great work keeping this small city's history alive. It was a critical part of ancient Hawaii, partly because of its gentle harbour, proximity to fresh water and growing fields  and because it's easily accessible from other islands in the Hawaiian chain. It was the capital of the old Hawaiian kingdom, as well as the place many missionaries came to teach Christianity (and probably ruined a lot of what Hawaii had going for it). It was a wild place in the whaling days, and there are old jail walls and courthouses and all sorts of touches, not to mention historic homes and lovely churches, such as Maria Lanakila; the best place on earth for Easter Sunday with its Hawaiian music, sunny weather and adorable kids.

 I finished it up a beer at the best seaside bar in Hawaii; the SeaHouse restaurant patio at the Napili Kai Beach Resort on Napili Beach; still the best beach in the world that I've seen. I started going there when I was 12 (thanks Mom and Dad) and still love it. We stayed at a small hotel called The Mauian that's hugely popular with folks from western Canada, as I could hear talk about hockey when I roamed the grounds late last night. It turns out that the public relations woman at the Napili Kai is married to a guy whose family built the Mauian, so we had a drink together last night and chatted about the hotel. They've done quite well, and it's really been fixed up. The Napili Kai looks as good as ever, and it's got one of the best views of any hotel in the islands (see photo at left.

After that it was a fabulous dinner at Merriman's in nearby Kapalua, where they use some incredibly fresh seafood and also serve a ton of Hawaiian produce. There are peaks that tower 10,000 feet in Hawaii, which means cool growing conditions for everything from strawberries to sweet potatoes, lettuce, onions, remarkably tasty beets (best with a dab of goat cheese) and bright, red tomatoes.

I had a fresh fish I'd never tried before called monchong, and it's terrific; firm and not fishy. We also had help from Merriman's Sommelier, the colourful Jason "Cass" Castle. He brought out some great Italian wines, including a Pinot Nero with a nose to die for and a fascinating white-borderline-rose from Slovenia. He's extremely knowledgeable but not stuck up about wine as far as I could tell. The entrees and appetizers are great, and so are the desserts; especially the "chocolate purse," which is basically molten chocolate that's silky sweet in a phyllo-style pastry that bursts out when you hit it with your fork. Yum.

Read more about Maui in a couple weeks as part of the Star's Grand Tour of classic destinations....

 

 

Halloween sparks celebrations all over the world, from Hawaii to Argentina

LAHAINA, MAUI, HAWAII AND BUENOS AIRES - Duelling blog items here from me and my Travel department cohort, Adrian Brijbassi.

It's the day after Halloween where you are, most likely, but it's in full flight here in Hawaii, where there's a regular street party in the Maui town of Lahaina every Oct. 31. Everyone on the island, it seems, shows up to take in the parade if not dress up in some wild costume or other. Plenty of women in boots and fishnet stockings, of course, as well as women in German beer girl outfits, guys dressed as Elvis or Pancho Villa or Sponge Bob Square Pants, all parading up and down Front St. on the usual 24 degree night in what they call fall in Lahaina.

Quite harmless, but highly entertaining. Earlier in the day, at the Whalers Village shopping complex just north of Lahaina in west Maui, I spotted two small boys trick or treating and wearing fake grass skirts and coconut shell tops like Hawaiian women wear in the hula shows; quite brave if you ask me!

As for Argentina, it appears far more interesting and ghoulish, but I''ll let Adrian tell the story....

BUENOS AIRES — By 3 p.m. on Sunday, the zombies had fully occupied Plaza San Marino as Halloween festivities got started early in the day here. It’s not a big holiday in Argentina, as a few people told me this weekend, but those who do celebrate in the capital go all out.

A bride and groom who looked like a pair straight out of “Twilight” puckered up in front of the San Marino fountain. They were the main attraction among a couple of hundred ghoulish characters who drew attention in the large park in the Retiro neighbourhood known for its shopping on Florida Street and at the Galerias Pacifico mall, a beautiful place with a fresco of angels that should have a pricetag on it.

Halloween completes an eventful week for this city that made it on Star Travel’s Grand Tour list of great destinations around the world. On Wednesday night, the most prominent Argentine politician of the past decade died of a heart attack. On Friday, a procession that featured the casket of former president Nestor Kirchner stopped traffic in the centre of the city.

In rain that lasted for hours, huge crowds gathered in Plaza de Mayo in front of the Pink House, aka the presidential palace. Kirchner led the country until 2007 then gave way to his wife, Cristina (see, Bill and Hillary, it can be done). Cristina Kirchner is apparently a good lawyer but a poor politician. Her popularity rating is in the tank, but that didn’t stop the people of Buenos Aires from posting signs of condolence outside the Pink House.

Nestor Kirchner died suddenly at age 60. Many world leaders, including Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, have come to town for the funeral. While the city core was at a halt because of Kirchner’s death, Buenos Aires isn’t a place that stands still for long.

By Saturday, the city was boisterous and energetic; eager to enjoy springtime here. Cars whizzed through 9th of July Avenue, the widest thoroughfare in the world; long lines gathered outside of Eva Peron’s mausoleum in Recoleta Cemetery; Plaza Dorrego was alive with café-goers, street vendors, families and musicians; and tango dancers shared Caminito Street with the people who come to see them and, for a moment or two, take turns partnering with them.

Buenos Aires is an easy city to walk in (mostly because it isn’t hilly) and I covered a lot of ground during a seven-hour journey to the barrio of La Boca and back. I also experienced one of those coincidences that make travel so much fun. Around three o’clock, I walked into a café in San Telmo, the oldest neighbourhood in the city, and sat down for a coffee. I had been headed a couple of blocks farther north and west, to a bar called Gibraltar that Star Travel freelance writer Ben Stubbs had recommended. But the café called La Poesia, or poetry, caught my eye because of its name and the crowd that filled it. I went in, sat down and saw the couple next to me skimming through a Lonely Planet guide. They spoke English and I presumed they were American. Turned out they were from Toronto and one of them, Naomi Carniol, is a regular contributor to the Star’s business section.

What are the odds?

COPA AIRLINES IS ALL WET

I have no kind things to say about Copa Airlines, a partner of Continental and a major carrier in South America. On Thursday afternoon, I left Cartagena for Panama City and checked one bag to follow me through to Buenos Aires. I arrived in Panama City to find out I had been put on Standby even though my ticket had been purchased weeks ago. I still made it on the flight (although they stuck me in the back near the toilet; and you don’t need a description of how bad that is for a 7.5-hour flight). When I landed in Buenos Aires, my bag didn’t come off the plane. Being in the back, I also had the benefit of watching all of the bags come off the conveyor belt before I was able to follow everyone else out of the plane. When I didn’t see mine emerge, I thought the worst.

Sure enough, there was no sign of it in baggage claim. When I asked the Copa representative at the airport what happened to it, she said the decision was made to hold my bag for a later flight, which wouldn’t arrive for another 12 hours that day.

“What happens if it doesn’t get here, do I get reimbursed?” I asked.

“No,” I was told, “because it will be here within 24 hours.” I had nothing to worry about, I was told.

That was Friday morning at 8 a.m. By the time I went to sleep that night it hadn’t shown up. On Saturday morning, I asked the concierge desk at the Alvear Palace Hotel if the bag had arrived overnight. The concierge said no and then managed to do something I couldn’t: Get a hold of a Copa representative on the phone. He was told the bag would arrive Saturday by midnight. I went to bed at 3 a.m. and still had no luggage.

Finally, on Sunday morning, it came. I opened the bag and all of the clothes were soaked. The bag had been sitting somewhere in the rain in who-knows-where for who knows how long. No apology from Copa, no word on how much they would reimburse me for the clothes I had to buy for the two days I was in Buenos Aires or for how much they would reimburse me for the pieces of clothes in the luggage that are ruined. But I’ll be at the airport on Monday morning to see what they say at the counter.

Not surprising to me, the Copa website doesn’t list the company’s policy for lost or stolen baggage. Continental Airlines, however, does detail what it will cover for baggage that’s lost, damaged or delayed. We’ll see if its partner airline follows the same customer service policy.

(By the way, Copa’s food is also the worst I’ve ever had on an airline. It was so bad that several people were actually handing back the breakfast muffin untouched en route to Buenos Aires. Like me, they could barely stomach the microwaved version of shepherd’s pie. I know because, well, I was sitting near the toilet.)

You’re supposed to find the bright side of things. So at least I’ve had a chance to take a look at the shopping scene in Buenos Aires and I can report the prices are very decent. On sale, you can get a good pair of jeans for less than $40 Canadian and T-shirts for under $15.