Bad decisions on a cliff

On Maui 2016 I mentioned we had a brush with death.  Unfortunately it wasn't the only one.  I don't think we were that close with this, but it was closer than it should have been.

Maui is made up of a couple mountains.  Somehow there are roads around the outside of these mountains.  On the east side it is the legendary Road to Hana. This is an amazing drive we did early in the trip.  The drive is the destination.  One thing though is a lot of the cliff side roads narrow to one lane.  There are a ton of cars, and you wait your turn if there is oncoming traffic.  As long as you are not in a hurry it works. This was a great day

On our last day we headed to the much less visited north west side.  Not as scenic, but still scenic.  It gave us something to do while we waited for our evening flight out.  The one ways were less formal.  After what seemed like a million of the we were on our way back.  On the stretch of road it meant we were on the outside.  In my infinite wisdom I looked at the road and thought- I bet two cars can fit.  This didn't really affect the other person- they were next to the mountain.  

It turns out there was not enough room for two cars.  As we were going I felt a small portion of the road give under me.  I stopped, and we both hoped out the drivers side.  We were safe, but we only had 3 wheels on the ground.  And we were blocking the only road.  Not a great situation to be in.  Our flight was later that evening.  We were not going any where.  I guess I could have gotten back in and tried to back up- but not something I wanted to do.  I couldn't exactly call AAA.  

Luckily a local showed up.  I didn't ask him if anyone had done this before, but he wasn't exactly surprised.  He was able to tow me off the edge, for the small price of everything I had on me, plus another $100 to be sent from home.  A small price to pay for my stupidity.

Also- Will fell into the water and his phone never worked right again

Death snorkel

When I travel I tend to favor doing things over relaxing.  We sign up for a lot of outings.  Some feel like there is a bit of danger to them.  In reality probably not.  These are professionals with systems worked for keeping people feel safe.  The illusion of danger makes it more fun.  That's not to say things can't happen.  I just didn't expect to encounter death in a combo whale watching/ snorkel cruise.

In 2016 I took Will to Maui.  One of the things we did was sign up for a catamaran trip to Molokini crater to snorkel.  Multiple companies offer trips.  Honestly- there wasn't much difference between the trips.  They took you from the same place to the same place and charged about the same.  I had 2 companies I liked.  Not sure how I ended up choosing. 

Beautiful morning trip.  Cruised by some whales on the way out.  Took about a half hour to the crater.  We got there and I noted the boat from the other company arrived about when we did.  We got in the water and started snorkeling.  Very nice.

I realized soon after there was a bit of a commotion.  The other boat was calling it's snorkelers back on board.  Then I noticed the employees were doing CPR on the deck.  They got everybody back on and started the slow process of getting back to harbor.

I learned this is actually not  uncommon.  People escape to paradise and naturally want to do stuff.  Stuff they don't normally do at home.  To be fair I don't know the gentleman's story. Perhaps he wasn't the stereotypical couch potato who decides to up their activity level.  Get in relatively cool water and exerts themselves.  The body isn't ready.

I don't know for sure he didn't make it.  I do know the boat didn't have meds.  I do know we were a half hour from land and CPR is tiring.  I hope my assumption is wrong.  If so I'm very impressed with the rescue skills of the boat's employees.  

Anyway for those of  us who stayed the snorkeling was beautiful.  We saw more whales.  We made the most of the day we had