I Ao

when is say iao it reminds me off johnny carsons sideckick ed mcmahan ay ooo.

the iao valley is a lovely nook between the dominant presence of huge mountains. it's a green utopia because on the other side is quite desolate as the rain storms lose power over the mountains.

there is a lovely park honoring the immigrants who helped shape the island. korean, chinese, japanese, filipino, portugese.

many more pics in the maui pictures section

from iao we cut through the plantation valley of maui and hit a tourist trap complete with 3 tour busses and a fourth arrived as we were leaving. i call it a tourist trap but it actually was very nice bordering on an amazing place. a huge place to buy hawaiian shirts, jewelry, and maui smelling stuff.  maui tropical plantation is it's name and eventhough it's all capitalism it was designed amazingly. the touches, the finishes, the gardens and all the thought put into it was amazing. A great marketing extravagaza and amazing event space for weddings etc.

we almost bought some stuff but we needed to keep going to maximize beach time.