Kaua'i part III

Diving! Great way to balance all the hiking :) Left early morning and went on a boat trip off the south shore. The highlight of the first dive was a one on one encounter with a small octopus. Yes, the suction cups (Saugnäpfe) do work! But I do have to say that I'm not a big fan of pulling creatures out of their hiding spaces. I always imagine that it's comparable to a huge unfamiliar creature reaching into your house and pulling you out. The second dive was more like a turtle airport. A lot of caves in the lava where turtles sleep. There were a lot! And even more were "landing" to find a cave. Being down there and having all the turtles "fly in" it really felt like being at an airport. Great creatures. Absolutely calm and not impressed by our presence. Some of them must have measured 1.5m in diameter. Other than that corals, a lot of fish and one big moray eel. And the sensation of being weightless under water is just unbeatable. Even when you are a lightweight like me :)

Stopped again at the tattoo shop on the way back just to make sure no one had cancelled... Was not the case but Arturo one of the tattoo artists offered to sacrifice his day off to tattoo me. And here's the result!

Manta ray with turtle, right shoulder

I really love it! Yes, it was painful. Took 2 hours and especially the second hour was torture when everything was already super sensitive. That was Friday. We spent the afternoon at a beautiful remote beach. Selina snorkeling, me sitting on the beach with a big bandage on my shoulder... On the way back we met two locals who fed us with coconut. One of them from the mainland US who had decided to give up his business life and move to paradise. The other an old local who told us all these stories about shark attacks and people disappearing in the ocean. Very entertaining but hard to understand because he used a lot of Hawaiian words. We concluded a beautiful, relaxing and adventurous week with another delicious fish meal. Mahalo.