Winter Break.

Sometimes it is necessary to get a complete change of scenery in order to get a new perspective. With my "introductory" quarter at school behind me things are just going to get more and more intense so it was now or never for this trip. This setting gave me the sense of focus and clarity I needed to chart a course forward. Of course it has rained non stop every day since I have been back so that sense did not last but!... I wrote it all down!
Here are a few slides of the island of Kauai. I spent most of my time on the east shore near Kapa'a.



Slide show notes: The animal first shown in a slide at 1:14 is a Monk Seal. These are an endangered species due to loss of food sources and global climate changes. It is very rare to see on of these as far in as Kauai but it is becoming more common as their habitat changes. When a monk seal is spotted like this a response team is dispatched to make sure it is ok and to keep people away from it. I had a long talk with one of the members of the response team and according to him, a gun-happy poacher killed two of them last year just for the fun of it. There are only a few thousand left. The one I saw is a pregnant female taking a nap after a long, long swim.

More on Hawaiian Monk Seals

The chickens and roosters are all over the place on Kauai, running wild. There seemed to be a lot more roosters than hens so I don't know if the hens get used for dinner more often but the cock-a-doodle-doo of the roosters goes on all day long. This is a non-native species but I guess it is not considered invasive and they don't seem to cause any ecological harm. No one seems at all concerned about the big chicken population.