I recently got the chance to go to the island of Maui, one of the stunning islands of Hawaii. I went to go spend time with my little Hawaiian sister Ana who I’ve known since she was born.

While on this trip I had two very memorable days. The first one was when we went to a beach, the beach had so many sea turtles coming in from the ocean, resting, or going back out. The magnificent creatures were stunningly beautiful. I stood there watching the turtles for quite a while, bewildered at there huge size, I had never seen sea turtles so large. There was a police near by to make sure nobody got to close to the resting animals. just watching these animals made me really appreciate that such a safe sanctuary for them existed, a place where they could catch there breath and take a break from the vast oceans they got to explore.

Later that day I got the chance to go to a small luau on the island near the beach. In this Luau they told the story of the brave demigod Maui who brought life to the islands of Hawaii. He was quite the egotistic and selfish man. He fished the islands from the sea just to prove his brothers he was better. He also slowed the sun down to bring longer days, he fought mighty monsters and brought fire from the depths, but ultimately when he tired to steal the heart of Hine, goddess of life so that he may be immortal, this led to his death upon the betrayal of one of his brothers who warned the goddess of his greedy plans. It was amazing to witness the story of the islands from the people themselves, and just how beautiful and different their culture was from my own.

Another day I deeply loved was when we drove hours and hours up to the volcano of  Haleakalā, translating to “House of the Sun”. The volcano was also brought about by the trickster demi-god Maui as he trapped the sun to convince it to move slower after is awakened from its crater. We were reached above the clouds and I was instantly greeted by Nene Birds and white butterflies that flew around the top. The view was spectacular, and the sunset was stunning.

The sunset was unlike any I had seen before, the sky really did look like a dancing fire bursting with luminous colors. And when the sun fell and the stars awakened, the sky filled with thousands of little lights, I had never seen so many stars in my life. We got to use a telescope to view star clutches and planets, getting to see different constellations you cant see here in California. It was a wondrous sight that I will never forget.