From a country before our time
Let go
Photographer Jörg Gläscher and Beatrix Gerstberger
They keep saying that word over and over. They are brushing my clenched hands straight, pointing to the rain, for which they have hundreds of different names like "ua hanai" - rain that feeds the earth - or "ua awa" - cold drizzle - and that pervades the days and whip through the nights and clear the morning washes. They point to the flowers of the orchids, which fall to the ground, and the lava, whose red in the night glowing over the black mountains rolls down into the sea. Aloha, they say and take me firmly in their arms, and it does not feel strange, not unpleasant, because there is something that really wants to touch the heart. What are you looking for? They ask that, too, but later, when we swam in the midst of a herd of wild dolphins, standing on a four-thousand-meter peak over the clouds, the wind came and swept away reason and doubt. As we flew in a helicopter through dark green rainforest gorges that no one has ever stepped on, and circled by rainbows in a waterfall.
Do you feel it?, keep asking those who came to Hawaii to find themselves, or because they believed that life here suits them with a greater ease. They fled from the gray of North America, northern Europe, their families, occupations, their everyday life, and wanted to live where the air is lukewarm and the fish seem to voluntarily swim into the nets. If you fly to Hawaii, on this fly-ship in the midst of limitless blue on the globe, which is 3858 kilometers from the nearest mainland and consists of a total of 137 islands and atolls, then you also fly into a stereotype. Carrying this picture of wreaths wrapped around one's neck, hula, surfers, and Elvis Presley, who ecstatically spiked the girls in the Coco Palms Hotel on Kauai. These are images that attract 6.5 million people to Hawaii each year. They usually visit only one or two of the eight main islands, are on Oahu or Maui.
Maui
Maui, that's the lovely island, the beautiful. Everything is a bit softer here, and once we lie alone for hours on a beach that looks like cut out of a leaflet, even the palm trees are at the right angle to the sea. After Maui, people come to marry, on one of the 81 beaches, in a helicopter or underwater in a coral reef, and in the evening they go to a luau, a feast with hula display. They eat fresh tuna, mangoes, avocados, passion fruit and breadfruit, shrimp, noodle soup and boar loin. They take pictures of girls in basque skirts and coconut shell bras and drive the next morning to Haleakala, a huge dormant volcano.
Everything here on Maui is speed, rushing from one experience to another. "Nana i ke kumu, look at the source, the origin," say the old ways of Hawaiians to the boys. "And learn to breathe and stop." How am I supposed to do that? It is hard on Maui - until we drive through the deserted east of the island, over 56 single lane bridges and 617 curves. Over mountains, through rainforests and tropical plains. We look from above on the lava cliffs, where the sea jumps up roaring. In places thrown down, small clusters of wooden houses in cliff-framed bays surrounded by green meadows, gently falling into the sea. In the background, a waterfall crashes into the valley, and even the cattle graze here with a view. We stand on a beach, seeing a circle of stones, dark traces of a fire and piled bones. It is a hard to reach place. What happens at these places? Are these the places where you learn to believe in symbols, dreams, visions, and spells?
Big Island
The question will only be answered on Big Island. "Those who meet there open black holes and call ghosts that we do not know, and that's dangerous for them," says Kahuna Ikaika from Hilo. "It is the secret ceremonies of those who only believe they have the old knowledge." A kahuna is an expert, a priest, a sage, the best in one of the areas that used to determine Hawaiian life. "I am the one who keeps the knowledge," says Ikaika. The knowledge of his people, calling themselves the lost, come from another world, on the wings of light, isolated from the rest of this world. A people who could merge with the stones, with the trees, and who communicated thoughts alone. They call themselves "keiki o ka àina", children of the land, and the land, "aina", which is what feeds you and of which you are a part. And so every hill has a name, every valley, every waterfall.Gods, nature and humans were all part of the same life energy for all of them.
We stand with Ikaika on a sea of frozen lava on the Big Island. 15 years ago the volcano Kilauea tore away a coastal village here. It's dark, the Milky Way is in the sky, frogs are singing, and spray is falling on our faces. Ikaika grabs our hands and starts a voice chant, a chant. Chants tell the chronology of the Hawaiian people, their births, their deaths, their history, their loves, their broken hearts. It is a moment that you call staged or that you can just accept. IM not sure. Before we leave, I want to take a stone with me. One of the little rounds, in the pores of which it shines blue-silver and which they call Tears on Big Island. "Do not do that," says Ikaika, "the stones bring misfortune, they are Peles children, and no mother wants their children to be snatched from her." Later, we learn that the administration of the Volcanoes National Park receives parcels of lava rocks from all over the world every day. The enclosed letters tell of sudden illnesses, accidents and death. And of people who fear the magic of Big Island. Big Island Hawaii, which is the island that gave Hawaii its name, are five volcanoes, two of which are still spewing, and that's the lava flows, endless areas of black stone deserts and yellow-green grasses, and the feeling of always driving through huge panoramic views , Big Iceland is sand that glitters white, black, and sometimes even green, and these are the boiling sea lava plunges unceasingly, and the pungent sulfur gasses on the crater rim and the utter loneliness in a lava landscape covered with rain clouds. Sulfur fumes rise from the cracks and swallow everything, it's a strange planet, and there's nothing to see except a small sacrificial site with green fleshy Ti leaves and flower wreaths. It's a planet that makes you believe that only you exist, and that takes your breath away and coughs you away. Big Island is also the island where old Hawaii started to die.
Captain Cook landed in 1778 in the Bay of Kealakekua, and with him came cholera, chickenpox, measles. Of 300,000 Hawaiians, 80 to 90 percent died within a few decades. And then in 1820 the missionaries came and told the survivors that nudity was wrong and the hula they danced out of joy, out of gratitude to the gods, out of respect for life, was the sin. Shame and sin were words that their language did not know. They were put in the clothes of their conquerors, their language was banned, and in 1959 Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States. A quarter of the 1.2 million Hawaiians today describe themselves as "indigenous," but since they had previously delivered everything orally, many of their ancient rituals and ancient wisdom have also died. So they went to Hawaiian schools, but they were not allowed to be Hawaiian.
It was not until the 1970s that a civil rights movement emerged. People took hula lessons, learned the chants, spoke Hawaiian again and insisted that Hawaiian history and traditions be taught in schools and their sacred places protected. They resisted the construction of hotels where their ancestors are buried, because they believe that the soul of a human lives on in his bones. "Do not go back to the past, but honor the past, keep it, but improve yourself."
The hula is the history of this country and the heartbeat of his people, and one of the best "kumu hula," hula teachers, is Puna Dawson, 47, of Kauai. "Come, bring your roots, your heritage, your family, learn Aloha," she says. Aloha means for them "alo" and "ha", space and breath: parts of my space, sharing my breath. Hula students from Germany, Japan, Austria, North America sit in Puna's house in Lihue every week. "They are vampires, they suck the knowledge of my wife," says her husband. Learning the hula takes years, maybe a lifetime, because hula is also singing, songs, lyrics, prayers and meditation. "Hula and life," says Puna, "you have to do that under the moon and under the stars, you have to see what the constellations tell you, the birds, the dolphins, they were the rhythm of our lives happens, has a reason nothing in life happens arbitrarily. "
Kauai
Kauai, she says, is old and wise. This island is considered by the Hawaiians as the separate kingdom, inflexible, unlike the others. Kauai is the greenest of the islands, a jungle, shrouded by the blue ocean, sheltered on one side by towering mountains, the Napali Coast. Intersected by a canyon in which Steven Spielberg shot Jurassic Park, surrounded by 43 white sandy beaches. Kauai is a rush of green and white and blue, of clouds and spray and sea. We ride on a catamaran, swim in the waterfalls, which were the bathrooms of the ancient kings and queens.In Kauai, we are overcome by this unrest, when beauty can not be described, when it fills and humbles you. So why did I go to Hawaii? Because in life things run away, you run away from yourself and you search for a place that forces you to stop? A place that makes you soft again, where you've already turned to stone without realizing it. Kauai, says Puna, the name also means island that accepts and holds you, but also island that spits you out again. Both are possible. But the decision is not up to you.
Travel Info Hawaii
Travel time: The whole year, most pleasant temperatures from April to October.
Phone: The area code for Hawaii is 001.
hotels: Kauai: Mohala Ke Ola Bed & Breakfast:spacious rooms, a tropical garden, pool, and on request a Lomilomi massage. Double room from 75 Euro (5663 Ohelo Rd., Kapaa, Tel. 808/8236398, www.waterfallbnb.com). Princeville Resort: Expensive, but has stunning views of coves and cliffs, a pool, first-class restaurants and golf courses. (5520 Ka Haku Rd., Princeville, Tel. 808/8269644, www.princeville.com). Hawaii / Big Island: Nai'a Aloha Lodge: warm hosts and a nice house with pool in the hills. Great breakfast. Rooms from 55 Euros (835410 Middle Ke'ei Rd, Captain Cook, Tel. 808/3288053, www.naiaaloha.com). Kilauea Lodge: Rustic hotel right on the Volcanoes National Park. The rooms are lit with fire and the restaurant is excellent. Double from 119 Euro (Volcano Village, Tel. 808/9677366, www.kilauealodge.com). Maui: Hale Ho'okipa B & B: an old historic house in the middle of the small town of Makawao. Hostess Cherie Attix has endless insider tips for her guests. Double room from 90 Euro (32 Pakani Place, Makawao, Tel. 808/5726698, www.maui-bed-and-breakfast. Com). Garden Gate B & B: a beautiful house in the old whaling town Lahaina. Elegant rooms, wonderful sea views, shops and restaurants nearby. Double from 100 Euro (67 Kaniau Rd, Lahaina, Tel. 808/6618800, www.gardengatebb.com).
Action: With a catamaran Sailing along the Napali coast: The crews of HoloHoloCharters ensure a perfect day on board with snorkelling and lunch. Five-hour tour for 137 euros (HoloHoloCharters, Kauai, Tel. 808/3350815, www.holoholoCharters.com). Helicopter flying without doors: Directly over the Napali coast you can fly in gorges that no one has ever stepped on - breathtaking. Sightseeing flight 148 Euro (Inter-Island Helicopters, Hanapepe, Kauai, Tel. 808/3355009, www.interislandhelicopters.com). Encounters with Kahunas, visits to sacred sites: The German tour operator Earth Oasis offers individual daily programs as well as group travel (Brüsseler Str 75, 50672 Cologne, Tel. 0221/9128888, www.earth-oasis-travel.de).
Books: Many info: "Polyglot Apa Guide Hawaii" (Euro 19,95). Good maps, tips for tours: "National Geographic Traveler Hawaii" (Euro 21.50). Mystic Hawaii: "Voices of Wisdom, Hawaiian Elders Speak" by M.J. Harden (Booklines Hawaii Ltd., 25,50 Euro).
