We tried to go to a place called Pu'uhonua O Honaunau (Place of Refuge). Neat history: Hawaiians gave up their polytheistic religious beliefs rather suddenly in 1820. Prior to that time, to keep the peace, the rulers made all these complicated laws, called kapu, to appease the gods. People who committed kapu offenses would be killed. If the offense was bad enough, the whole family might be killed. But, if you could get to your area's place of refuge before they got to you, you could perform some rituals, and effectively be absolved of your offenses, no matter how bad they were. Then, you could go back to your life and all was forgotten. The place we tried to visit is supposed to be the one best preserved. But, it is right next to the ocean, and was damaged by the tsunami, and will be closed all week. The guy manning the gate said the burial grounds (23 chiefs' bones are/were buried here) were damaged and there was a lot of cleaning up to do. I'm sad for them, and hope they can get it all back to rights, and I'm sad that we won't get to see it while we're here.
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