Well, we had a great trip. Out of the hundreds of pictures I took, here are a few.
After having eaten a lot of dwarf Brazilian fruit in California, which have all been much smaller than a supermarket Cavendish banana, I was blown away by the size of the Brazilian ("Hawaiian apple") fruit in Hawaii. Every bit as big as the biggest Cavendish I've seen, and even bigger. Here are some sold as "Hawaiian Candy Apple" bananas, with a Cavendish for reference:
At the local farmers' markets, you can find several varieties of bananas. Ones that I saw included Cavendish, dwarf Brazilian/Brazilian, Manzano, Sucrier, Red, Saba, Bluggoe, Hua Moa, what I think is Silver Bluggoe, and what I think was Popo' ulu. Here's a sampling of a few of them:
Of course, there's lot of other interesting fruit and veggies at the farmers markets. There was some very unusual ones at the 12 Trees Project. They chose several species I'd never heard of before, with an emphasis of really sour fruits that you would not eat out of hand. They are meant to be used for culinary purposes (e.g., sauces, jams, baked goods, etc.). "Tropical apricot" and bilimbi were real mouth puckerers! Here are some of the fruit:
For those of us who don't live in the tropics and get excited about any banana mat in the neighborhood, driving around Hawaii is cause for sensory overload and potentially running off the road. Here are a few of the bananas we saw:
Ele Ele, I presume:
Ae Ae:
Mai'a hapai:
And boy are there some big ones! I'm pretty sure these are Brazilian. My 5' 3" mom is in the picture for scale.
Unknowingly, the house we rented had all kinds of banana themed art and decorations. Here's one of my favorites:
The Hawaiian Tropical Botanic Garden was great. It is huge and lush. (But don't go expecting to see lots of bananas.) The Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden was also worth seeing. The 12 Trees Project is small, but worth a stop if you are in that neighborhood. We stumbled across the Pua Mau Botanical Gardens. It's worth a stop if you are near it, mainly for the view (saw humpback whales breaching from the viewpoint), but also for the sculptures, peacocks, and plants.
Dived with 18 manta rays, saw dolphins, whales, and lots of beautiful plants and scenery. All in all, a great trip. And boy did I eat a lot of bananas!