Elephant Ear Umbrella

Final stop before leaving O'ahu was a trip to an overlook 1600 feet above Honolulu. As we drove up the mountain it started to rain--downpour, golf-ball size rain drops--but the temperature doesn't drop so it's still in the 80s. The higher we get the harder it's raining and the lusher the forest. I'm amazed at the philadendrons that are easily wrapped around trees trunks 20-30 feet up. At home, we put a little post in the planter and watch it wrap around but here, the philadendrons could easily swallow up a telephone pole.

The funniest site was a man who was waiting for someone by his driveway. He was obviously caught in the downpour unexpectantly and so he picked a huge elephant ear leaf--easily 3'x4'--and was using it for an umbrella. He was soaking wet and as we drove by he felt a little silly using the leaf as an umbrella so he sheepishly stood in the rain holding it as we drove by. We thought we missed our turn, so we drove back past him and there he was with his umbrella, down by his side. Well we hadn't missed our turn, so we drove back by him a third time and once again down came the leaf. I so wanted to take a picture of him using the leaf for an umbrella but didn't have the gutts. Even in the rain the tropical forest above Honolulu was fabulous...and then the sun came out!