Wild bantam roosters

There are few places in the world where chickens run wild and manage to survive predation. This is the only place that I know of, this island in the Pacific. Apparently, some years ago a hurricane came through and destroyed the shelters of a lot of fighting roosters. They were part of an island practice of cock fighting and they were beautiful animals, and quite aggressive. There were other chickens that were released by the hurricane, but the roosters of that variety were severely out competed by the fighting roosters. Thus, the island is inhabited by roosters like this one, who roam around with their families. They, like roosters everywhere, like to greet the day with a good cockle-doodle-doo. They have been heard every morning here, starting at the crack of dawn. They are pretty, but not very polite. They have no predators of any consequence here and walk around like cocks of the walk, which, indeed, they are.

Yesterday we had a nice trek to the interior of this island. The goal was to visit Wai Koa, a place that at one time was a large sugar plantation, and was so for about a hundred years. They stopped sugar production in the 1970's, but the land is preserved as a park. The walk took about an hour and a half, and I took quite a few pictures. There was a dam and some irrigation canals in a beautiful valley.

We reached the turning around spot and took a photo. NCW and I enjoyed the journey and the scenery.  We heeded the sign and went back the way we had come.

The end of the park land for the hosts, too.

The host of this place we are staying enjoys the pretense that he can swing out over the water on a rope and get back to shore. It was just a bit more than a guy with three score and ten years behind him to even attempt.  But he's willing to pose for a photo with the ladies behind him.

We are having a great time and eating really well.