Maui Day 4: Turtle Time – Land of Lloyds

We missed turtles since there weren’t any while snorkeling at Molokini Crater yesterday, so today’s mission was to spot turtles! Turns out where we were staying in Wailea, there were lots of beaches nearby where we were likely to see turtles! We made a list of about 4 and decided that we would go to at least Keawakapu and Ulua which were on either side of our resort.

Keawakapu Beach

The public parking here was right by a slightly ghetto resort which was right on the beach. The water here was a bit murky and definitely not as much visibility as Molokini our first day, but the water felt warm and within 10 minutes of floating in the water, we had our first turtle sighting! The turtle was below us along the sandy bottom, with half of the shell sprinkled with sand.

Ulua Beach

We liked this beach better for the clearer visibility even though it was later in the morning, which meant spotting turtles was easier and we got better photos. The atmosphere on the actual beach was also nicer, which had a path and lots of shade so there was room between the next resort which was a fancy one and very well-kept. This was also a very family friendly beach with very small waves!

We decided to check out this beach shortly after the last, so I only reapplied sunscreen to my face and let me tell you… just do it! Sunscreen those legs! I got so burned on the back of my legs and that annoying edge of coverage on my bum that it hurt to sit the next day. Funny story, I also got sunburned on our honeymoon 10 years ago—but that’s because I went out to the water with zero sunscreen… yeah, my husband got to buy aloe again for me as we laughed about how much I love the sun but it doesn’t love me back!