Franco Salmoiraghi: Hiking at the Top of Hi‘ilawe Falls

Franco Salmoiraghi: This is about 1,700 feet high. So, if she were to fall that’s it. Because the water comes all the way out there. So we were there, and it was just very amazing to be up there, just to turn around and go there. So we’re eating and drinking a little, and then we said, “Well, we better go down.” This guy, he teaches at school. He's got all these boys. So, "Okay, we'll go out this side over here," and he said, "Okay, and we'll all stay together." 

So, we got out with all these trees and everything. There's a lot of, like here, big things, and all of the things are falling. So the guy, he said, and we're going down like this, too, it's not just going like this. So he says, "Okay." He has a thing to cut down stuff. He put it in his mouth, and he sat down, and because we're going like this, he goes sliding down. 

Curator Katherine Love: With a machete in his mouth? 

Franco Salmoiraghi: Yeah. So, everybody got into it. We realized we don't have to walk, we're just going to slide down. So, we've gone down quite a ways. Then, he says, "Wait, stop! Stop! The wall has come down! We can't." We've all been down over a thousand feet. 

Curator Katherine Love: Then, it was like a drop-off? 

Franco Salmoiraghi: A drop-off. And he said, "We can't jump in because the water's only about that deep. So, well what do we have to do? "Well, what you have to do is you have to look down this wall and you can see there are little trees. So you want to hold on to one, and go down, and then go down to the next tree." 

Curator Katherine Love: Oh, wow. That's terrifying. 

Franco Salmoiraghi: Then we finally got down to about maybe 20 feet or something, and we could jump into it. Now my wife is about four-foot something. I was about six-two at the time. So, she had to come down on me from the tree. So, we all got out.