A couple of days after the wedding, we went on our honeymoon. This was another big decision in our planning process. For weeks we had thought about doing a back country hiking trip in Northern California but to be honest planning and having a wedding is a lot of work. We decided that we needed to treat ourselves to a retreat. We both have spent time in Hawaii and figured it was a fairly easy get-away for a few days. When we searched for an “Eco-Retreat” in Maui we found Maui Retreat right away. It was like a tropical version of Shambhala.

Founder Kutira Decosterd, along with her husband Raphael, designed the retreat center with ecologically friendly concepts in mind. Kutira and Raphael are firm believers in living harmoniously with higher beliefs, using the best and cleanest technologies available today. The retreat center is “off the grid” with it’s electricity coming from solar panels and a generator run on Biodiesel. They are avid composters and recyclers. They have a bamboo demonstration farm on the land. All of the buildings on site are made of bamboo produced by Bamboo Technologies or recycled materials.

To top it off we rented a Biodiesel car from Bio-Beetle and enjoyed spreading the word around the island about vegetable powered vehicles. We got our biodiesel from Pacific Biodiesel. At the time of our visit Biodiesel was about fifty cents less then regular gasoline. The car rental price was comparable to renting a gasoline car. And it was a lot of fun to drive around.