​​​​Lost Paradises -  North and Central Americas

USA - HAWAII - Kauai island

Kauaʻi or Kauai is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the fourth-largest of the islands. Nicknamed the Garden Isle, Kauaʻi lies 73 miles (117 km) across the Kauaʻi Channel, northwest of Oʻahu. It is the site of Waimea Canyon State Park and the Na Pali Coast State Park. Polynesian inhabitants settled on the island hundreds of years before Europeans arrived, as shown by excavations dating to as early as 200 A.D. to 600 A.D. These first inhabitants, originally from the Marquesas Islands, lived undisturbed for around five centuries until a second wave of seafarers arrived by sea-canoe from Tahiti. Many Hawaiian traditions and belief structures are rooted in the religion and practices that arrived with these Tahitians.