Although Mirna has lived on Maui a relatively short time, she’s no stranger to the island. “My grandparents began coming here in the 1970s, and moved to Pa‘ia in the early 2000s,” she explains. “When I finished high school, I spent a gap semester living here with them, then came back every summer during college. I always had a reason to leave Maui, but never wanted to.” In 2022, she decided to relocate here permanently to always be near her grandparents.
Mirna currently lives in Ha‘iku, at the edge of Maui’s tropical rainforest, where she grows a variety of fruits, vegetables, and medicinal herbs. When she travels back to the Mainland, Mirna enjoys backpacking, alpine skiing, and car camping.
“I wanted to be a hiking guide for a long time, and now I am! I’m one of six siblings, and being a guide makes me feel like the ‘fun big sister.’ For me, it’s all about taking guests farther out into the wild than they usually go, helping them develop a relationship with nature, and teaching them what you can eat in the rainforest and how to be a good steward of the ‘aina (land).”
Guest quote: Our guide Mirna was fantastic! Knowledgeable and engaging, and knew when to give us time to ourselves. You can tell she enjoys her job, and she even fed us from the fruits of the land.
