Editor’s note: This is a new weekly feature in The Garden Island. It will focus on everyday people who reflect the spirit that makes Kauai the place it is today. LIHUE — After nearly 40 years in the hotel business
Editor’s note: This is a new weekly feature in The Garden Island. It will focus on everyday people who reflect the spirit that makes Kauai the place it is today.
LIHUE — After nearly 40 years in the hotel business in Kauai, Bernard Balmores, now a shuttle driver for Speedi Shuttle, knows people and knows the island like he knows the back of his hand.
“As a bartender at the Sheraton Hotel in Poipu, I really had to be able to read people,” said Balmores. “If their room wasn’t ready, I’d baby-sit them until it was. I’d get them relaxed and encourage them to enjoy the scenery.”
Balmores served up cocktails to plenty of celebrities in his day, including actors Rock Hudson and Charlton Heston, as well as singers Johnny Mathis and Charo.
“Rock Hudson was a really nice person,” Balmores said. “His pants ripped and I gave him a towel. He wrapped it around himself and just kept talking to his friends.”
When Johnny Mathis sat at Balmores’ bar, he was all up for a fishing outing with the bartender until Mathis’ publicist chose otherwise, according to Balmores.
Originally from the Philippines, Balmores moved to Kauai with his family when he was 2 years old and his father was offered a job as a laborer on a sugar plantation.
“When I was a kid, we used to go fishing down in Poipu,” he recalled. “It was the Hawaiian families down there that taught me to be friendly with everybody and share with others whenever we caught some fish.”
Balmores’ helpful ways now extend to his passengers as he transports them around the island. He says he enjoys driving and had intended to only work part time but the demand for transportation necessitates working full time.
“I get to meet people like I did in the hotel business,” he said. “Most people, when I pick them up, are tired, impatient and cranky. I use friendliness to try to relax them.”
He says he usually also tries to alert his passengers to the importance of water safety.
“Especially tourists from the Mainland,” he said “Like those from Montana and those places that don’t have the danger of high ocean waves to threaten their safety.”
One of Balmores’ five children still lives on the island and works for Outfitters Kauai. Her father has been a role model with his strong work ethic.
“He is definitely a really hard worker. I’ve learned a lot from him,” said Balmores’ daughter, Gabrielle. “I’ve seen how he happily greets people and talks to them and I try to do the same.”
Of his five children, two have served in Iraq and Desert Storm while in the Army. Another son is a chef and a third daughter is a stay-at-home mom.
If you know a person you would like to see featured in The Garden Island, who is lokomaikai, email Lisa Ann Capozzi at lcapozzi@thegardenisland.com.
