Post #166759 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Sun, Jun 19, 2005 12:24 AM

The Tiki Aloha apartments started life as the Tiki Taboo, which in my opinion was a much finer and more exotic name. But evidently the word "Taboo" became embarrassing and non-pc during later decades, so the name was changed. Not sure when.

Puamana has a brochure from the Tiki Taboo which shows some fantastic tikis that no longer exist. What's left is a shadow of the former glory, but some treasures still reside within.

Good luck getting in though. Heavy security doors and gates block all entrances. The manager will not let you in for any reason unless you are a resident. Best bet is to wait for a resident to enter or leave and slip on in. After waiting half an hour with no luck, I eventually hopped a spiked fence.

Inside there is one strange looking tiki left. He's been painted, so he should survive some years yet. Based on the way his chest, mouth and eyes look, I'd bet he was carved by the same carver who did the tikis at the Islander in Gardena and the Kala Kai in Lomita.

There are also some carved posts that were done by the same carver as the ones in another apartment complex called the Island Breeze and possibly the same carver who did the posts around the pool at the Kala Kai:

Maybe we can convince Puamana to post some pictures from her vintage brochure. I'd sure like to compare the carving style of the tikis pictured.

Special thanks to TikiHula for hosting these photos on his gallery site.

Sabu