The last couple days spent in Hilo were amazinggg, incredible, adventurous, breathtaking, memorable… all of the above. Our very first day (my first time to set foot on Hawaiian soil ever) or any soil for that matter in 8 days since we’d been at sea, was one of the best days I’ve ever had in my life. Hawaii is by far the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to in my life so far… everything about it, the weather, the beaches, the people, the adventures; priceless. Here is a quick re-cap on how my first day went: once I got off the ship a group of 5 of us or so caught a taxi into downtown Hilo where we explored a farmer’s market and found some famous kona coffee. It was not even 9am at this point, so pretty much everything was closed except for a small local shop which the owner opened up for us. He welcomed us with a ceremonial drinking of ‘kava’ which is a euphoric drink made from wheatgrass which eases the mind, but also as we came to find out, makes your tongue numb!!! Haha. The ceremonial drinking began with us dipping a finger into the coconut shell cup filled with kava and dripping some on the ground for the “roots” and then up in the air for the “gods” then clapping and then drinking the kava. It was a really interesting and unique experience! After that we went to Kosmic Cone where we all had our first spam burgers (the national meat of Hawaii hahaha). Believe it or not it wasn’t that bad! After we ate we walked the 2.5 miles or so to Rainbow Falls State Park where we hiked and got to cliff jump into a huge pool of water! We spent a couple hours there and then made our way to Richardson beach, which is known for the HUGE turtles that come up to sun bathe on the rocks, which we got to witness! We also met a crazy taxi driver named Teresa who became our driver during our stay in Hilo. She talked about zodiac signs and horoscopes and predicted our love lives hahaha People in Hawaii, I realized, are some of the most down to earth and fun people I’ve ever interacted with! We hung out on this gorgeous beach, where we also got to see some evidence of whales and just hung out with other SAS students, drank and relaxed. Later that night we found a local bar where most of us hung out and enjoyed our first night in Hawaii! It was a GREAT day.
Today was definitely more laid back then yesterday’s activities, but still was good! Headed downtown in the morning to Nautilus Dive Shop where a bunch of us signed up for scuba diving! We were all supposed to go in a large group, but since me, and my friend Alex were not certified we couldn’t dive with everybody else, which was a bummer. We ended up meeting up with them though at their dive site and hung out in the sun. We got to have our own dive session with the instructor later in the day, which was such an incredible experience. The site where we were was full of an abundance of marine life. We got to dive up to 20ft underwater and came in contact with beautiful fish, coral and huge sea turtles!!! I’m so glad I decided to do it, because I think I would have totally regretted it if I hadn’t. Who knows the next time I’ll be able to do something like that… not soon that’s for sure! Got some close-up pics underwater that I hope will come out good.
Back on the ship now and heading to Honolulu. We’ll port around 8 tomorrow morning. On tomorrow’s agenda I’m going on a field trip for class to the Polynesian Cultural Center which is the #1 tourist attraction in all of Hawaii. We only spend 2 days in Honolulu as well and on the second day I’ll be hiking Diamond Head and bumming at the beach :) Then we’ll be stuck on the ship for longer than before, about 11 days, on our way to Japan!
No comments:
Post a Comment