Hilo 9-19

What a FABULOUS day I had in Hilo. I booked a tour with “MaryLou’s Big Island Tours”. I found them on Trip Advisor and the reviews were not wrong! I toured with MaryLou’s husband, Ken and he was a wonderful guide. We experienced so many things in our 7 hour tour.  The day was mostly sunny and breezy.


We drove through the town of Hilo and looked at all the amazing Banyan Trees. Most were planted by famous people and have plaques stating which person planted them. We saw trees planted by Babe Ruth and Amelia Earhart. The trees are just massive and found all over the island.

First, we drove up to the Mauna Loa Volcano. It’s about 4000 feet above sea level and it’s active! We drove through the State Park and were able to get some wonderful pictures. You could actually see the lava sparking at times, but I was not fortunate enough to capture that in a picture. The lava is up to the top of the crater right now and a thin crust has formed on the top.  It’s actually quite chilly on the top of the mountain. 69 degrees with a stiff wind.

Next we drove down the mountain a bit and viewed the volcano from a distance. However, there were hiking trails down to this blackened cooled area of previous lava flows. We could just make out some hikers in the distance.

Further down the mountain was an area of destruction from what I believe was an eruption less than 50 years ago. It was amazing to see the blackened lava rock slowly being colonized again with trees and wild flowers.

This is a very cool painting of Pele. Her eyes follow you no matter where you moved in the room.

Next up was a walk to and through an ancient lava tube. A very cave-like place that was quite drippy inside! You could see the roots of the trees on the surface hanging on the ceiling of the tube. We walked through a bit of rain forest to and from the tube. The size of the ferns and trees were amazing. And a lot of stone and fallen trees were covered with this beautiful vivid green moss.

I think this tree branch looks like a bird!!

Lunch was purchased from a little dive on a side road. They made their own bread. I had a wheat, cranberry macadamia nut bread that was out of this world. Turkey, cheese, lettuce (leaf) tomato and onion. YUM It was huge and I only got a half!
Interesting flags flying at the Deli

Onward we trekked to a local coffee plantation for some excellent Hilo coffee. Yes, Hilo coffee! I got a medium sized medium roast. Woohoo was I amped up. Good stuff. Very, very expensive per pound. But a cup was reasonable at $4.50. The place also had chickens—not to kill but for eggs. I believe Ken said they had 200 or so. All non-GMO everything on this island.

The fruit trees….OMG It was Tahiti all over again. So much fresh fruit growing wild everywhere. And the rule here is that if the branches extend over to a public area, that fruit can be picked. Also, we were told that if you see fruit laying on the ground at someone’s house, all you need to do is ask if you can have some and they will usually tell you to take as much as you want. We saw humungous grapefruit, limes, avocados, mangos, bananas and a few others I know I am forgetting.

The flowers were also stunning. We even stopped at an orchid farm. They were some of the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen.

We took a tour of the Mauna Loa macadamia nut farm. And yes, I did buy some nuts! Whether they make it home remains to be seen. For now, they are sealed up!

The Rainbow falls was very pretty but unfortunately, not producing rainbows while we were there. But, still I got some nice pictures.

Finally, we went to a black sand beach! AND the BEST part, we saw turtles in the water very close to us. They were feasting on the algae rocks!!! And I got some pictures!!

We made it back to the ship about 5:40—ten minutes past all aboard. No worries though, they were still unloading a large bus when we pulled up. 

Once aboard! More exciting news! The captain said about 10pm tonight we will be passing the lava flow going into the ocean!   SO, SO excited about that.

These are just random photos I took on our drive around the island.

It's about 10:30pm here and we just passed by the lava flow down to the ocean. That was so cool to see that. So much steam where it met the water. You could see the orange glow for miles. 

Tomorrow we are in Kona and I am going snorkeling! Very excited to do that. Hope the water is not too choppy!

I'm heading to bed now. No nightlife tonight. I have an early wake-up call in the morning!