2 days in Hilo, Hawai'i

I'm writing this from the 7th deck by the empty pool. It's 1630 and we made it back to the ship on time. I'm here with Nic and Tania laying out working on my Hawaiin tan. We've been in Hilo for the past day and a half. After getting in yesterday our first stop in port was Walmart. Everyone on the ship seemed to end up there to stock up on the essentials: shampoo, conditioner, trashy magazines, Hawaii trinkets, and chocolate. An hour later we unloaded everything on the ship and headed to the local market.

Taxi and buses loved us, we had no idea where we were and where we needed to go. On this quiet part of the island they made a fortune from the 700+ of us. At the market everyone stocked up on chips and beer and headed for the beach via the FREE bus. Transportation
in Hawaii=bomb. We took the bus to the first place we saw for food. Unfortunately that happened to be a hole in the wall Chinese food place called "Ocean View" or something like that. No such view. I ate some type of sweet and sour meatballs and chow mein or some noodle thing. We're pretty sure we ate dog/cat. It was not the best Chinese I've had.

There were a bunch of black sand beaches. The water's gorgeous here. We walked along the road and went to several rocky beaches and tide pools. We scoped out the marine life and enjoyed the sun and tanned.

We found an abandoned house and explored the island. Eventually we headed back to the MV Explorer to get ready for the luau. Some van drove by and picked us up and dropped us back off. We showered and got pretty. Becca, Shannon, Tania, and I went together.

We took a tour of the University of Hawai'i at Hilo. No one knew this was part of the night. I never thought of going to school in Hawai'i. It's a small school of about 3000. They're the Volcans, I can only imagine a mascot running around dressed as a volcano. So after our tour we went to the Agriculture campus for the luau. They taught us how to make leis and performed hulas and other Hawaiian and Samoan traditions. The food was ehhh. I was so psyched for a pig roast. No such luck. There was pig, that was the best part. We had chicken long rice, which is gelatinous and looks like worms. Not bad if you don't look directly at it. Macoroni and potatoes. Salmon. Rice. And poi. Google poi. It's a major Hawaiian food, it's some type of ground up taro root or something. It's NASTY. It tastes like paste, actually paste might taste better.

Post luau we ate more food. Americanized food. Aka burgers. There's only a few little bars around here that the SASers took over.

Got up early today, 0630 and had breakfast. I went on a trip for my Marine Bio and Bio of Sharks class. We went to a tide pool and collected things: brittle stars, sea cucumbers, teddy bear crabs, etc. Then we went out on. 20 foot outboard engine power boat. We went out looking for the humpbacks. We spent 2 hours chasing them. They were everywhere! Mothers and calves, males, everything. Towards the end they started approaching our boat. They're gorgeous creatures. I've got about a hundred pictures of blue water. I didn't manage to get any pictures of them breaching though.

When we got back we went into the historic part of Hilo and got food. I snagged a delish chicken parm sub with some new friends. I forget most of their names already.

Wow, interjection. Girls sitting next to me just posed the question, "why do we even have armpits?" Haha. This is what life has become with no class and infinite time to ponder the mysteries of life.

This guy gave us his card down by the dock to come back and stand up paddle board. We came back to the ship then Emily, Tania, Nic, and I snagged a cab back to the dock. We paid $20 to paddle board. This is my new obsession. I have zero balance and was up in one minute. It was so relaxing and so cool.

3 Hawaiian guys covered in tattoos showed us how to do it and guided us up and down the river way by the docks past the boats out to the ocean. We got epic tans from the reflection off the water. We jumped off and swam in the cold waters to cool off. Eventually we had to leave. The guys bought us frappacinos. What a service. I didn't realize how much I missed Starbucks til that moment. Then they took us back to the boat for free, we didn't have to get a taxi or anything. Spectacularity at its finest.

All in all, Hilo was really sweet, I could definitely live here. The language is so crazy cool. That's all for now. We're leaving for Honolulu at 2000. We should be there early tomorrow.

Love and miss.