Day 5: Hiking around a Crater and Turtles!

  Volcano, Hawaii, United States
Friday, November 2, 2007

Sorry, Kuya!!!  Hehe, around 3:30am Kuya called me asking where I was...I was like, ummm, uhhh...in Volcano...sleeping.  Oops, looks like we got our dates confused and Kuya thought I was coming back today when I'm really returning next Thursday!  Good thing he only had to drive to Charlottesville Airport and didn't drive all the way to Dulles or Richmond!

Anyway, I actually "slept in" this morning and didn't get out of bed until around 7am (the past few days I generally woke up between 4 and 6am, gradually later every day).  I wanted to get a relatively early start to my day and began my hike around Kilauea Iki Crater around 8:30.  

One more crater shot.

It took me about 2 hours to hike a mere 4 miles, but I did take a detour to a lava tube, stopped for pictures, and got a little lost at one point!!  I was also so sweaty by the end...not only did I go the hard way: taking the nice and gradual path leading down into the crater, and then up the steep steps to get out of the crater...should have done it the other way around!) but I foolishly wore jeans and a long-sleeved, medium-weight wicking shirt.  Yesterday I was so cold, so I thought I'd dress more warmly this time!  Check out the fun pictures.

Sea turtles!!!

 

More BIG waves

I came back to the cottage, finally met my host Ira and checked out the various artwork in his gallery.  I was considering, since I didn't have time to do it this morning, to drive down Chain of Craters Road (19 miles one way) which basically goes from the crater, descends 3,700 ft to the coast and ends where lava has covered 10 miles of road since 1983.  I had originally hoped to do that this morning as well so I could read on the beach this afternoon.  Ira suggested that I drive 30 miles south of Volcano to another gorgeous black sand beach (Punalu'u Beach) where I would also get to see some sea turtles.  There is no beach at the end of the Chain of Craters drive, so we agreed this would probably be more fun.   I've had enough of craters for one day...or make that two days in a row!  See more fun pictures of the beach and the turtles...

After enjoying a couple hours of reading Eat, Love, Pray, I was on my way back to the cottage.  I showered, got dressed for the concert, grabbed a quick dinner and enjoyed some inspiring church music.  I attempted to be social, but was anxious to get back, journal, and go to bed early so I could potentially hike early tomorrow morning.  Not sure if that will happen, as morning prayer begins at 8:30am, so really I could only fit in a quick 1 hour hike in decent daylight.  Since I'm not working out like I usually do when I'm home, I need to feel like I'm doing something!

We'll see...until tomorrow!