The sun is not even up that we're on our way to join Captain Dan for a whale excursion. These elite travelers do back and forth between Alaska and Hawaii every year. The feed on the rich waters up north and come to Hawaii to mate. Everyone on board is trying to spot them and my travel partner is very good at it. She points me and my camera in the right direction a couple of times. Whenever we see something, we get close and wait for them get back up for air; which takes around 10-15 min.
Ziplining
Happy New Year! It's our last day in Hilo, time to go see what's on the other side of the island. We start the day with our customary tostada de tomate (toast, olive oil, salt and grated tomatoes), pack and go. To give a decent goodbye to the eastern part of the island, we have a fun activity planned – ziplinig! It's not far north at Akaka Falls. It's our first time doing it and we're very exited. There's a total of 15 ziplines, each one more challenging. The first few ones are for us to get used to doing it. It's fairly easy and they are all included in banana and sugar cane fields. From time to time we're even treated with small bananas, sugar canes, wild strawberries, etc.. delicious!
Moon landing and fireworks
3rd day in paradise. Today we go back to Volcanoes national park. We want to check out the south slope down to the sea. On the way there we'll do a few stops to see a waterfall, lava trees and do our grocery shopping for the new year's dinner. The waterfall is in Hilo so we stop there first. It's a instant gratification spot called rainbow falls. You park next to the waterfall, step out of the car and enjoy a beautiful waterfall and if you're lucky (we were), get to see rainbows. It's nice and chill and it's early enough that we have the site for ourselves. We leave when a bus of tourists arrives. Before leaving Hilo for the day we go grocery shopping.
Mission to Mars
2nd day in paradise! Today's program is Waipi'o and Mauna Kea. Procrastination cost us here. It's a remote valley north of the big island and it's difficult to access. Most of it is private property and everything we read told us that it would be much easier to go with a tour of some sort. We're thinking horseback riding but everything is fully booked... We drive there to check it out and we'll decide on the spot whether we hike down or not. The road down is for 4*4 only since it's extremely steep (25%).
Mount Doom
After a long night of sleep, we’re ready to attack of first day. The plan for today is to visit the Volcanoes national park. It’s 45 minutes away from Hilo to the south on the slopes of Muna Loa. As the road climbs, we can see the vegetation changing little by little. We arrive at the visitor center and get on with the first task… finding hats and sunglasses. It’s hard to believe but we forgot to pack these 2 items! We find them in the souvenir shop and surprisingly it’s cheap. We stop by the “museum” to have a quick look, grab a map of the area and start our hiking with Ha’akulamanu (sulfur banks trail).
Tropical winter
The winter tradition started in New York has been to escape the winter for a week or so. The past few years, we went to Costa Rica and Barbados so we were once again looking at the Caribbean. Flights were expensive though and out of curiosity my travel partner decided to check the prices for Hawaii. Shockingly it was cheaper than for the Caribbean… Many of our friends visited away in 2014 and they all loved it. It was on our bucket list too but under the section “very far, probably too expansive”. We didn’t think twice and book the tickets; the rest of the organization would come later.
Prison break
Today’s program is a piece of Chinatown before heading to Alcatraz. Chinatown is as expected; I think it’s a consistent experience all over the world but it’s always nice to walk in neighborhoods with strong identities. We have mixed feelings about Alcatraz. It smells like a tourist trap but still it’s an emblematic place that is worth seeing once. The first experience is extremely touristy with the pictures being taken in front of a giant poster of Alcatraz, with the long lines of tourists waiting to board…
San Francisco
The plan is to spend the last few days in San Francisco. We don’t really need a care there so we decide to return it earlier. Easier said than done though, we struggle a bit to find a gas station and then to find out where to return the car… Back to the city by train, we lost half a day with all that but it had to be done, driving around in San Francisco would have been too much of a pain.
Gulliver
Still sore from yesterday’s expedition and after another cold night in Yosemite, we pack and hit the road again. We’re not done with the park though, before going to San Francisco, we planned on stopping by to see Bridalveil Fall, Inspiration point and more importantly, the giant sequoias of Mariposa grove.
Stairway to heaven?
On today's menu, Upper Yosemite trail. We tried to get permits for the Half-Dome to no avail. Access to the last piece of the Half-Dome trail is limited to a given number of people a day. You either get your permit months in advance or you try your luck with the lottery 2 days before your hike... I guess I'll have to come back a 3rd time in Yosemite! Today's hike is far from easy though.