On Tuesday January 15 I arrived in Hilo, Hawaii!! I have never been to Hawaii before and was so excited! I woke up at 6am to watch the sunrise, realized the sun didn't rise until 6:40 so I got out around 6:30 and was able to see the sun rise and watch the whole process of going into port. It was exciting to be arriving in our first port, that there were so many people on deck. A few minutes went by and to my left we saw two whales! Unfortunately they were too far away to get a picture but it was an amazing site to see when we first arrived.
Once the ship docked, it took almost two hours to actually get off because everyone had to go through customs. Walking off the ship onto land felts so strange because my body had been use to trying to keep balanced while the ship rocked. Unfortunately, the feeling of rocking never left my body when I was on land.
When I started to walk around Hilo, I started to realize that it wasn't exactly what I expected when I thought of Hawaii. Hilo is a much more residential area, not touristy. So there weren't the pretty beaches and fun attractions that were in Hilo, you would have to drive about 4 hours to go to that part of the island, but my group decided to stay in Hilo.
We did not plan what we were going to do in Hilo and just decided to go with the flow of things. So the first thing we decided to do was walk to a restaurant for lunch, but we had no idea where the closest restaurant was, so we probably walked a good 2-3 miles until we found downtown Hilo. I can definitely say that Hilo consisted mainly of walking and eating. On our way to the resuraunt we found Liliuokalani Park and Japanese Gardens, which consisted of Koi ponds, pagodas, statues and a Japanese teahouse.
After lunch we went to Rainbow Falls, which is an 80ft waterfall in Hilo. An interesting fact I learned was that the water falls over a natural lava cave and if someone were to jump off it, they would get sucked into it. But on a positive note it was beautiful and had a bit of a tropical feel to it with the large and unique trees around it. While walking around the forest we found what is called the boiling pot behind the falls where many semester at sea students were hoping into the water and jumping off of a 20-30ft cliff into the water. At first I was apprehensive about jumping but then was like who gets to say they jumped off a cliff in Hawaii!! Once I got onto the cliff it took be a good 30 minutes to actually get the guts to jump off. I only did it once but it was a blast!!
That was the peak of my time in Hawaii but the next day we went to the local farmers market where there were so many unique fruits and items being sold. I didn't buy anything but it was very interesting to walk around and be part of it.
To end my time in Hilo my group took advantage of the American store Target to get last minute things, mainly snacks, that will last us through our 10 day journey to Japan.
We did get into a situation with the ship though. The day after we left Hilo we refueled in Honolulu, which is beautiful even though we weren't allowed to get off the ship and ended up docking over night because there was suppose to be a huge storm at sea. Thankfully we will not longer be hitting the storm and are on our way to Japan!
It was nice to use my phone in Hawaii to see how everyone was doing at home, I guess my family had a snow day which was crazy to comprehend because I was in Hawaii where I was sweating like crazy. I was definitely getting a little homesick so hearing their voices helped with that.
On our way to Japan we cross the International Date Line and lose January 21, so I will never live the day of January 21, 2013. Today there is a 6 hour time difference and tonight we add another hour! I could definitely say I am enjoying this sleepJ
I am still in the process of planning my trip in Japan but if anyone has any suggestions on what to do please let me know!!!
Until next time!!!
~Sam
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