Free Wisdom Online: Black Sand and the Volcano

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Ok, here is the post on the last part of our Hawaii trip before I switch over to Brazil.  (Damn, there isn't enough time between those trips to even blog about them.)

So, after [Kohala](/en/all/entries/2007/02/02/kohala/) we headed south through Kona.  We were thinking of stopping in a couple of places along the souther part of Kona, but got stuck in the worst traffic jam of my life.  Seriously - the worst traffic jam of my whole life was in the seemingly scarcely populated Big Island.  The thing is that they don't have all that many people in Kona, but they also only have just one row.  And once you are stuck on that road, there is nothing you can do - you just stay there.  So, it took us about 3 hours to drive the seemingly short distance from Kohala to Captain Cook and by the time we were passing Kona it was already too late to get off and look for a beach.  We stayed overnight in Captain Cook and then went snorkeling in Kealakekua Bay, which was great except/because you have to kayak to the snorkeling site.  There aren't any photos of that, though, so I'll move on.    At the end of the day we headed further south to and stopped at the Punalu'u Black Sand Beach just before sunset, where we saw another turtle.

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2007-01-06-c-black-sand/20070106_067_6933 Black sand
2007-01-06-c-black-sand/20070106_080_0116 Another turtle
2007-01-06-c-black-sand/20070106_111_2209 More black sand
2007-01-06-c-black-sand/20070106_103_0140 "Removal of Sand Prohibited"
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After failing to find a place to stay nearby and sleeping in the car, we headed for the volcano the next day.  Unfortunately, it started raining in the morning and it only got worse as we got closer to the volcano.  We did a drive around the Kilauea caldera (an old crater that was filled with red lava a hundred years ago), then went to the Volcano Village for lunch.  After lunch we headed down the Chain of Craters road and by then the rain eased.  We drove to the "End of the Road", where the road literally ends unto a lava flow and walked a bit on the lava.  It was too late to start the 2+ hour hike to the lava, though.  As it got dark, we did see the red lava from afar, though.

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2007-01-07-a-caldera/20070107_003_1435
2007-01-07-a-caldera/20070107_009_0253 The Kilauea Caldera
2007-01-07-a-caldera/20070107_036_1958
2007-01-07-a-caldera/20070107_044_9579
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Finally, we wrapped our trip to the island the next day with a tour of green and lush Puna - what a contrast to the volcano, despite the petrified tree stumps!

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2007-01-08-puna/20070108_002_3647
2007-01-08-puna/20070108_017_3557
2007-01-08-puna/20070108_034_4075
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2007-01-08-puna/20070108_016_7855
2007-01-08-puna/20070108_047_1143
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