So we just got back from Hawaii and we had a fantastic time. It was a rather short vacation, just 7 days, and we only did the Big Island. Because of time constraints we only did the Kona Coast, north to the Kohala coast (Waimea and to the north) and Volcano National Park, we did not do the Hilo side. The highlight of the trip was unquestionably the snorkeling. We went snorkeling a total of 4 times. One of these was a guided tour (got to see Dolphins swimming along the boat!). Having never actually seen coral reefs or swam with tropical fish the experience is just magical. Unfortunately my camera is not water proof, just water resistant, so I don't have any of my own pics to share of the actual snorkeling. But to give you an idea it looked just like this:
Though unfortunately we didn't have a heck of a lot of sun. Not that this made the snorkeling any worse. We even got to swim with a turtle!! He didn't seem frightened at all, just moseyed along and even swam right towards us:
Aside from the snorkeling we went down to Volcano National Park and did some hiking. We walked along the crater floor of Kilauea Iki "little Kilauea". This was a volcanic lava lake that formed in 1959 and has since solidified. The trail takes you down right into the lava lake and you get to walk along the hardened lava. It's like walking on the surface of the moon. In fact despite the fact that the eruption happened in 1959 the rock bellow is still hot enough that there are steam vents along the crater floor. Of course we ate a lot as well, a lot of junk food and good hamburgers and fries, (hamburgers seem to be something of a staple on the island lol), I'll give them one thing they know how to make a killer macaroni salad, thankfully I only put on 1 or 2 pounds because we were quite active as well. No Luau this time I'm afraid but I'll be sure to do it in the future. Had some traditional shaved ice and a few other traditional snacks at road side shops. Stopped at a tropical fruit stand on the side of the road and had a number of really good snacks, Jackfruit being the best. I absolutely love Jackfruit as it reminds me of my time in Malaysia! So all in all it was a great trip!
A FEW QUICK QUESTIONS:
It seems poverty is an issue on the Big Island. In general poverty is a bigger issue and more visible in the US than here in Canada but it seemed especially prevalent on some areas of the island. I'm not talking about grinding poverty but I did see for example a lot of run down housing and corrugated metal roofs. It seems to be an issue especially among the native Hawaiians which is sadly not at all surprising as such is the case with native peoples the world over. How prosperous are the Islands in general? I know tourism brings in the big bucks but I mean for the resident population.
How democratic are the Islands in general? I know that they are a very strong democrat state historically but I was thinking more how liberal in general is the populous? I didn't have time to speak with anyone about anything so all I can go by are stereotypes.
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Instead of going through and editing all the photots I took in Hawaii I thought I'd just dump them all on photobucket at 800x600ish and let you guys and others take a look. I'll be going through these in the coming months and touching up some of my favs. None of these are quite the best work I've done but there are a few that I like that I'll post bellow. Take a look and let me know what you think:
Remember his is just a raw resize and dump of ALL the pics I took so there are some shitty ones in here.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v333/Locut0s/Hawaii/Some of my favs:
Oh and here's some of my other fav pics I've been collecting over the years. Hope you like them:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v333/Locut0s/Favs/