Hawaii 1

Hawaii… what to say….as young boy growing up in the Eastern Slovakia “the mad part” we used to cycle to “Hawaii”, what was a beach at man made lake where the summers were spent browsing local stands for soda and hot dogs, biscuits and girls of course girls since that “Hawaii” was part of socializing area where young people meet and greet and otherwise. Well I have not dreamed ‘actually I did a bit’ that one day  I will be on the real Hawaii and see that beauty that it has offer and I do not mean only girls but also the girls too. It has been a short but special time at Big Island as that is where I was since this is typed on the plane flying out from Hawaii to another speck in the ocean with human inhabitants so I hope that control tower will find the correct hard drive or drawer, whatever they are using for storing memories so I can typed them and therefore remember them.

First thing first and that is Kona International airport is the best airport I have been so far !!! The whole airport is open and airy and the need to air condition is nonexistent as the air itself is circulating around and cooling down the travelers walking around the various covered squares under the roof but with no walls, i.e minimal walls as there are some ‘not everyone is ok answering the nature call in public, especially No2’ but that is o.k as in all fairness civilization has some advantages sometimes. I was happy to arrive to summer as I arrived from San Diego what was a nice break from the heat but it is time to get back to summer and hot weather to sweat out a little bit as pig of the spit over the fire. If I would wait for undefined amount of time for the local bus as per her answers on my questions of how long to wait for another bus were ‘long time, not sure, hour maybe more than two hours, etc etc’ and she said that bus is $35 to town and then I need taxi to my hostel what is aprox another $30 so I took taxi for $60 well support local business. At least I got great local dude who gave me a tips on shopping ,eating as locals do and few more and when I said that I would like to  him chauffeur me around since I have not book the car, he become more chatty but I honestly believe that he was chatterbox anyhow and when he dropped me at my hostel and mentioned that he could bring some of his daughters to meet me, I was shocked and pleased at the same time.  As we agreed on pick up time for my trip to the boat he left as he was contemplating since this part of island was where he come from and memories good and not so good surfaced and he became a little bit quieter. Reception girl did a tour of the hostel and then we chatted about photography as she is freelance photographer as well as krav maga teacher and traveler, ets free spirit so we had chat until I realized that soul food is great but the meat bag aka body needs some serious food as well so I decided to put some fuel in the engine room and got walking towards L&L as directed by taxi driver to local cheaper restaurant where everyone goes to eat. One oxtail soup and some funny looks from local teenagers later I was on the way back to hostel when the rain  has started and it refreshed the mango trees, coffee trees, macadamia trees as I was told and showed all of them near the roads as we passed on the way from airport with taxi. After some more soul feeding by talking to Sophia and Melisa I retracted to the balcony to watch sunset and relax a bit as I felt tired and had my moment of contemplating the day behind me. As the control room slowly turned of the AV system I head of to the bed.

Gooood mooornign  Kona 😊 was the feeling when I woke up as not much on the plan for day off without car so I decided to go for a walk to Kona. After some morning stretching of old bones ‘as body is young and mind that of teenager’ I have took the road to Kona with stop at local shop across the street to get some fuel and they have Hawaii style sushi ‘as I cannot remember the name now’ what essentially is rice with piece of SPAM on top covered with pieces of AVOCADO. Interesting Hawaiian breakfast and I was on the way but as much as it was good to eat that the engine room manager send request to control room for more fuel and so the whole machine stopped at Florian café where the English muffing with bacon, egg and some sauce with Hawaiian coffee ‘surprisingly goof brewed coffee’ and one almond biscotti on the terrace was better and the machine was fueled up for long walk to Kona ‘19km’ and what a country so see, all so green and warm ‘got a fricking hot later’ and quiet, not many cars, no other sounds just occasional dog barked  as if they never see tourist on the road. Walked on the coast highway enjoying the views and sun but honestly was so happy to see shopping mall as water was gone and the sun turned to forking blowtorch and I needed to rest in shade and cool so one coconut water and one protein bar, minus something … later I was on the road again and this time I walked pass nice surfing area where was a lot to see, even the beach and see were nice. As I was walking four hours I was happy to see someone on bus stop, who confirmed that bus should be here in 20 min so $2 and 15 minutes later I was in Kona and headed to post office to post Christmas present to my offspring who probably do not even like it but that is ok. Kona did not impress me at all and I was quite happy to leave it behind after some hours of walking around and realizing that for €300 I can have scooter for seven days so Hawaii is certainly paradise and possibly paradise for business too. Since I have no desire to walk back I decided to look for HELE-ON what is the local public bus on some sort of schedule what is not available anywhere except on net or by calling the office since the bus stop are simply poles with sign, on one of them I was leaning when waiting for bus. After all that walking the reactor was empty and therefore I decided to hit the restaurant nearest to the bus stop to get some food with the rest of the tourists who are in desperate need of few extra extra kilos / pounds of holiday weight on their bodies, at least it looks that way. Burrito in a bowl later on the bus what is the type of the school bus instead of yellow kind of the grey and instead of kids few locals and some tourist hang onto the seats, while Stig in disguise as local bus driver tried to get his best lap time, while  passengers were leaving nail marks on the furnishing and realized that they are definitely not atheists. Only two dollars for such thrill who would not want that 😊 As I was getting off from the bus the local man joined me and surprise surprise he knew Slovakia and even spoke a few sentences in Czech since he was aware that the both languages are similar. Certainly day spent well as I hit the hostel looking forward to a bed but not after few moments of chat with and seining the sunset and listen to the local animal world have their chat after hard day on the sun. Day has come that I need to repack the diving gear, leave rest of useless stuff at hostel and head off to the harbor for my week of liveaboard.

              Liveaboard was ready to receive its guest but since the Christmas parade was in the town taxi dropped me few streets up from the harbor and as I was slowly walking down the street with my mesh dive bag resting on top of my backpack and partially head the locals, neatly packed at road side to have the best view on parade had first look at me as if I was the part of parade with specially weird costume. Boat is ready and tie up to the pier so boarded, got my stuff in the quad berth and hang around the top deck to see the parade at least this way since I could not leave the boat as we were supposed to leave immediately after all divers are on board. It took it a bit time before we actually left so the parade was nearly over. Diving….it was great and the amazing and good as some spots are better than other but the highlight was night dive with mantas, dolphins and pelagic night dive as when such animal as manta is doing your hair style and I mean physically brushing your hair while swimming above you, I was frozen as Olaf and could not move a bit, this was moment correctly defined as awesome. During the afternoon dive we saw three mantas gliding above us and possibly checking the area for amount of divers and boats as when we surfaced the water looked like time square or Trafalgar square full of people in water, on the boats etc…. waiting for mantas to see them in the night. We descend to the “ring of fire” what is ring of stones with crate in the middle with lights to attract the aquatic life for pleasures of us tourists. The first spectacle was quite big eel who as true movies tart was bathing in the spot lights ‘literally’ as if he was Johnny Depp, gently fascinating but weird to see in close. But when manta came the game was geared up and what a sight…..since it was my first time seen these beautiful, magnificent creatures I was in awe and forgot about the temperature of water and time. It was amazing but on the other hand sad as the amount of people, boats, lights in the water was way too much and I realized that we tourist are ruining the nature rhythm and habitats of those magnificent animals. It is something to see and experience but I would prefer less surface activity if I could. Dolphins on the other hand were keeping distance but happily following our boat, swimming on the bow at full speed and then play around the boat and anchor line when we were stationery. It is nice to hear them under water and wee them to swim around the boat as if they were acrobats in the circue de soleil and we were the spectators. Crabs, lobsters big and small, tiny shrimps and forking octopuses to name few were amazing sight underwater and some of the lava tubes, coves, caves with white tip shark resting in them in short were amazing scenery, play of ocean surge with boulders size od human head as it twirl them in the surge like piece of feather in harmony with sound of moving rocks is amazing and I love the elements when I can experience them first hand. Nothing made me swim kick harder than sucking hole dragging me up form the cave to the surface with surge. The pelagic night was something unique as when I shone torch in the water and adjust the focus I saw the fantastic shapes floating around not bigger than four inches as from the sci-fi movie, completely transparent and fluorescent when intercepted by light from torch, It reminded me of the movie Abyss. What a dives at Hawaii…. Need to cut down on food and snacking as the weight is getting up quite easily if you are not doing much just diving, eating and sleeping. Happy to be there and made some new friends, get some more advice from experienced divers plus having a great star gazing from the hot tub at the top deck when the lights were out. Not bad time at all.