Aloha from Hilo!

We arrived in Hilo on Monday (January 25^th) just in time to see the sun rise.  It was so nice to finally see land!  On our first day there, my friends and I took a cab to a local beach called Richardson’s beach.  A lot of SAS students were there so we mostly just hung out and enjoyed the beautiful weather and the view of the ocean.  We even saw a whale! 

That night, I attended a Lu’au, which was an organized trip through SAS.  Here, we watched and participated in some Hawaiian traditions, including hula dancing, and ate authentic Hawaiian food.  I have to be honest—I would have preferred the food we’ve been eating on the ship.  Pulled pork, some sort of squid dish, and their infamous “poi” are not for me.  But overall it was a good experience and the performers were excellent.

After the Lu’au, we went to a local bar called Shooters where a lot of SAS students had planned to meet up.  The place was packed with SAS students or “SASers” (the nickname given to Semester at Sea students.)  I’m sure we were the most people the bar had ever seen on a Monday night.  They even hired a DJ when they knew we were coming.

Our second and final day in Hilo I went on the Captain Zodiac snorkeling excursion, another trip I signed up to do through SAS.  We took a bus to Kona, which was about two and a half hours away from our port.  When we arrived we were split into groups of 12 and a speedboat took us out into the middle of the bay.  We were surrounded by incredible cliffs and caves, the weather was amazing and the boat ride out into the bay was so much fun—I would’ve had a great day even without the snorkeling.  However, once I got in the water, I was amazed at all the beautiful fish and coral reefs I saw.  I’d never seen so many different kinds of colorful fish, (except in my marine biology book which, believe it or not, I have managed to find time to read!)  I even impressed my marine biology teacher today when I told him I saw a Hawaiian Monk Seal beached on the side of the bay, which we had learned in class is a critically endangered species.  I have found that science is much more interesting when you are seeing it in real life instead of in a textbook—hopefully this will be reflected in my grade!