DAY 15 - Who needs lava anyway

Since our volcano-plan fell through today we had to look elsewhere to see how we could spend the day and make all that hard work we did yesterday worthwhile (the idea of hitchhiking with a sign saying ‘WE WANNA SEE LAVA’ was considered but dismissed pretty quickly). In the end we decided to go to a place called Pohoiki beach where apparently there were also warm ponds. We had to hitchhike with three different people to get there but it all went smoothly and soon we were at the ocean, told that the smaller warm ponds were just a bit further ahead in a small forest right by the see. So after clambering over some rocks we came upon the most beautiful little lake surrounded by trees with crystal-clear water that was indeed extremely warm, and spent the next few hours there, the others having a lot of fun with Sarah’s waterproof camera while I was just enjoying the scenery. We were joined soon by other people such as a couple with the seriously most ugly baby I’ve ever seen or a young boy from Vegas who was very concerned about diseases.

It was SO BEAUTIFUL.

We got out for a tiny bit to check out the actual ocean but there were rather big waves there so we soon returned to the warm pond; Sarah swam some more while I stayed outside to draw. At some point an elderly man called Mark joined the pool and started dishing out extremely pessimistic advice about the World and the government and told all of us to just stay here and not travel anywhere else ever again, and took a slightly overenthusiastic interest in Sarah’s bites on her legs.

He offered to give us a ride back but we decided to go out for dinner in Pahoa, where he dropped us off. We went to a small restaurant and had an amazing vegetarian meal, consisting mainly of hummus for Sarah and me. After that we went to a bar we’d passed before and had been invited to try a traditional Hawaiian drink called ‘Kava’ which was made from some sort of herb (or ‘erb’ as these silly Americans say) and was meant to have a pleasurable sedative effect. The drink was served in coconut shells and tasted pretty much like dirty water that made our mouths slightly numb but didn’t produce much of any other effect. It was open mic night there so we stayed there for a while and listen to a bunch of people perform.

We weren't really sitting in the best place to see the musicians from.

We got a ride home on the back of some gigantic truck - I felt like I was going to pass out from the cold wind or at least transform into a giant goose bump - but we got back safe and went to bed shortly after.