Saturday, November 7, 2009

Hawai`i - day 2 - volcano park

The second day started with a "turtle" swim (at 6.30 AM) .... we were complaining not seeing anyone and suddenly one appeared 2 meters away swimming along :)))...it was cooooollll. Then we have seen a second one feeding in the small tide pond in front of our tent. After a quick breakfast we packed and went to visit the Kiluaea volcano park. We drove along the Crater Rim to see the sulphur banks (earth cracks from which gases from the magama chamber rise to the surface), the steam vents (rain water going down earth is heated and evaporates trough the cracks) and a general overlook on Kiluaea crater and its smoking Halema`uma`u vent. The views were nice and impressive for my first volcano experience. Kiluaea Iki hike was also nice providing the experience of walking on the crater floor and trough the lush forest.
We drove the Chain of crater road to see old craters some of which were already cover by the luxuriant rain forest and we finished at the sea level viewing the distant smoke of lava entering the sea.
In the evening we went to Kalapana to see the lava flow entering the sea. Although we were quite far away the experience was unique…. the binocular helped a lot . It was a peak point of a very good day.

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