Join Thor and me as we return to the Big Island and renew acquaintance with our favorite snorkel site and fishy friends.
NOTE: Listening to my doc’s concerns, and considering the complications of multi-destination European travel during the pandemic surge (not to mention wildfires in Greece), Thor and I decided to cancel our Greek islands trip for the second year (sob). But, as “consolation,” we decided on a quick trip to Hawaii’s Big Island to stretch out summer a bit as our gray, rainy Pacific Northwest winter was closing in. The airline and all venues in Hawaii are being super careful with Covid precautions, and it was a wonderful getaway. If you didn’t catch my blog series about our first Big Island trip, it started April 24, 2021, if you want to catch up on the full adventure, including a volcano, petroglyphs, snorkeling with wild dolphins, and a night swim with manta rays. And I promise I will finish the Retro Italy Vacation series soon.
“Aaaah!” We settle in with a sunset dinner on the condo lanai on the west coast Kona shore.
Morning and evening, surfers were busy below us on the mild breakers, providing entertainment.
Off to our favorite snorkeling site, the cove at the Place of Refuge, Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park. (Read all about the historic site in the previous blog series; it’s fascinating.)
We enter the cove under the watchful eyes of the carved guardian figures. In pre-contact times, this cove was preserved only for ali’i (aristocrats).
Familiar fish greet us. We particularly enjoy this site because it combines shallow coral alive with fish and light on fingers of solidified lava, as well as deeper blue “canyons” to dive down and explore.
These yellow tangs are called “Kona Gold.”
The view toward land from the cove:
Trunkfish, like this spotted one at center, are one of my favorites. They always seem to look a bit worried but curious as they flutter their fins and hover:
I spotted one the “fish cleaning stations” amongst the coral. Fish arrive and wait for smaller cleaner-fish to rid them of parasites. In this YouTube video, two Rainbow Cleaner Wrasses are tending to a larger Saddle Wrasse. Before Thor captured this session, a large blue Parrotfish shook off the offer of a cleaning and went grumpily on its way.
It was a bit rough one day at the site, with waves crashing over the breakwater, and we really enjoyed being swept with the fish back and forth in the surge, riding the waves.
Then back to our lanai to kick back and enjoy the sunset. We saw the “green flash!”
Aloha! Mahalo!
Next week: exploring new places on the island.
*****
You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Cafe is available in print and ebook: The Ariadne Connection. It’s a near-future thriller set in the Greek islands. “Technology triggers a deadly new plague. Can a healer find the cure?” The novel has received the Chanticleer Global Thriller Grand Prize and the Cygnus Award for Speculative Fiction. Sara has recently returned from another research trip in Greece and is back at work on the sequel, The Ariadne Disconnect. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
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