While you might think such an event would frighten tourists away, everyone on the ship seemed to be excited to see that always dramatic sight of red lava flowing. Onboard naturalist Sharon Faff, who lives on Mauna Loa, said the locals weren't afraid either. Rather than packing up their treasures and heading to Oahu or at least the coast, they jump in their cars or trucks and flock to get closer looks.
The last time we visited Hilo, another volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, Mount Kilauea, had recently calmed down from a major eruption beyond its usual ongoing activity. That event had caused more damage but also expanded the island's acreage considerably...in slow motion.
Islanders like to say such dramatic spewing of red-hot lava and smoke is the goddess Pele putting on a show. Sharon Faff showed unedited photos she took of smoke plumes that did indeed look like a woman dancing.
In any case, by the time we cruised into lovely Hilo harbor, eruptions had subsided. We were somewhat disappointed to not see a red sail-away show as we cruised from port that evening.
However, that would not be the focus of our consciousness on that day.
We walked past the popular Hoppa On/Hoppa Off Bus Stop to catch a Lyft directly to Richardson's Ocean Park, where turtles sometimes swim around the brightly colored tropical fish and coral.
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When the sun shines, we have found the snorkeling to be great at this black sand beach, so even though we hoped to see Pele dance, this underwater adventure is what we had most anticipated for Hilo.
What a wonderful day it proved to be. "All the friends," as we like to call the various species of neon fish, came out to greet us. I often think of my dad, who had multiple aquariums stocked with smaller versions of the beautiful denizens of the shallows we so enjoy snorkeling among. He would love this.
We took turns floating out in my old black oval mask and blue snorkel, because we are always concerned about leaving unattended valuables on the beach. This time, we only brought one mask and snorkel set, eliminating the possibility of going out together. However, we also like coming back to excitedly share what we have seen during the exchange of gear.
Julie and I took a break at one point to walk across craggy rocks to a lagoon where Mark, a naturalist on a prior cruise, had told us about turtles waiting for the tide. We didn't see any there on this visit, so we returned to snorkeling.
And sure enough, a big turtle swam to join me along the reef to the left of the narrow sandy ingress where I waded into the water, the opposite direction we had been snorkeling previously.
Sea turtles are very cool, and I've found that if I don't try to get too close to them, they will swim close to me, perhaps curious about what I'm doing at their home.
This being Hilo, we did have rain now and then. We were almost dry and ready to catch a Lyft back to the ship when the sky began to sprinkle again.
We walked to some cabanas at another lagoon by the road, where we were surprised to find turtles resting in plain sight. It was one of those great serendipitous moments that happens when you take time to find yourself in nature rather than hibernating at home.
After four full days at sea, you would think we would have stayed ashore as long as possible, but we headed to the ship for a late lunch and lounged on deck sipping tropical beverages as our fellow guests returned from shore excursions that suited their interests.
It had been a great first port day.
You probably noticed in the photos that throughout the day, lighting changed dramatically as clouds moved across the sun, sometimes dropping rain. That's another part of nature's show in Hawaii.
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