Tuesday, January 10, 2023

I woke up to find that my hot water bottle had leaked in the center of the Airbnb bed. The diameter of the wet was about 18”, so we stripped the bed and the underpad and put them outside on the porch. I must not have tightened the lid enough. I also contacted the owners, to let them know.

We had signed up for the 9am tour the night before. The tour started at the art gallery/cafe where we had stopped the night before. Our driver plus 6 passengers in a 4 wheel drive van that had no windows. Easier to take photos and perhaps easier to recover our bodies if we had gone off the steep cliffs along the side of the very steep road. A bit of a white knuckle ride going down into the valley. Until the road is fixed, ours is the only tour allowed into the valley. I am not sure how they will fix a road that is basically one lane with a cliff going up on one side and a cliff going straight down on the other side.

We made it in one piece to the valley floor. Lots of issues for anyone attempting to live in the valley (current population is 20 people. Two tsunamis have blasted in and devastated the valley in the last 50 years or so. Every 10 years the valley floods and wipes out the taro crop. And now they have fire ants! Plus the road is the only way in or out. But it is beautiful! There is a very tall waterfall in the shadows, behind us in the photo.

After our 2 hour tour, we stopped for lunch at a Portuguese donut shop, then we drove to Hapuna Beach. They were working on the water when we arrived at the Hapuna beach state park, so all the restrooms were closed and there was no rinse off shower. But beautiful beach! Nice little swim.

We were spending the night at an Airbnb in Captain Cook, south of Kona. We planned ahead, and picked up carry out poke bowls before arriving at our night’s stay.