Day 8: 1/16 Markets and Waterfalls

                Today I woke up nice and early to head into town with some people.  We got to downtown Hilo and went to this coffee shop with wifi so some people could use the internet to skype or update their blogs or whatever.  After some time spent there, we went to the Hilo Farmers Market which happens on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  At the market there were a lot of fresh food vendors and craft vendors.  The food ranged from fresh coconuts to pineapples to rambutan to coffee to fresh fish. I didn’t get any food, even though now I kind of wish I got something because fresh food is somewhat limited on the ship.  I did buy some things from the other parts of the market, but caught myself several times wanting to buy something and then thinking, “There are so many other countries you’re going to go to. You don’t need to buy this.”  In any case, it was fun to just walk around and see some local crafts and things that people had to sell. 

After walking through the whole market, we decided to go to Rainbow Falls which is a waterfall near town.  Luckily, when we went, there were other people that also were heading there.  Otherwise I don’t know if we would have found it on our own because it was kind of tucked away in an unusual spot.  There was a designated spot where people went to take pictures of the falls from a distance, and it was a very pretty waterfall (pictures will show up at some point hopefully).  We then ventured up towards the top of the falls.  On our way there was this giant tree that was more like a jungle gym for people of all ages.  It was really easy to climb, so Shelley and I were having fun climbing up, around, and through the tree.  After some play time in the tree we went to where the falls started.  We walked/hopped across some rocks and went towards the cliff overlooking the falls.  For a while I was just amazed at how cool it was to be up there near this beautiful waterfall, but after a while I got a little anxious being so close to the edge and went back away from the cliff.  It was pretty crazy how much water falls from this waterfall, but how little water looks like is feeding into the falls from the top. 

After some time, we went back towards town to get some lunch.  We went to this place called the Wiki Wiki Kitchen and got some laulau which is pork that is wrapped in some sort of leaves and steamed.  It was pretty good, but not my favorite thing to eat. After lunch we went back to the market to pick up some things that we weren’t sure we wanted earlier but now wanted to buy.  While in the market, Shelley decided she wanted some shave ice, so we went to an ice cream shop near the market.  While we were in there, there were some other SAS students who just bought some ice cream that was a bright purple color.  They told us that it was delicious and they highly recommend getting it.  The ice cream was ube flavored; ube is a purple yam and is similar to a sweet potato.  I ended up getting an ube ice cream cone, and I have to admit it was quite delicious!

We headed back to the ship around 4 because we wanted to make sure we got there with plenty of time to spare in order to not get dock time.  Dock time is a penalty that SAS gives for different reasons, but the main one is if you’re late getting back on the ship in a port.  What it does is it makes you have to wait a certain amount of time (correlated to the punishment) on the ship before you can get off in the next port.  Dock time can range from an hour to a day to an entire port, so it isn’t something I was looking to get.  When we got back on the ship I had plenty of time before we were scheduled to leave the port, so I utilized the opportunity that I still had cell service to facetime with my family and Keenan.  I miss these people dearly, so being able to talk to them outside of email made me very happy.  Tonight we leave to head towards Honolulu to stop for fuel, so that will be the last time I will have cell service and get to do things like talk to people back home on the phone.