Hawaii

We have made it to Hawaii! I was nervous to arrive because we had no real plan: eventually we needed to get to Hilo (on the other side of the island) and we knew that there was a bus that leaves at 4 pm to get there (though we didn't know from where)_. We asked a bunch of really nice security guards at the airport who all had vague ideas of what to do. We did end up figuring it out, but it meant a $30 taxi ride to a Kmart where we waited for 6 hours... we have so much luggage that we couldn't really go explore either. Oh well. We made it to Hilo, and we had a gorgeous 3 hour drive to get here. REALLY gorgeous! The Kona side was pretty dry and actually looked like the western side of South Dakota as far as the puffs of dried grass growing everywhere.

Hilo is a different story: it's very lush and green. Very tropical. Pramod keeps saying “I feel like we're in King Kong!”. There are lots of plants and birds that remind Pramod of India as well. We could see the golf course-green volcano from the dry side of the island and I can't believe that it's so different from side to side. Anyway, we haven't met our hosts yet—just saw a bit of the island.