on Ajuelos, raids and gates

Coimbra continues…

We had 1 hour to get ready. I didn't think twice and went out for a walk on the bank of the wide river which name escapes me. There are gardens here with unusual trees, African trees I think; I enjoy a short walk amongst the trees and a little bit in the town itself. Coimbra is a pretty city, dominated by the university on the hill. The streets are cobblestones but wide cobbles so it's not ankle disaster.

I got back to the room and got ready shower included in record time.

Later we all go and explore the main streets and looking for a specific restaurant. When we finely reached it, the place was closed. This is the day after Easter with some closed restaurants. We found something recommended nearby Solar de bakalahu where Bakala fish is on display as it is dried and salted. For some reason I ordered Bakala with some breading, one of their popular dishes. After the lunch fish, I had high expectations, but the bakala tastes like the sea, some fish have that, so no, this fish did not meet expectations. Afterwards I went on a solo tour of Coimbra, heading up the steep hill to the old campus area. Most of the streets were deserted and not an ice cream in sight to undo the Bakala sea taste. An hour later I returned to the hotel, brushed off the taste of the sea and went to sleep.

 

Come morning, we had breakfast with great view of the city then took a taxi up the hill to visit the university. The university is from the 13^th century but decently maintained. Many sculptures outside that could use some cleaning but still maintain quality.  We stopped by the medicine building where a smoker was standing right by the door, I think it was the dean, setting poor example.

We entered the main squares with a sculpture of king don something. There are many dons here on sculptures. Here, I enjoy the gates of these ancient building, very fancy, decorated and impressively large. We entered a room after some class just finished. The chairs are wooden and seem the kind that force you to stay awake and the cabinet held ancient books of law that were huge. We toured a few more buildings and churches and more gates of various sorts than made our way down to the main shopping street where we sampled a Portuguese delicacy once more. Pastais belem – some call it nata, it was creamy and delicious. We returned to the hotel and took off. At some other city, so called the Venice of Portugal, it rained and we skipped it and headed for Porto. After settling in, we went to a specific place, and our fierce navigator shay had the name of the place, but there was some electronics store with the same name… this is at almost three pm where everyone was starving. Just next to this electronics store, I saw a restaurant. I showed it to shay and he becomes speechless. Oh the look on his face was priceless. The other place was s. jose. Reminiscing when he flew to the wrong san jose, this will be forever remembered and I was laughing my A$$ off when I saw that name.

 

Lunch was fried fish and potatoes. Not bad and I also had another pastais/nata/Belem…  - but now it is time for dinner… updates to follow.

It was a partially rainy afternoon. We went to the main square with a typical European municipal building and a large statue in front with a wide street leading to it with more sculptures in the middle. We enjoy this fancy elongated square. It starts to pour short lasting heavy rain just as we reach the train station.

All over Portugal, you will fine art made of tiles. They are everywhere. Some small some large, some simplistic and some elaborate. Here the indoor of the train station are covered with impressive tile work (Ajulejos they are called). There is a large battle scene in one when the Moorish army surrenders to king so and so with very fine detail on these blue tiles. I snap every one of these works of art and we head for the cathedral nearby, when it rains harder for a minute or two and then we split. Some go shopping and the rest (which is I) go exploring in the rain. I reach the cathedral and go inside for heavenly shelter; it is less impressive than the one in Coimbra. Two minutes inside and the rain stopped, sun is out and I venture out to explore the city. I pass most of the main sites, large sculptures mostly, but also some large churches and palace looking buildings. I reach the river and head west along the river Riviera with shops and tourist spots on the one end and the wineries on the other bank. At some point, I decide to go up again. The main city is up on the hill, and it is a steep climb, a few minutes of going up and I reach the crystal palace, which is a greenish metallic dome with lots of glass windows all over it. There are gardens all around. I am here just in time for a quality Pokémon raid with some locals, there are about 8-10 of us and they decide to go as a private group, there is a code you share verbally. I am surprised a bit since you do that only if there are larger groups wanting to split and raid at the same time. But they show me what happens when you go public as it is called. Suddenly there are 15 extra people who are invisible. Spoofers. These people sit at home, or wherever and somehow change they gps location to be here, there are apps that can do that, and join raids. This raid location is special. Called an Ex-raid, that gives you invites for special ones. The last thing I want it getting an invite here since it will be a month from now. Something tells me I will. In the many months I am playing I received 2 such invites, one near home, the other in Minnesota where I raided one time in the right place. Ok, back to the real world.

These crystal gardens have many peacocks, I take some photos of them and with them and of trees in partial or full bloom and continue my exploration. I reach a garden with interesting art. 2 sculptures of stands with people on it and one of them is falling from laughing with legs up, they stole my concept. So I climbed on this sculptures and posed with them. There are a few art students here, they go around with large arts pad from drawing, one of them stared at me with wonder.

 

Afterwards I found a nice ice cream place and sample Portuguese hazel nuts and kept walking for another hour or so, seeing various sculptures and pokemon. Porto is nice to walk around with most building being older. It is like walking in Paris just not as grand, there is lots to see on many unknown buildings, little statues and different ajuelos. The city feels safe and clean.

After a shower and feet resting , we Ubered to the harbor to terminal 44-50 restaurant. The steak was pretty good but the sweet potatoes were impossibly soft and yummy.

on Belem , gates and San Jose

DHF150350_LocalizationTPROC_Rev03

Coimbra continues…

We had 1 hour to get ready. I didn't think twice and went out for a walk on the bank of the wide river which name escapes me. There are gardens here with unusual trees, African trees I think, I enjoy a short walk amongst the trees and a little bit in the town itself. Coimbra is a pretty city, dominated by the university on the hill. The streets are cobblestones but wide cobbles so it's not ankle disaster.

I got back to the room and got ready shower included in record time.

Later we all went and explored the main streets and looking for a specific restaurant. When we finely reached it, the place was closed. This is the day after Easter with some closed restaurants. We found something recommended nearby Solar de bakalahu where Bakala fish is on display as it is dried and salted. For some reason I ordered Bakala with some breading, one of their popular dishes. After the lunch fish, I had high expectations, but the bakala tastes like the sea, some fish have that, so no, this fish did not meet expectations. Afterwards I went on a solo tour of Coimbra, heading up the steep hill to the old campus area. Most of the streets were deserted and not an ice cream in sight to undo the Bakala sea taste. An hour later I returned to the hotel and  brushed off the taste of the sea and went to sleep.

 

Come morning, we had breakfast with great view of the city then took a taxi up the hill to visit the university. The university is from the 13^th century but decently maintained. Many sculptures outside that could use some cleaning but still maintain quality.  We stopped by the medicine building where a smoker was standing right by the door, I think it was the dean , setting poor example.

We entered the main squares with a sculpture of king don something. There are many dons here on sculptures. Here, I enjoy the gates of these ancient building, very fancy, decorated and impressively large. We entered a room after some class just finished. The chairs are wooden and seem the kind that force you to stay awake and the cabinet held ancient books of law that were huge. We toured a few more buildings and churches and more gates of various sorts than made our way down to the main shopping street where we sampled a Portuguese delicacy once more. Pastais belem – some call it nata, it was creamy and delicious. We returned to the hotel and took off. At some other city, so called the Venice of Portugal, it rained and we skipped it and headed for Porto. After settling in, we went to a specific place, and our fierce navigator shay had the name of the place, but there was some electronics store with the same name… this is at almost three pm where everyone was starving. Just next to this electronics store, I saw a restaurant. I showed it to shay and he becomes speechless. Oh the look on his face was priceless. The other place was s. jose. Reminiscing when he flew to the wrong san jose, this will be forever remembered and I was laughing my A$$ off when I saw that name.

 

Lunch was fried fish and potatoes. not bad and I also had another Belem…  - but now it is time for dinner… updates to follow

on Fish, cliffs and the fog

I woke early on the 2^nd day in Cascais and after a breakfast of eggs and feta cheese sandwich (it is not really feta, this is goat cheese I think and softer then feta, more like tzfatit cheese) I took a little stroll in the gardens and witnessed the roosters trying to wake up the neighborhood. Then we headed for Boca de roca which is the most western point in continental Europe. This place has a little passport to say you were there and is supposed to be very windy. The pretty green roads pass by the shore and was foggy at times but soon, we reached the spot and took some photos of the cliffs and the land marker there. There was no passport since the store was closed and the wind was not as strong as I was told. Still, added to the list of irregular points.

We drove to sintra and its magnificent palace but the palace was replaced! Instead was a mountain of fog. We stopped at a super market for supplies and a local pastry called bedlam, it is kind of like crème Brule but not exactly, a lot creamier and very tasty, we would eat few more of those in days to come.

We moved on to ovidos, which is a medieval town.

This used to be a city I am sure on medieval standards. The old town has a well intact aqueducts and impressive city walls that are well maintained. Inside there are only a few streets with shops, souvenirs and restaurants.

 This place annoys me, the country as a whole. They serve hot chocolate in the street! Instead of hot cider, they have hot chocolate!! Which is something I stopped drinking (including milk shakes). I finally get to a place that has hot chocolate as a common thing and I cant have it.

We walked to the cathedral on the far side and climbed on the walls for a view then settled down in some pub for very fresh orange juice. This mediaeval little town was perfect for my kinds of souvenirs.

We drove on and reached Nazare which is a fishing village , or was, and now tourism took over, but still a great place for fish. Nazare has a magnificent beach, both very long and very wide white sandy beach with lots of restaurants and cliffs behind. We stopped at a little place away from the promenade called rosa dos ventos on gil vicente street. Gil vicente happens to be a famous playwright in the 15^th century and I learned that the Portuguese pronounce my name as jill.

 

In rosa dos ventos they show the fish before and you pay by weight, we got a red snapper and some kind of other snapper, weighted 1.9 kg total and I loved it from first bite. I gave a review of "probably the best fish in the world" it was that good.

From the promenade, there is a train/cable car thingy that takes you to the top of the cliff. I walked it up, not that bad, but up hill is tiring, lucky the car waited at the top with some sugared almonds ready. The cliffs offer views of nazare and its magnificent beaches.

We reached Coimbra in the late afternoon. Coimbra is the Cambridge of Portugal. A large ancient university on the hill, by a wide river  , more on that tomorrow.. its night night time

on waiting , santini and hell's mouth

DHF150350_LocalizationTPROC_Rev03

Come on, come on come, come on , where are you???  I deplaned , got on the transport bus that seemed to drive around the terminal much longer than it should and was lucky to be by the door that opened first. I rushed up the stairs, did not use the escalator and still made it to immigration first. After hours on the plane all I want to do is walk. After the shortest immigration line ever in recorded history I reached my luggage carousel 1 minute after and now I am waiting… I hate waiting. Have I ever mentioned that?

Luggage after luggage…. … … …  for forty minutes!!!

 

At long last, and soon I am walking again, ordered my uber and after a few minutes of miscommunication, Carlos picked me up and we were on our way.

 

The outskirts of Lisbon from the air are lovely. Lush green hills with lots of agriculture surrounding little towns with red tiled roofs. But as Lisbon grew nearer, I got the feel of some of the cities outside Jerusalem. The same happened on the ground, while distinctly different, I do recognize some similarities with Israel. Portugal is by far greener.

Carlos my uberist asked if I want to take the faster highway or the prettier coastal road and soon on the coast, we were. We past the major soccer stadiums, he is a Benefica fan and he shared the names and interesting aspects of some of the towns we past.

Soon, we reached the hotel. To a non- ready room, I changed and began to finally walk.

The sky is blue and sunny today, though windy and not hot. As I was walking on the boardwalk by the Atlantic Ocean. The boardwalk is  made of small square rocks, decent to walk on but still some ankle warning every now and then. The coast itself is impossibly rugged. The rock is chiseled and broken by the winds and tides that walking there requires extreme care. Few minutes later I reached Boca de inferno (hell mouth). I purchased some water, as I was super parched.

I descended near the abyss of hell mouth for nice views of coastal Portugal with its many cliffs and waves crashing on them. The waves created a tunnel  and behind it is a deep chasm, hence the mouth part. The sounds of the waves crashing is one reason for the hellish name, the other you need to get closer. There are crevices in the rocks and when the waves are just right, they hiss, I say the name is fitting.

I walked back down and started exploring the city of Cascais itself, but I was get hungry by now as all I ate was some lame air plane cake and it was almost 2 pm.

Finally, my dad arrived at the hotel, I returned to pick him up then we headed for the city after a little tour in the art district and at long last we stopped at a little café in the square for a Feta sandwich. We toured the small and pretty city center and walked back up to hell mouth. Meanwhile other travelers had troubles of their own. Late luggage as well, car not being there in the rental place and later in the day we all met and walked back to town for dinner.

I ordered fish and shrimp, which were good, and lemon cake for desert was especially yummy.  Later we walked the now mostly empty shopping street but I did sample Santini's, which is rumored (by Carlos, the uberist) to be one of the best ice creams in Portugal. I did not try the competition, but the lemon was sour and the nata which is cream was divine. I concur with the assessment.

 

For those who know my ice cream flavors may be surprised by today's choice. The lack of chocolate.

Two and a half months ago, I decided to give up chocolate for good. I was somewhat of an addict to some kinds of chocolates including: Hershey, Nutella,   shachar spread, krembo, chocolate ice cream, kinder eggs, kinder Bueno, milka, chocolate cake , argaliot(with chocolate) , cariot cereal. Elit choclate, pesek zman, egozi, tim tams, mekupelet. Chocolate kisses , random cookies, brownies and custard (chocolate) . These are sadly some of the things I am saying good by to.. very sad.

All other sweets combined are perhaps 20% of my sweets consumption but now I need to find replacements, hence trying lemon ice cream perhaps for the first time.

After walking 12 miles today, I crashed … thus ends 1^st night in Cascais.

 

on decades, belts and on going goals

10 years ago, yesterday evening, I landed in cleveland to restart my life.

time flies way too fast. it is time for the yearly report.

Hiking remain a major part of the year and the Burton section is near complete- i have about 10 miles of boring road sections left to do. the remaining parts are also on less friendly roads for walkers, winding, narrow and without a side walk, so i have been avoiding them. we have started the next section. Mogadore. which also has plenty of country road sections. the roads are nice, but not as pretty as a park. tomorrow is a warm day , high 40s.. and i intend to hike the trail again. I discovered uber this year. instead of hiking there and walk back. but in these rural areas there is no uber so once again i am slowed, this trail will literally take forever, but i knew it was a long project when i started. i hope this year to finish mogadoe and remain parts of Burton and with it the small loop of the trail around north east ohio.

Orienteering was usually a regular summer activity, but last season I had just one event. every time something would come up. several sitter less days, fell on vacation, and twice kids fell asleep in the car on the way preventing my exploration. but so far 2018 had a good start 2 evens including today. 2 hours solo in the woods, love it.

other sports comes are rare intervals. 0 tennis last year,  very little volley ball. only 2 5Ks, not a single adventure race. a low activity summer and that always goes with weight gain for me, but last few months are trending downwards.

Mattan began going to Taikuandu and i would be sitting there with parents doing pretty much nothing and i checked and found that i can join the class. in the last 3-4 months  

I wear that thick white costume, kick and run with kids half my height. 

it was a strange experience as i was the only grown up in that class. there are family classes with other grown up, but none other in Mattan's class. it took few weeks of strange stares but the kids are and i are used to each other, i am no longer an alien.

I really enjoy this class. fighting was never a skill for me and it feel good to kick targets. i am now a yellow belts and next week should proceed to orange. Mattan will get his green. the belts change every to months or so, by the next report we both should be fairly high belts.

one other activity i started is a crossfit like activity. it started with a 6 weeks challenge- 3 work outs a week at 5am. yes, there is a 5 am now. i now do it regularly. this class has a lot of weight lifting, lunges, squats, box jumping, jump rope. these are the activities I tended to avoid as they would make me near asthma. for the 1st month. i would finish each class mildly hyper ventilating and for the rest of the day i would feel mild dizziness, but that is over now, i am getting back to shape and can lift a little more. the 5 am things is still tough to get used too but its the only time i can commit without some kids activity to prevent me from going.

in parallel, i added one items to the forbidden list. its over 6 years since i stopped drinking diet coke and with it all the other sodas. i do miss it sometimes, especially in commercials in movies but i remain sober.  i did have a little stint with ginger ale for  a while but i kicked it as well. and now almost 2 months ago i gave up something more painful, chocolate.

this is difficult as i realize how much of it i would eat. Shachar, nuttela, chocolate cake, chocolate mile, chocolate bars of various kids. krembo, hamen tachen and the list goes on. so yummi. the best thing is that i have not replaced it with any other bad things. so far i am holding on strong but it is more of a challenge since the kids love sweets and it is ever present at the house and well any desert. i drove by my favorite custard ice cream place and did not stop...

The last year had some new destinations. off season Sardinia and Corsica were interesting. These are beach destinations, but not in march. instead my brother shay and my dad explored green hills, wild flowers and swimming in semi frozen waters of 2 different seas- yes there is a "Tyrrhenian Sea".

in the summer , i discovered the whole of russia. well 2 days walking st, petersburg.

two days is enough, right, there is nothing more fore russia to offer.

we visited the hermitage museum, gardens and All samples all sort of russian food.

we revisited for a short while the cities of Helsinki, Tallinn. riga and stockholm but this time with kids activities.

kids museums and just walking the towns.

in the fall, i took a little detour from a work meeting and explored eastern Minnesota. not for long, i visited a state park and hike for a couple of hours. i was pretty much alone and i was a bit bear cautious. there are bears in Minnesota but i didn't know if they were in this area.  i explored a small town and took a legs up mandatory photo. not the most detailed of trips, but a state park count as minimal requirement to check off Minnesota. 

in the fall we visited another state for a more detailed trip and that was just incredible.

walking over hot lava, literally, over red hot lava. amazing.

we swam with dolphins. held an actual octopus and let it grasp my hand, swam with giant manta rays , swam in ancient water holes. yes  lots of swimming. other then swimming we ate lots of good food, hiked volcano national park, drove to the peak of the world's tallest mountain and enjoy the glorious sun together.  Hawaii is awesome.

we also had shorter trips, at friends in Toronto including yummi shwarma and a short hike. 

this year is the year of Pokemon. I definitely spent a significant amount of time in the game. according to the game i walked almost 1000 km with it. i dont think i walked this much, since some of it is driving , but i definitely walked several hundred k this year. i now passed the half way mark in the game, i think its the longest game i ever played, should be done in a year or so. 

my dungeons and dragons campaign is now also at least two years old. but we do not play often, once a month in a good month, i do enjoy it tremendously.

cooking was enhanced this year by following lots of Blue Apron recipes. Asparagus is no no longer a stranger on my plate and this year i sample and survived bok choy, rad cabbage, colored greens and tomatoes in new forms in soups. Red cabbage is something i actually enjoy now- well with the sauce at cheese cake factory. i also learned how to better cook chicken and fish.

in public speaking i had a slower year, reaching the end of the program pretty much and as before when i get to this state i slow down. i have one little project to finish and i am seriously procrastinating... more more for DTM.. 

our apple house is having a fun year. Alla decided to paint the house and this project is already past its due date but should soon end with gray walls. weman have strange tastes. while the work continues, siding fell out of the out side walls and next week that project begins, replacing all the siding, luckily insurance is paying for this. and at the same time, our driveway broke and there is a a hole there. in the summer we have to redo the drive way, expensive year. 

on the good side , spring is creeping. the trees begin to bud and tomorrow is a warmer day after the long and very cold winter, i am ready for spring.

that is it, its almost tomorrow by the time i finish this entry and it has been a long while since I last wrote.

but now its plans for next year.

add at least 1 us state- the missing states are few and far between, one more this year will be good. north Carolina, north Dakota or Alabama.

a new country is coming up very soon... another new one in the summer, and i need to find  way to add one more...

do at least 7 orienteering events this year and one adventure race

get my DTM

get to above blue belt

finish the Burton section, pass half way on mogadore section.

try Gaelic football (its some mix of soccer and rugby , they have a club here)

and hopefully be lighter next year then i am right now

another year/decade begins...

on ski, sleep and nothing to do

Yesterday morning, we woke up, began to franticly pack up bags, winter gear and other stuff, and headed for a ski vacation. it only took 2.5 hours to pack. almost record time.

It rained when we left and then turned into snow, but the road were good, except a foggy part for 20 minutes or so and the kids were behaved as long as they had peppa pig to watch. After almost 3 hours I dropped Alla and Mattan off, they went to sign Mattan in Ski school and Alla rushed to enjoy ski after three slope less years.

 

That left me, the oper with Tal. We checked in, unpacked the car and now i had the assignment to get little cranky to sleep. yada yada yada.. 3 hours later, now i am cranky and Tal is not sleeping. Well, i took him to an alpine slide. It is about 4 minutes away by car. He was sleeping heavily before we got there. Now i spent another hour of doing mostly nothing.an hour or so later, i was relieved and headed for the pool. Ski school was over by then and we spent 2 hours at the pool. This is an indoor heated pool-, which is linked to an outside heated pool next to a hot tub. Most of the group were at the hot tub, but i was on lifeguard duty as Mattan is for the first time without a floatation device. He swims well, but too early to be left alone. in this time, the kids, Mattan some of his cousin played, and moved from one pool to the other, then we all set up to eat left over Turkish food, before Alla's sister and her family left for home and we stayed the night.

 

On day 2 of this exciting, action packed vacation. We had decent breakfast, then Mattan went to ski school and i struggled to convince Tal to get dressed to go to the alpine slide again. This time he was awake, all dressed up in his fleece and little whole body snowsuit. It opened at 11 and we were there 10 minutes early, listening to the safety instruction repeatedly from the monitors. They finally opened and then we had to do a height check. Tal was an inch too short. Oh, the look on his face, his little heart was shattered.

 

I had to use the big guns. Let's go tubing and then ice cream.

 

Off we went to the tubing hill on the other side of town. this place has 2 hills, big hill for age 7+ and the little hill. guess which one was closed?

 

Now all i had was ice cream. We drove into town and found a chocolate store that sells ice cream.

Tal for some reason likes Vanilla. I do not understand it. I am a chocolate kind of person, but we each get his own. Half way through his cup, he puts it aside and wants to eat mine. His happened before and yet he still chooses vanilla! He got some of mine plus some green sugared lime slice. Out of all the assortments of chocolates in this fancy store, he chooses the only green one, odd kid.

 

We headed for lunch, after they busy day we had and got there 30 minutes later due to a series of unfortunate miscommunications, which is totally Alla's fault.

here Mattan after ski school was giggling at everything with Ryel (she is his third cousin or something like that) and Tal was playing hide and seek and laying down next to elevators, under tables and doing a pretty decent hiding job.

 

Mattan returned to ski school and Alla tried to get Tal to ski, we got as far as putting him in ski boots, he would not go on the skis and i kept doing nothing.

I did not even bring along my ski stuff, after the continued failure to ski. It is seriously boring to come to a ski resort and not ski. The other issue is that there is not much else to do here, especially since Tal is just under 38 inches tall.

Worse of all, this is not a new destination...

 

Now, Alla is at the pool with Mattan and i sit here with a finally sleeping Tal.

Another exciting staycation day.

 

Tomorrow we go back, we have a 3-hour window to make a 3 hour drive before the snows hit.

 

Mary X-mess if you celebrate it and all have a great 2018

 

 

 

on Mongus, littering and creation

We land in Honolulu but some air china plane is at our gate. We must wait 20minutes on the plane ,. Let me out!!!..  Finally we are allowed out. Alla rushes to the agent and find out that our connecting flight is still good. We relax in this layover.  I stretch my legs for a long while. we try airport Chinese food and feel as the Chinese have wronged us twice in an hour. Yucky meal. I find a small ben and Gerry's cup and it helps dilute the oily meal. As we attempt to board and the agent says "wait, I don't have you on this flight!". The nerves begin. It takes a few minutes to sort things out and we board but there is a question if our luggage made it.  They do not know.

 

We depart in Hilo and right away see our luggage offloaded. Sigh of relief..

 

Quickly we get the car and head south surrounded by lush greenery and the shadow of the mountain. It will be dark soon. We stop at a small local chain called Walmart and stock up on water bread, Nutella and other essentials. We continue south while the sun sets rapidly and now it is very dark. There is not much in the way of street illumination, later we would learn that this is done to reduce air pollution to allow the mega telescopes on the mountain a better view of the heavens.

 

The drive is slow here, 55mph is the max and most places the max is 43 or 35 for long stretches. The mountain roads are not built for speed, but the roads themselves are well maintained. We reach the first hotel, which to me is more of a fancy hostel. A large house with 9-10 guest rooms, shared bathrooms, and a kitchen. Nice rooms but the feel is of a hostel, which is fine by me.

 

We crash.

 

The alarm wakes us before 3 AM. I head to the kitchen and make egg sandwiches and Nutella Sandwiches; we pack some water and supplies and drive for 30 minutes in the low illuminated roads. At four a.m., we meet John from Epic Lava. He gives us a backpack with water snacks, flashlight and gloves. We follow him for a while. Park, then, climb aboard his van with some other travelers and continue on dirt roads. We disembark, and walk quietly, since here in the lava fields there are actual houses. The hot Lava is 40 minutes' walk away, but still.  Too close to the heat. It is a bit after 4 a.m, I am wearing short pants and a Sleeveless t-shirt, and it feels nice and warm. The cold is left back home. We begin the hike, first on a dirt road, then on the lava field.

 

The now basalt is a large black field of interesting rock formations, the ground is very uneven and we go up down and sideways. The high calcite content makes the field glow as if made of glass and it crackles below our feet. The stars are brilliant above. The milky way is clearly visible, every now and again we stop for everyone to catch up and not get lost.in the dark it all looks the same, but in the distance we can see the red lava glow at times.

 

Dawn breaks and shortly after, we reach the gates of hell. A few meters away we stop awestricken. This is creation itself. Rock is born here. The lava spews out of the rock, crackles and forms beautiful shapes. We are near the source of this 1000 plus Celsius material. The cold lava is black, the lava from yesterday is sliver and the fresh is red hot. It pours out, and quickly cools and becomes silver, which helps determine where you can step and where you would better not. It's cool 10 meters away and gets real hot the closer you get. At first, we take photos with the Lava behind us. However, we get braver and get closer and closer. We hop above tendrils of the not super-hot stuff. I stand above it and there is a warm tendril just below me, a wrong step here would be disastrous. Alla by accident steps on one of the cooler tendrils. She has good shoes and quickly moves her feet without touching the real thing.

 

At one point, I almost slip and land very close to the magma. There are lots of camera here and they take a falling photo of me.

 

The lava flow is not linear. It would flow from one point, stop and then flow from another, and every new flow is an owww moments for us.

We begin exploring the area, examining more lava flows and finding more angles to shoot. At one point we see an area between flows. I go there to get a shot of me in between the slow moving flows. Wow, the heat at this point is beyond imaginable. I can feel myself burning alive and stay there for merely seconds. Too hot for me.

 

A few times, we moved away, just a few meters to cool down. This experience is dehydrating. The sun comes out gloriously over the pacific and god like beams of light hit the ocean through the clouds. It is expected to get warmer still as the hot sun shines on the black rock and the entire lava field becomes a furnace, but the rare clouds in this area spare us. After an hour plus near creation everyone is tired. We wish pelee (the goddess here) a wonderful day and we make our way back through the lava fields, enjoying the interesting rock formations. The sun is out now, it is hot, and we are both out of water. Alla, which usually drinks very little, has finished her 1.5 liters bottle, so did I, but I drink a lot anyways.

On the way back John's wife Jessica who is our back escort on this trip and came with her 10 year old daughter entertains us. Apparently she was a movie stunt person and an equestrian gymnast- those people that see a moving horse, jump on it from side to side... crazy people  , well she stopped after shattering her hip. Now everyday they take people to the Lava.

 

We reached the car and I consumed a water bottle in seconds.

 

Btw, I am sitting here on the porch of a nice home we found with airB&B overlooking the pacific from the Kona mountain side. Dawn is breaking and another exiting day will begin.

 

However, back to the past…

 

After the lava, we went to Uncle something. I forgot the name. This appears to be some sort of hippy colony with various food huts serving more natural food. At first, I try a great chocolate shake made from local ice cream. So good after the burning morning. I stay away from the healthy foods, lots of avocado, whole food and the like. Alla gets a bizarre soup and past combo, devours some then sends me to get burgers…, which were very good.

 

From here, we drive to ahalanui Beach Park. We change our clothes in the bushes, cooled down in the outdoor shower and enter a small pond of sorts. This is a tidal pool. Ocean water comes in on top of the wave breakers and create small wave pool. Kids are here on little boards and other people snorkel in here. The water is soothing, but leg cramps force me to get out and stretch. We are here for 30 minutes in between fish and crabs. Then head for kapoho tidal pools. We park outside a village and walk in. here the natural rocks has formed a series of small pools. In less than a minute, I see a little eel in a water crevice, so pretty. We go in and out of the pools where people snorkel, but we do not have snorkeling gear. We do see some nice fish here and there. We enjoy this snorkless paradise for an hour and then walk back to the car. Next stop, we head for Walmart again to get snorkeling gear, we stop at a few other shops for more essentials and make our way back to the hotel. Due to roadwork, there is a little traffic jam and I drive through back roads. In this little narrow road with no houses I see a sign- no littering 1000$ fine. A hefty sign. A bit after on this same nowhere road I see the sign again- 1000$ fine no littering. The high fine made it memorable. Later we would see similar signs in other places but for less.  If you litter in a national park 500, but on this nameless street it is double.

 

We shower in the hotel and I manage a 20 minutes power nap. We barely get up and head for Volcano national park. It is about 4 PM now; we choose an easy and popular rim hike.  At first, you go by various smoke vents of Sulphur fumes surrounded by lush rain forest with beautiful ferns and trees, and then we reach the caldera rim of this huge volcano and see the lava fields below. We walk for close to 2 hours and it rains on the way back, but we are supplied with rain coats and short pants and it is not cold at all. The Plan is to eat at Thai Thai, which is surprisingly a Thai food place. However, starving Alla opts for the volcano café in the park, though in her research it did not get raving reviews, but hunger does the talking and this place is closer.

 

I like edamame, but it does not work with Sesame oil. I get fish and chips and get some kind of fish sticks, they were decent Alla does not enjoy her chicken much but she does like the desert. We asked the server for a list and she said Kona coffee brown. We ask again, Kona coffee brown is the answer - so Alla gets it and devours it, I do not touch coffee in any form. All and all, not a horrible place, but Alla suggested going to the Thai food place next…

 

We wake up at around 4 am. I wake up, make hard-boiled eggs, and sunny side up breakfast with the mandatory Nutella sandwiches we check out and head back to Volcano Park after stocking up with oranges and snacks. We drive to Kilauea iki trailhead and begin hiking the gorgeous rain forest trail along the crater rim. The forest is bright green with ferns and on occasion, we see the caldera below in the misty morning. We extend our hike to Biron ledge, a trail that goes in between 2 Calderas. We imagine a narrow trail in between the two, but this trail is disappointing. It is beautiful, but shows little in caldera views. We return to the Iki trail and descend 400 feet into the caldera itself. This is not the big caldera, that one is closed, unstable ground, deadly fumes and the like. As we descend, we leave the lush forest and enter a lava desert. On the way down Alla reminisces "do you remember when we went to that amazing lava, it was so beautiful and that mazing crackling". I quickly reply, "I remember it like it was yesterday" we laugh, it was the day before…

Here in the caldera, there are some bushes and trees here and there; finding a place to survive in the cracks of the basalt and the green to black contrast is incredible. The mile + long trail in the caldera itself takes us from side to side and we can see huge cracks and strange rock formations. Nature's power in all its glory. There is smoke from various vents and we walk between the Ahu trail-markers (Ahu is a cairn- or a pile of rocks). We reach the far side and ascend up the lush forest once more.

 

We stop for a little snack and rest and I see Alla toss something on the ground. I ask what that was and she lies, something fell from the tree…  I get a closer look and I see something not from a tree.

I do not like littering, especially in a park so I chastise Alla for crimes against nature and give her a 1000$ fine…

 

We reach the top and go to another small trail of lava Tube. A large cavern, fairly rounded where Lava used to flow then slowly make our way on the rim path with spectacular views now that the mist has cleared.

 

We reach the car and take the rim drive. This road passed through many craters and lava field. This is the stop, take a picture and move on sort of road. Therefore, we do what tourists do and take photos. I nearly fall into one of the craters at one point, so many of them, almost missed the one.

 

We continue along this road with many stops and trailhead, the park is mostly on the mountain, but some of it is closer to the coast and we drive down to the coast and suddenly without the clouds protection it is boiling hot. We chose a short 1.5 miles hike to see petroglyphs. It is so hot that my feet are burning. We reach the end where the Polynesians carved art in the basalt. Lots of circles, perhaps the sun, and some drawings of people. It is unclear how and why they lived here, so hot. We go back to the car and again I finish a bottle in seconds. We continue to the end of the road and the ocean. There is no beach here. Instead, you have cliffs of basalt eaten away by the massive waves. The waves crash to the rocks and spray up 20-30 meters above. We take photos of this massive force in full display. There is a local Popsicle stand of sorts here and we devour the most expensive Popsicle in history. There is a ranger here telling people to slow down, she is guarding a pair of Nene's. There are lots of Nene crossing sings all over this park. Nene is a goose and we see a couple resting in the shade. They are an endangered species so the ranger is doing angels job in the scorching sun.

 

We would see a few more Nene's but I do not have a good shot of this white goose. There are also tons of Mongos here; we usually see them next to trashcans. This small khaki white predator is fast moving and does not like to pose. Nevertheless, they are abundant, I am sure I will get a good one.

 

We drive back the rim road up the mountain and head for lunch. Now we are wiser and go to the Thai place. Finally a good meal. I think this is the first time I am eating spring rolls (since cabbage is a new discovery), they are great with the nut sauce and later I devour my Pad-Thai and Alla consumes her egg-fried rice. Alla orders some mango desert and I am unable to withstand the lava cake desert, so fitting here.

 

We hit the road west along the southern side of the island, where volcano fields are replaced with lush green, and here and there, you can see horse and cattle farms. We pass by the most southern bakery in the US, they have a sign saying so. Alla Gets bread pudding. Then we pass the most southern dentist in the US. I nap a little as Alla drive to the most southern point in the US.

 

To be continued..