Hilo, HI and points around

Pretty drizzly this morning but it still doesn’t need shoveling. It apparently rained all night. We set off early for Hilo via Saddle Road as we were not sure how long it would take. The vegetation changed as we went inland – from volcanic desert to very lush and green.  After about an hour we arrived at Hilo and the sun was shining. We will go via this shorter route to Volcano National Park in a day or so.

Our first stop was the Hilo Farmers Market.

Hilo Farmer's Market

If we lived here I could see this being the only place to purchase produce. We bought two large papayas for twenty five CENTS total, not each – could have had a huge bag for $2. Also nice tomatoes – bag of 5 - for $2, huge avocado for $1, etc. We also bought some Hawaiian “buns” for our lunch – not sure what they were called but they were very yummy stuffed with pork and sweet potato. We also saw some mushrooms for sale (in plastic bags!). They were cultivated oyster mushrooms but when we asked the lady what they were she very indignantly answered – “ mushrooms” (duh). We don’t really think she knew what kind they were.

Our next stop was the University of Hawaii at Hilo as Doug wanted to purchase a book and hat – no score on either but we did have a wander around the campus. They were just opening a new book store so it was pretty busy.

From the University we made our way to the Mauna Lau macadamia nut factory where we had a tour and made some purchases. These little things can be addictive. 

Macadamia nuts on the tree

By the time we finished there it was getting close to lunch and we decided to drive to the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Gardens for a picnic and tour. It was truly amazing with hundreds of beautiful flowering plants – many introduced from Mexico, Brazil, Thailand (what most of us would think of as “house plants”).

Beautiful flowers

We had a rainy drive back to the condo. On the way we stopped trying to get some local fish for dinner but no luck. Everything is transported in. We found this hard to believe so did some research and sure enough there is very little commercial fishing here – lots of sport fishing but not much for sale. Sounds weird for an island out in the ocean but true.

We are looking forward to a nice dinner with some of our market purchases.

Aloha - its very nice here!