Visiting Hilo, Hawaii Island/Carlos Pueblo

Visiting Hilo, Hawaii Island/Carlos Pueblo

The cruise ship left Kahului, Maui Island, and sailed to Hilo, Hawaii Island,

the big Island. I have been to Hawaii several times yet never been to the

big Island before this trip, a sorry regret. Hilo, I think that is a Japanese

name for a wild goose or very broad and big, is the second large town of

Hawaii Islands just next to Honolulu, with almost 44,000 residents in the

neighborhood which has not yet incorporated as a township or city. In

the May Lei Day of 2011, I was in Waikiki to join the celebration and read

an article with a photo with a group of charming Hula dancers at Hilo and

regret again that I did not put an effort to save that copy, even though

I did attempt to search that Hawaiian newspaper. This time, I didn’t meet

Any of the local dancing yet I did visit the old town Hilo and observe the

snow cap of Mt. Mauna Kea, 13,796 ft or 4,207 m. taller than Mt. Jade in

my mother nation of Taiwan.

We took a free shuttle van from the dock to a farmers’ market not far away.

It was early and several sections were not open. I saw some tropical produce

on the stands which I could identify with Taiwanese names. A vender kindly

encouraged me to taste a Longan fruit and was good yet I was shy away due to

the price per pound, $2 for loose one $3 for fresh one on the fruits branch. Later,

Amy bought a pound from Kona, Big Island, for $.25 a pound and In Oahu markets

all charged more than $4.5 a pound. I could pick the fruits at my hometown free

when I was a boy at my hometown and I had bought $1 a pound of Cantonese

longans in Vancouver, Canada twice with some unforgettable memory that I had

to consume or abandon them before I reentered to the State of Washington.

We walked along the beach front old town streets one by one. It was early and only

the visitors from the ship; therefore, the old Hilo looked lonely. On the third level

street of the old town, we began to see some newer building and residential area

with newer facility, then I found a white spot on the summit of a mountain group.

I asked two people at least to solve my doubt, snow on the mountain in the tropical

Hawaii? Both answered firmly and encourage me to rent a car and drove to the top.

My binoculars did show 4 white installations on the top and I could view the summit

clearly. I thought of Mt. Jade in Taiwan which I never had had opportunity to view the

famous snow cap during winter time. Maunna Kea erects not far from Hilo while Jade

is hide deep in the central Taiwanese group of mountains.

After we left Hilo, the Captain directed us to view a live volcano, a red lava out of the

sea surface as a part of Mt. Kilauea, from a distance at night about 10:45 pm local

exactly.