Hawaii: Captain Cook monument, Black sand beach, Hilo (Day 9)

We started our 9th day in Hawaii with a 3rd visit to the Honaunau snorkeling spot. We hoped to see spinner dolphins, which we'd heard had been seen the day before early in the morning. We got there at 7am, but no dolphins showed up. We returned to the coffee resort and spoke with the owner when we checked out. He pointed us to another snorkel site that we had on our list: the Captain Cook monument. While we chatted, we noticed these coffee beans drying:

We hiked down the hill to the Captain Cook monument. It was a 2-mile hike each way, with a 1500ft elevation drop over lava rocks. We did it in our water shoes. Here's a few video clips, showing the trail progressing through different stages:

The Captain Cook monument and snorkel spot (Kealakekua Bay) were at the shore to the left of that last video. The site is rated as one of the top 10 snorkel sites in the world. Once we got to the bottom, there was snorkeling but also these large cliffs to look at. Along the surface of the cliffs there are holes dug into the walls where natives' bones were placed as a burial. The coffee estate owner told us that they'd attach a lower-class young boy to a rope, lower him down, and have him dig the hole and place the bones of an upper-class man in it. Then they'd cut the rope and the boy would fall to his death, with the promise that he'd reincarnate in a higher class. Not sure if that's really how the bones were buried, but it makes for a good story:

Once in the water, I immediately saw this Bluefin Trevally and eel together. I swam off because I assumed there would be lots more like it (nope).

It was neat for us to see the comparison of how the water looked from above with how the water looked once you were underneath:

And here's an action shot of me diving into the water:

When I finished snorkeling, we watched the waves roll in for a little bit and then hiked back up the hill (2 miles, again) to our car and headed for Hilo. Along the way there, we stopped at the black sand beach, which is a beach made of lava that's been reduced over time to the size of grains of sand. It was pretty neat!

In Hilo, we stayed one night at the Hilltop Legacy Vacation Rental in the Hilo Bay room. The room was small, but very comfortable with a great view of the town of Hilo and the ocean. It was here that Alisha and I saw our first-ever sunrise over the ocean, as we'd never been on an eastern coast at sunrise.

That night we got Vietnamese soup (pho), soft-serve ice cream, and then took this video of the tremendous number of frogs yelling at each other outside our hotel before we went to sleep:

LOTS of frogs