Hawaii, a different world

from San Francisco to Honolulu

After the usual 11-hour flight we arrive in California, but this time we don't stop, and after a somewhat too-long wait we set off for Oahu, the island of Honolulu. Another five or so hours of flight and by evening we're in the capital. There's a 12-hour time difference from Italy, but we're not very tired. Maybe it's the 30 degrees, or the sound of the sea that can be heard from our hotel in Waikiki, but instead of going to sleep we go out for dinner even though it's already 22:00 local time. A couple of hours out and about, a first not-very-Hawaiian hamburger, and then we're ready for bed.

Pearl Harbor and Honolulu

Even though the beaches are inviting, after the wonderful walk on the sand at dawn, we decide to devote the day to visiting Pearl Harbor, the port that was the site of the Japanese attack on 7 December 1941. We get there by public transport, which I don't recommend because the bus stops every 10 metres and it takes over an hour to cover 7 miles, but the visit is beautiful. They take you by boat to see the USS Arizona, sunk with over a thousand sailors in 20 metres of water. It has become a national monument, a touching place that marks our first day in Hawaii. In the afternoon we go back to Waikiki, where we take our first dip in the warm, clear waters of the Pacific. In the evening, a truly excellent dinner in Chinatown. But it wasn't a Chinese restaurant...

The next day, already tired of the buses, we rent a car and start driving around the island. It's very small, and you can practically see all of it in a single day. There's also time to enjoy the beaches: Sunset Beach is beautiful, but the others are no less so. We even swim in a freshwater pool, complete with a waterfall, in the Pupukea Paumalu Forest Reserve. It seems like a dream, but it isn't. In the evening, tanned and tired, we go back to Honolulu. The next morning we fly to Big Island.

A half-hour flight and we're in Hilo, one of the two largest cities on the island. It's very hot, there are very few people around, it really feels like being far from the usual tourist circuits. This island is different from Oahu, it's volcanic, it has many pitch-black beaches, you can see jets of lava pouring into the ocean and in some places, while swimming, you're more likely to encounter an enormous turtle than a human being. It's a wonderful island, which bears many traces of the Hawaiians' and Polynesians' native culture. Of course, especially on the northern leeward coast, there are also beautiful light-sand beaches. Impossible to resist and not dive into the blue, welcoming water.

After sleeping in Captain Cook, in the south-west part of the island, in a fairly nice b&b (Dathird), we move further north, to the Waipio Valley, where we sleep in another decidedly very nice b&b (Waipio Wayside). The area here is very green, it rains a lot and you can see it. It's raining on our heads too. Before getting there we had visited Kona, another nice town, with restaurants and shops. There's practically nobody around. As we come down from Waipio towards Hilo, we come across some fantastic valleys with waterfalls (Akaka and Rainbow Falls), rocky coasts and a roaring sea. Hilo is a somewhat freaky place, where you happen to meet unusual people. But the atmosphere is always very friendly, even though the heat and humidity, at least for me, are far too strong. Daniela, on the other hand, is completely at ease in this climate.

On the evening of the 24th a plane takes us back to Honolulu, from where we set off again for San Francisco. We arrive in California on 25 September at 6 in the morning. The second part of the trip is about to begin, 17 days long. But that's another story.