Aloha from Hawaii

 We jumped into the Big Island feet first.. or shall I say with our thumbs up? Turns out we messed up big time by not renting a car but luckily the big island is hitch hiker friendly, as the locals say, "It`s the island way". This became our only mode of transportation for our first three days here. We met some interesting characters along the way and they all got us to our destination in one piece. Some left us with a better story than others.
                                            

Our hostel was cool but the guy running it gave us some poor information which led us in the wrong direction more than once. Although he did invite us onto his roof top to check out the fireworks on July 4th!!

Here are some photos of the first activity we did on the Kona side of the island. The hike is called Captain Cook. Strenuous and nasty is how I would describe this 6km hike. It is rated as moderate and it has a 1500 foot ascent back to the top.  Our arms and legs were all beaten up from walking through the tall grass but it was well worth the ocean view at the bottom. 

But then Mike sustained his first injurty of the trip... Oops. Don't worry folks, he is going to be just fine.. I won't need to find myself a Hawaiian equivalent.

And here is the reason for it all: