It was too late to update my blog from last night, so I decided to save it for today. Last night, around 2:30am, Gordon and I were hungry. So we walked around the neighborhood around our hotel, looking for some where that was still open and sell food. We ended up walking pretty far to a 24 hours Jack in the Box. I got 4 tacos and a chicken sandwich and Gordon bought something called a taco-nacho. He didn't like the looks of his food, so we traded (a chicken sandwich and a taco for the taco-nacho).
We paid $1 for breakfast this morning! We noticed this seafood/steak truck near our hotel with a sign for 99 cents breakfast. Well, we finally woke up early enough to try it (thanks to Eugenia and Mary calling me... no sarcasm intended... appreciate it keke). It was so cheap, Gordon and I each bought two.
After breakfast, we headed off to a bus to go to turtle beach (aka Laniakea beach). It was quite a bus ride. Not only was it 2 hours long, we had a lot of mishaps. For instance, we got off too early because we saw a lot of other tourists getting off (we ended up in a small town called Hale'iwa, which wasn't all too bad since we bought snowcones [Gordon got a banana and I got half pina colada half melon] from a place called Matsumoto's General Store on this very very hot day).
And since we were already off the bus, we decided to explore the shores of Hale'iwa. It was low tide, so we were able to tide pool for a little. We saw some mussels, snails, limpets, and fishes. There were also chickens in a park that we walked through. Eventually, we got back on the bus to continue to turtle beach (someone told us it was about 3-8 miles away). More bus trouble, we missed our stop without knowing. We had to get off and wait for another bus to backtrack to turtle beach.
We finally made it! It was quite an ordeal, but we made it!
And it was totally worth the hassle!! We saw 7 Hawaiian green sea turtles (140-200lbs. each) basking in the sun on a wave-protected shore.
There were volunteers who answered questions and made sure the public kept a fair distance away from the turtles.
Some of the turtles had tracking devices to monitor the path that they'll take on their trip to their northern breeding ground.
They were identified by markings on their carapace, shell shape, and (sadly) past injuries (this one is missing part of its left hind leg).
One little fellow threw sand onto its carapace to combat the sun (though it still wanted to lay on the sand rather than be in the water).
Definitely a hot day, my face is so sweaty.
After hanging around turtle beach for about an hour (looking at the turtles and talking with the volunteers), we headed south for about a mile, looking for the set of "Lost" (that crappy tv series). Along the way, we ran into two more Hawaiian green sea turtles, and these guys weren't guarded! Also, it was a pretty deserted area, only Gordon and I were around these turtles. We took some pictures and videos before moving on to the Lost set. One of the video was of the turtle going back into the water. And here a picture of the sand print that it left behind.
These are just random pictures of the shoreline before reaching the Lost set. It was very rich in algae that I think are growing on volcanic rock. Dead crab. Green to red algae transition line.
Ahhh, the Lost set (I couldn't care less because I have standards when it comes to tv show, but Gordon's a huge fan).
Oh, what's that? Another sea turtle basking in the sun a little farther south from the Lost set? Yup. Here's another shaky running video a sea turtle.
After finishing with the picture taking of the Lost set, we started heading back to turtle beach (to the bus stop). We ran into more sea turtles! 3 more to be exact. And they're feeding in shallow water!!!!!! I was able to record a video of them biting algae off the rocks, chewing it, while bouncing up and down in the wave-ridden water.
The 2 hours bus ride back home got us really hungry, so we decided to have dinner as soon as we got off the bus (Ala Moana mall). I had Panda Express and Gordon had steak and rice. Then we went back to our hotel to shower, watch tv, REST (omg, my legs are so dead), and blog.
It was too late to update my blog from last night, so I decided to save it for today. Last night, around 2:30am, Gordon and I were hungry. So we walked around the neighborhood around our hotel, looking for some where that was still open and sell food. We ended up walking pretty far to a 24 hours Jack in the Box. I got 4 tacos and a chicken sandwich and Gordon bought something called a taco-nacho. He didn't like the looks of his food, so we traded (a chicken sandwich and a taco for the taco-nacho).
We paid $1 for breakfast this morning! We noticed this seafood/steak truck near our hotel with a sign for 99 cents breakfast. Well, we finally woke up early enough to try it (thanks to Eugenia and Mary calling me... no sarcasm intended... appreciate it keke). It was so cheap, Gordon and I each bought two.
After breakfast, we headed off to a bus to go to turtle beach (aka Laniakea beach). It was quite a bus ride. Not only was it 2 hours long, we had a lot of mishaps. For instance, we got off too early because we saw a lot of other tourists getting off (we ended up in a small town called Hale'iwa, which wasn't all too bad since we bought snowcones [Gordon got a banana and I got half pina colada half melon] from a place called Matsumoto's General Store on this very very hot day).
And since we were already off the bus, we decided to explore the shores of Hale'iwa. It was low tide, so we were able to tide pool for a little. We saw some mussels, snails, limpets, and fishes. There were also chickens in a park that we walked through. Eventually, we got back on the bus to continue to turtle beach (someone told us it was about 3-8 miles away). More bus trouble, we missed our stop without knowing. We had to get off and wait for another bus to backtrack to turtle beach.
We finally made it! It was quite an ordeal, but we made it!
There were volunteers who answered questions and made sure the public kept a fair distance away from the turtles.
Some of the turtles had tracking devices to monitor the path that they'll take on their trip to their northern breeding ground.
They were identified by markings on their carapace, shell shape, and (sadly) past injuries (this one is missing part of its left hind leg).
Definitely a hot day, my face is so sweaty.
These are just random pictures of the shoreline before reaching the Lost set. It was very rich in algae that I think are growing on volcanic rock. Dead crab. Green to red algae transition line.
The 2 hours bus ride back home got us really hungry, so we decided to have dinner as soon as we got off the bus (Ala Moana mall). I had Panda Express and Gordon had steak and rice. Then we went back to our hotel to shower, watch tv, REST (omg, my legs are so dead), and blog.
Another great blog entry! It's awesome that turtle beach has volunteers to both protect them and answer questions. I'm also very jealous you got to see the lost set!
ReplyDelete=DDDD
ReplyDeletei'm SO JEALOUS about the turtles!!!
gordon was very animated when we got to the lost set.
ReplyDeletei was very animated when we found sea turtles =D
more videos are up, and i think i still have 2 more left to upload