Dozing Sea Turtles on the Black Sand Beach

We only have a few more days on the Big Island before the transition day to Maui, and we have had some incredible experiences, such as the one above taken at the Kilauea Caldera. However, of all the amazing things we've seen, yesterday seems to take the cake in my mind. We left Kilauea Military Camp early on Saturday to head to Punalu'u Black Sand Beach. True black sand beaches only form when lava flows directly into the ocean. The lava cools so rapidly that it splatters and sizzles forming tiny bits of lava (sand). While this is very cool in and of itself, the visitors to the beach are what really make this place incredible. Punalu'u is the only beach in the world (to my knowledge) where sea turtles come out of the water by their own free will to bask in the sun on the beach. Sea turtles are large, heavy animals that are graceful and free-flowing in the ocean, but clumsy and VERY slow moving on land. Over time, most sea turtles around the world "learned" not to go out of the water where they wouldn't be able to get away from predators quickly and easily. However, since Hawaii is the most remote land mass in the world, there are no predators other than humans. The only native animals that live on the land here are birds, insects and other invertebrates. While scientists don't know exactly why sea turtles come up to lounge around on Punalu'u beach, my hunch is that they somehow "know" it's safe to come out of the water here.

There are pretty strict regulations in place to protect the sea turtles. Here's our guide discussing the reasons why we have to stay 15 feet away from the turtles at all times.




We also went on a few amazing hikes over the past few days. The picture below was taken on a one mile hike through a bird sanctuary.




This picture was taken at the Kilauea Iki trail that runs through an old lava lake (4 miles.)



I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. We're going up to the Astronomical Observatory on the top of Mauna Kea (one of the five volcanoes on this island.) We'll stay up there to watch the sunset from above the cloud line. Lots of pictures to follow!