Day 171. Back to Hilo and on the way to Mexico

An excellent idea to rent a cabin! It rained all night, and pretty hard, but I was as dry and warm as ein Kucheltier. I did linger at breakfast, not sure I wanted to spend the day driving under the rain, but my flight did not leave until 4 pm, and I felt guilty wasting half a day that could otherwise be devoted to seeing something new.

So I went down to Hilo, with the intention of finding the charm that so many tourists find in Hawaii. Fortunately the sun made its appearance, so I was treated to the brilliant green of the east coast, its rivers, and the occasional waterfall.



Hilo is a quaint town, and in the 1930’s was the in place to visit. And then it was hammered by a couple of tsunamis, which did much damage because of the funnel-shape of the bay, and the relatively flat profile of the shore. Since then tsunamis have been very much in the conscience of the city inhabitants, who give me the impression to be ready to pickup and go at a moment’s notice. They have a very nice, albeit small, Tsunami Museum, and the old town is still formed by rickety wood buildings of post-1975 vintage. But it is a quaint town, with lots of artsy people and beach bums, reminiscent in some ways of Key West or Isla Mujeres.



Finally the time came to take my commuter flight to Honolulu, and in about an hour I will be boarding the flight to San Francisco. I will have a 5 hour layover in San Francisco and then will continue forward to Mexico. I look forward to seeing Faby at the San Francisco airport, but have mixed feelings about this layover. Since I have come back to the Bay Area, does this mean that I have indeed completed my tour around the world?

Then again, Mexico is a beautiful country well worth writing about. I think I will keep this journal going until Day 180. It would be a pity to stop being so close to the goal I had set for myself.