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The agenda for our trip was divided into four days, these four days contained a 12 mile hike, lava, water falls, and a whole lot of history. History about the Hawaiian volcanos, the Hawaiian culture, the Hawaiian myths and legends, and the Hawaiian lifestyle today. From the moment you landed to the time you left, it was all planned accurately and properly. This didn't include some other cool nearby scenes or hikes, so if you wanted to check them out you would have to go before or after the trip. One of the main reasons i decided to arrive a few days earlier before my class.
Everyone was present and ready to go by 9 AM and we hit the road on our way to the Kilauea Caldera, where we had our own private tour guide waiting for us. Our tour guide (who will remain anonymous) was a man who has studied volcanism for more than 20 years and continues to do so. We began by walking down towards the Caldera and taking a detour on the opposite side to examine some eruption aftermath from the past and the how its impacted the island since. After about three to five hours hiking on the side of small mountains, we headed back. On the way back we learned about fragile volcanic fiberglass or Pele's hair and how much of a pain it could be if it gets stuck in your sock or around all around your hand. When you look at it close up, it looks exactly like blonde hair curled up, like when a girl removes the hair off a brush.
On our second day, my favorite part of the trip, we explored everything volcanoes had to offer us. We started at the Kaumana Caves, there are two ways to go when you first head down the stairs, left or right, the left was a shorter distance compared to the one on the right, which involved headlamps, gloves, good footwear, and going through small confined areas. Our assistance professor and seven other classmates, including myself, decided to take the longer and more challenging cave of the two. After about 25 minutes of crawling, crouching and stumbling, we came across several purple spray painted signs that said "turn around", "let the light guide you", and "stop". We contemplated about going down a little further after we reached the "stop" sign for about 30 seconds and soon discovered why the signs were so aggressive. We found "Gnarnia!"Deep in the Kaumana Caves, we found Gnarnia. We couldn't figure out why such a sign made us so happy, whether it was because of childhood movies or because of how much effort it took for us to get to this point, we were happy.
Later that day, we headed towards Hawaii Volcano National Park and mentally prepared ourselves for the 12 mile hike (6 miles out and 6 back) to Kilauea's lava flow. When we arrived, we immediately began our hike, passing multiple bicycle rental shacks and refusing to take the easy route there (our professor didn't let us). We started off at a nice good pace and got to see some really neat houses that were set on top of old lava flows that were now hard as rock. After six long miles and one dead music speaker, we reached the lava just before the sun set. I think we took more pictures than talking about the flows themselves but I wasn't complaining. We stayed to witness the lava at its brightest at night and observe something a sight so breath taking. Just before it began to slowly rain upon us, we enjoyed a nice warm packed dinner on top of lava that was about 10 feet below us, crazy to think about. Everyone dreaded the hike back, due to its horrible terrain of old lava flow and low visibility. By the time we arrived back to our hotel, almost everyone was sound asleep and exhausted from the hike that the thought of showering sounded exhausting, yes, I showered.