This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

This day has been so amazingly fantastic! Hawaii is paradise. I, Caroline and Jair spent the day at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve with is a very pretty lagoon on the east side of Oahu. You have to pay an entry fee of $7.50 and then watch a movie about how to behave around the reef that’s in there. Look but not touch and don’t feed the animals pretty much.

We took the bus out there and it went really smoothly. 30 minutes and the AC was perfect in the very warm morning. $2.50 for every ride out here and you can go wherever you want to on the island.

When we got to the bay we were awestruck. My jaw was at my knees. It was sooo beautiful!! Just imagine those big mountains from the Jurassic Park movies, the ones formed from lava. They were circling the turquoise water and you could clearly see where there were sand bottom and reef. A lot of palm trees and mongooses running around on the grass next to the sand. Mongooses are very common here apparently. They are really cute. I tried getting a photo of them, but they were fast.

Anyway, we stood up on the side of the lagoon and took a lot of pictures and then walked down the steep hill into the lagoon. The sand wasn’t perfect, it was kinda rough actually. So my soles under my feet hurt now. But it’s okay, we’re not gonna do a hike until Saturday.

We did a lot of snorkeling but after the Red Sea in Egypt I wasn’t impressed. There were a few cool fishes. I recognized them all from Egypt and they are pretty. But the reef just looked dull and grey. I bought an underwater camera yesterday though so we took a few pictures today and will save the rest of them for Maui when we are gonna go snorkeling with turtles!

When we weren’t in the 80F water we just hung out at the beach. It was exhausting snorkeling without fins so I think I actually fell asleep a few times. I had sunscreen with factor 70 and I only got burned in my face where I forgot to reapply it a second time. And I think I got a lot more tan after today. I’m not gonna be recognizable when I go back to Sweden if it continues like this.

The sun disappeared behind the mountain at like 4:30pm so that’s when we went back to Waikiki to shower and get ready for dinner. We went to Tiki’s Grill and Bar where Crystal (Chad’s cousin) works. I had coconut shrimp and it was really good. It was a very tiny portion, so we decided to have ice cream at Cold Stones after. Marshmallow ice cream with Heath bar as a mix-in was pretty good!

We sat on a bench by the beach while eating our dessert and then went back to the hostel to get some sleep. It’s exhausting snorkeling and lying in the sun a whole day!

On tomorrow’s agenda is Pearl Harbor, Honolulu downtown and surfing at Waikiki Beach and later fireworks at the same beach.

80F (26C) in the water isn’t all wrong :). The air temperature was the same! On the way back to the hostel after our dinner we saw Boo Boo the Amazing Guinea Pig. I wonder how that guy made the guinea pig so obedient.