Day 6: wild animals and water...
Started our day with breakfast at JP Cafe just down the road from us in Volcano. I tried the local favorite, loco moco. Traditionally, loco moco is a bowl containing 2 scoops of sticky rice under a hamburger patty topped with a fried egg and smothered in brown gravy. The version I had substituted a breaded chicken patty for hamburger. It was actually quite yummy, if not the most healthful thing on the menu. But hey, it's better than Spam!
After breakfast, we visited the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo in Hilo (first 4 photos), where we saw a lonely white bengal tiger named Namaste, a pygmy hippo, a ferral pig, spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, all kinds of exotic birds and reptiles, tiny colorful frogs, beautiful flowers, and some extremely hungry mosquitos. Unfortunately, the mosquitos were the only creatures not in cages. 4 days later, I'm still scratching. And feeling sad for animals behind bars! We soothed ourselves with ice cream cones -- this time from Blane's Drive Inn.
Continuing on in the rainforest, we visited Rainbow Falls and Boiling Pots just west of Hilo (next 4 photos). There was no rainbow today. Too much rain and not enough sun? Anyway, the area was beautiful. A perfect appetizer for Akaka Falls further north (last 6 photos). On the way back through the funky little town of Honomu, we stopped for New York style pizza at Pizza Hawaii, picked up cookies and turnovers at Mr. Ed's Bakery & General Store, and once again ran into tattoo artist, David Ackerman, this time at Glass From The Past, his other business. Decided I really would find a picture of a happy face spider for him to tattoo on me!
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