Volcanoes and Manta Rays

Today, the entire family piles into the two rented jeeps and heads off to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.   We are going to see the Kilauea caldera, currently the most active volcano.  The drive is about 2 ½ hours long on a winding, two lane road.  We go from sea level to over 4,500 feet.  It is 65 degrees at the caldera.  The volcano is quiet and boring.  We wanted to see lava.  There are a lot of steam vents along the way.  We stop at the Jaggar Museum to check out some of the history of the volcano and the seismographs.  There we eat sandwiches made at the house.

Then we head east to walk through the Thurston Lava Tube. The forest ferns are so reminiscence of Jurassic Park.  They are very talk and large.  The tube is not that long of a walk.  My brother made a cute video with commentary.  Unfortunately, half the sound is missing, but the pictures are not! 

We stopped on the way back to the house to visit the black sand beach. There were more sea turtles to watch. The water was darker and therefore any photos didn't really show the turtles to their best advantage.

The reason we leave the volcano so soon is that the adults will be getting ready to go swimming with the manta rays this evening.  The adults, less my dad, drive off to the harbor to board a boat.  The company Denise chose was Neptune Charlies.  They have scuba diving and snorkeling.  We went snorkeling at night.  I highly recommend this company.  There is a 25 minute boat ride out to the dive site.  Other companies who carry snorkelers and divers will also be there.  The guys on the boat are funny and knowledgeable.  The captain positions the boat a little ways from the other boats.  We get our safety talk and then hop into the water.  Mark was the first one in with the Go Hero camera.  He gets the shock of his life – a manta ray comes up to feed as he looks down for the first time. 

The boat is positioned for a short private viewing of three manta rays feeding.  It is amazing!!!!!

Then everyone moves over to the main attraction with the other boat participants.  There are divers at the bottom of the ocean with lights pointing to the surface and snorkelers at the surface pointing their lights down.  The light attracts the plankton on which the manta rays feed.  The night we go, 24 manta rays show up for feeding.  All of this reminds me of squirrels trained to come when the humans put out food.  All of the 45 minutes in the water was amazing! 

We are all tired from the swim, but exhilarated.  I highly recommend taking Neptune Charles out for a night dive with the manta rays.