Pele hates the Hills

Most of you probably know that Pele is the Hawaiian goddess of fire and volcanoes. (No relation to the soccer player.) Well, something that we did in our past must have ticked her off. (Possibly it was our love of Smokey the Bear.) She really got back at us in the visit to our first port, Hilo, Hawaii, on the Big Island. Arriving there Jan. 25 after more than seven days at sea, we were going to do this special volcano experience we researched on the Internet. You take a small boat trip out to the area where the lava from Kilauea volcano is falling into the sea. The best time is at dawn when it makes for some great pictures.

The boat trip costs from $80 to $140, depending on the time of day you do it, but it seemed like one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences, particularly since the Volcanoes National Park (VNP) rangers are keeping people farther from the lava flows on land because of accidents. (“George, go stand next to the lava flow while I take your picture. A little closer George. Ooooops!”)

The first thing we learned when asked about the boat trips was that the lava stopped flowing into the sea about 20 days before we arrived. As one ranger said. “It just disappeared. It’s down there someplace, looking for a new place to come out. It’ll come out someplace; we just don’t know where.” (With our luck, it’s probably flowing into our house’s basement right now.)

So with that plan foiled, we rented a car and drove up to VNP. We had been there about 10 years ago with the kids, but changes have occurred. Back then we hiked on the crater’s floor; now you can’t do that because a new volcanic vent -- now about 200 yards in diameter -- opened in 2007 and is sending large amounts of sulfurous steam into the air and across Crater Rim Drive, the 11-mile highway that circles the crater. So the road is closed. We were going to have a nice lunch at the Volcano Hotel, inside the park on the crater rim. It was closed for renovation.

The prevailing winds usually blow the volcano sulfur/steam north. On the day of our visit, the winds had shifted, so we were smelling the stuff throughout much of our visit. In fact, it gave me a sore throat, which I had for a couple of days.

So, Pele, whatever we did, we’re sorry. We’ll sacrifice a goat or our cat or something to you when we get home. (Correction: Luana nixed the cat.)