On this visit, there were four cruise ships
that visited Kona during our stay.
The Carnival Miracle was in port on the day we arrived.
The next day, this ship, the Sapphire Princess
arrived at Kona.
Kathleen and Bill enjoying
our first Mai Tai of the trip
Ocean's Sports Bar, which is across the road
from the condo where we stayed, has
$5.00 Mai Tai all day, every day.
These are our second most favorite recipe
for this drink on the island.
Kailua Bay and Pier are very quiet this morning,
a rare sight.
Not to mention you can also get
sopping wet when they do!
On the second day of our stay, we saw this boat
crashing on the rocks in front of our condo with no one
in the boat. After a few minutes, we saw someone climb
into the boat and powered it away from the shore moving toward
a second individual who was swimming in the water.
It then moved further off shore to a catamaran.
Another boat picked up the swimmer.
It appears that the catamaran had broken loose from it's mooring
and these two individuals were trying to resecured it
when something went wrong and they both ended up in the water!
NCL's Pride of America came in on Wednesday.
We revisited The Vanillerie as it now has new owners
and we wanted to see what had changed.
One of the new owners conducted the tour
which was very educational about
the history of the farm and the surrounding area.
Plus we wanted another sample of the vanilla ice cream!
These are the pods from which the vanilla is extracted.
One of the vanilla greenhouses on the farm.
Bill's favorite beach on the island as it has lots of shade.
However, today the water was a little cloudy when
Kathleen went snorkeling.
We decided to visit the
Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory
and take a tour of the farm
and learn about the process of making chocolate.
The farm is located in the hills
above Kona with a great view!
Also, the home of some unusual spiders and their webs.
X makes the spot.
These are ripe Cacao pods, from which
the cocoa beans are extracted.
The pods grow on both the trunks of
the trees and the branches.
It can take 5 months for the pods to mature.
There are three major varieties of cacao trees -
Forastero, Crillo, and Trinitario.
Forastero pods are yellow in color,
Crillo are orange,
and Trinitario are red.
The pods are hand harvested and then
cut open to extract the raw cocoa beans.
The beans are then fermented in
sweat boxes for 6-8 weeks,
placed on drying racks in the sun for 22-28 days,
then undergo further processing to be made into chocolate.
The geckos just love the raw cocoa beans.
Here we are at the Kona Inn restaurant...
Enjoying our favorite Mai Tai.
Dolphins putting on a show in front of our condo
Our pre-dinner drinks at Outback Steak House.
Bill had a Mai Tai.
Kathleen had The Wallaby Darned.
NCL's Norwegian Spirit arrived in Kona
on the day we departed the Islands.
Aloha!