Sightseeing: Lower Puna

Dave took us on a driving tour today to an area of the Big Island not often visited by tourists or even locals. He said we were “five per-centers” - his estimate of how few people come to this amazing part of the island. Dave is an excellent tour guide, we are so grateful for his generosity to take us on this tour. As we drove a loop on Highways 130, 132, and 137, he told us about the decline of the cane sugar industry, using eucalyptus trees to generate power (not a good idea: the particulates in the air are worse than burning coal), albesia trees, ancient legends, and so much more. Our first stop was the town of Pahoa, where his wife Susan works at the public library.

Susan (left) with Gila, the branch manager

Rather than have a mile-long blog post, I made each of our stops a separate entry.   There are SIX of them - we covered a lot of ground.