Week Two: Random Thoughts

We just got back from our last week of orientation yesterday, and we have two days off to relax and recover! People even went to bed at 3pm, the hiking and lack of sleep have been a tough adjustment. We hiked backcountry this time, which refers to beaches that are still on park property. Here's some random stuff that happened.

-Centipedes. Scorpions. Cockroaches. I'm learning to get comfortable with bugs real quick. The centipedes are HUGE. We saw one that was probably 6 inches long crawling on our picnic table and I wanted to cry. To kill it, you have to grab two pliers and pull it apart, and then take it as far away from camp because when they die they release a scent or something that attracts more….. (yuck). They can sting too, yikes.

-The Hawaiian people are awesome! Most people really appreciate what we do on the turtle project and love "turtle people".

-We ran into the crew working with invasive species through the NPS, and they're awesome! It's a group of 6 or 7 Hawaiian guys and one named Tallen gave us some cold coconut pudding called haupia his mom made. It was different but pretty good! They're also really into spear fishing. One of them caught a huge lobster at one of the beaches we were staying at!

-Hiking over lava rock with a 30+ pound pack in the sun on no sleep is definitely the hardest thing I've ever done. We hiked over 60 miles this week and I'm exhausted! ButI'll never forget the feeling when we were hiking out on our last day, and after 3 hours of walking over lava rock with all our gear, we saw our white truck in the distance. Such an awesome feeling!

-So thankful we don't have to hike in our water!! It gets flown in by a helicopter and it costs around $1200 to do that…so I'm drinking $1200 water which is pretty cool! 

-I'm learning to nap whenever and wherever I can, 4 hours of sleep has been rough!