Today we started the day with wonderful breakfast tacos and quickly made our way to the vans and went to the beach. At the beach, we cleaned up trash. This trash can harm the ecosystem because animals think that the plastic is food and it can ensnare the animals. While cleaning, we were fortunate to see a sea turtle resting under a rock and a sleeping monk seal.
After cleaning, we restored helped restore an anchialine pool. National Parks traveler says that an anchialine pool is a small land-locked body of fresh or brackish water that has no surface connection to the ocean but a subterranean connection. They are located near the water and they get their name from the Greek word anchialine which means “near the sea.” We restored the pool by digging out the sand that was deposited there by a tsunami. With the sand, we made sand castles. My group tried to make a monk seal.
After we built sand castles, the groups split up and my group went to pololu valley. We hiked down the valley to a black sand beach.
We spent an hour on the beach and found a tank from WWII . The U.S. army would practice tanks maneuvers in this area because there were no people there. This specific tank broke down so the soldiers harvested what they could from the tank.
(back of the tank tread)
After exploring, we hiked back up the valley. When driving back, we took a much needed smoothie break. Next to the smoothie shop was a pineapple salesman that sold bags of fresh pineapple. Next, we stopped at a lava tube that we were able able to walk inside of and explore.
We spent about 30 minutes at the lava tube and came home to a chicken dinner. Tomorrow we are going to church and a farmers market.
