We drove back to the coast and stopped at Punalu’u black sand beach. From looking at pictures online, I thought it would be covered in sea turtles. But there’s just one. The black sand is very course and kinda hurts your feet when you walk on it.

We continued our drive to the town of Pahoa near the eastern point of the island. We’d heard this area was sort of sketchy: meth labs and some random murders in the forest. But Pahoa was a quaint, hippie town, and we liked it.

In the countryside outside Pahoa, we saw a couple wild boar, a bunch of roosters on some min-roofs, and a duck hanging out with a cow under a tree. For real.

Our cute, super clean, super affordable AirBnB cottage was in Puna Forest Reserve. We loved falling asleep to the sound of the coqui frogs. The video below was taken through the open window. It’s completely dark but you can hear how loud the frogs are. Alex called them “peepers,” and I liked imitating them: “puh-peep”

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