Day 3: Chocolate tour and visit South Kohala beaches

March 12

Today we explored areas along the northwest coast of the island (see map)

We started the day with a tour of  Puna Chocolate farm to see how chocolate is grown, harvested, and then got to taste different chocolates.

We saw two different varieties of cacoa plants growing. 

Here is a different variety

The guide split open one of the pods and we were able to try the pulp. When you chewed it, the seed inside was purple.

The beans are then fermented and dried.

And then then were roasted. These tasted delicious just as they were.

From there, they are ground into the ingredients for chocolate. We tried at least 8 different samples and all were delicious!

The farm also grew macadamia nuts - you can see some on this tree.

And they grew Kona coffee - here are a few coffee trees on the farm.

After the tour, we took a scenic drive further north of the Kona area, where the landscape really changed quite a bit as we entered Paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) country.

From here, we headed to Waimea and then over to the Kohala coast.

We stopped for lunch and had a coconut cooler for dessert (coconut water topped with Dole whip)

After lunch we went to Hapuna Beach State Park because it had a nice white sand beach. We hoped it would be good for snorkeling, but the waves were rough and snorkeling was not good.

As we headed south along the coast, we decided to stop at Waialia beach 

It was a bit too rocky for me to feel comfortable, but Steve went snorkeling there.

The sea was calmer, the water was clearer, and there were more fish (and even a sea turtle, that I could see from the beach) but there weren't that many different types of fish to see.

After getting back into Kona for the night, we changed and went to dinner at Teshima's, where we had tempura shrimp and veggies.