Panaewa Zoo

The Panaewa Rainforest Zoo and Gardens in the only natural rainforest zoo in the United States.

The zoo has a large collection of tropical birds, some reptiles, and a few mammals.  Namaste the tiger, the zoo's main attraction, was not in his enclosure so he could get some "rest."

A nene, a descendent of the Canadian goose and the state bird.

The Hawaiian hawk or Io, endemic to the Big Island

Ring-tailed lemurs

Grey crested crane

 Peafowl wander around the zoo freely.  Sometimes they wander into the tiger enclosure and get eaten.

A peahen

Sightseeing

We headed down the street from our rental towards the ocean -- it's less than half a mile away.

The  view down the road

Closer to the shore

This house is right on the water's edge

View from the road

More ocean-front houses

 Some views of the shore.

Rocks at a fishing spot

We decided to drive down a road that goes along the coast, and looks like a perfectly respectable road on the map.  The further went, however, the worse the road got--very bumpy, uneven, and rough.  After a couple of miles or so, we passed an SUV coming the other way, and the guys in the SUV said we shouldn't go any further without a 4WD, so we turned back.

Don't drive here

We then went to the Makuu Farmer's Market to buy some produce and get some lunch.

Food court

Some of the food and other vendors

Some of the produce.

A mobile, wood-fired brick pizza oven

Live tilapia and catfish

We decided to try the Indian food

Chicken curry with aloo ghobi (potatoes and cauliflower) on brown rice

 We finished the day with a trip to the Transfer Station, aka, the dump.  There's no garbage pickup in our area, so we have to bring our garbage and recycling to the dump periodically (a strong incentive to reduce waste).
The recycling is divided into multiple dumpsters by type, eg., newspaper, carboard, scrap metal, glass, green waste, etc.

Household waste goes here

There's even a resale store where you can donate and buy secondhand items.

Community theater

We headed to the historic, art-deco Palace Theater in Hilo to see a community theater version of Jesus Christ Superstar.  The show was quite good with some excellent performances.  The performance was very faithful to the original (1971) version, and used mainly projected images for scenery.

The stage before the start of the show

An early scene

The theater ceiling

The theater after the show

Ceilings

This week (and next) our builder has to deal with some family-related issues, so while he's gone, we're focusing on getting the painting (ceilings and walls) done.  This week, spent a lot of time painting the ceilings.

This is a painted ceiling.

Another ceiling.

We went to Home Depot in Hilo to look at kitchen and bath fixtures.
This is the view from the parking lot (it's a little hazy on the mountain).

Hala tree fruit

There are a lot of hala trees around the rental house (and in the area in general).  They're also known as "walking trees" because the aerial roots that they send out look like legs.

Some of the hala trees near the rental house

Aerial roots and the wild jungle just beyond the house.

The trees produce large fruit that look vaguely like (and are about the size of) a pineapple.  They are made up of about 50 individual sections known as keys.  As the fruit ripens, the interior part turns yellow and the keys fall to the ground.

Ripening fruit

We gathered some of the keys.  They're about two inches long.  Supposedly they can be eaten, but they don't seem very appetizing.  The green part is extremely hard, and the yellow party is very tough, fibrous, and woody.  They are good, however, for attracting fruit flies.