March 18 - Waikoloa Tourism Quarantine

Out in the middle of a vast black lava flow with hardly a clump of grass, there springs an artificial oasis known as Waikoloa. There's not enough rain on this side of the island to turn the land green like Puna. The lava just sits the way it cooled decades ago.

Except down Waikoloa Beach Road. Past palm trees and flowering bushes and manicured lawns. Past shopping malls, hotels, golf courses, and condos. We eventually arrived at the Hilton.

The resort has multiple buildings strung together with a Disney-designed boat on a canal and a short train that runs right through the "lobby" building.

Three stops to our hotel tower. We got a top-floor room with a view of Hualalai and a peek-a-boo view of the ocean. The palm tree resort spread out in front of us.

What a place. Quite a different Hawai‘i than Hilo or even Kona.

It’s a tourist quarantine, you see? Tourism is a contagious disease, so Hawai‘i built this colony out in the desert to stop its spread. From what we saw around the island, the quarantine is mostly working.

After watching _Life of Pi_ in our hotel room, we hurried downstairs to watch the sunset.

And then we watched _Skyfall_.