Coconut Island in Hilo

"Coconut Island" in Hilo had been suggested to us, so we had to go!  Any place named Coconut Island in Hawaii is surely for me!

Alas ... Coconut Island was simply a park on the waterfront, and had a tiny little "beach" (if you can call it that).  Definitely not what I envisioned for a beach in Hawaii.  

We quickly learned the "Hilo side" is not known for amazing beaches.  In fact, I wasn't a big fan of Hilo at all.  From what we saw, Hilo is old and dirty ... definitely not a tourist paradise.  

In fact, our time in Hilo was closer to a "local experience" than a touristy experience, in part because were staying at an Airbnb in a neighborhood, rather than a big resort, condos, etc.

As we drove to our daily destinations, our routes took us through a lot of neighborhoods and we saw homes, school, stores ... just regular things in life.  So many of these places were so run down and dirty (with all the humidity, black mold was seeming everywhere on exterior surfaces). The poverty throughout Hawaii was so obvious.

As mainlanders, we think of Hawaii as a paradise, and it certainly is in many areas.  But the fact of the matter is that Hawaii is an extraordinarily expensive place to live.  The majority of islanders work in tourism, which doesn't pay very well.  

As I dug deeper, I learned there is a lot of complicated history in Hawaii and a tremendous resentment of the fact that Hawaii was essentially conquered by the U.S. and forced into statehood.  I also learned that islanders often raise their children to hate tourists.  There are a lot of underlying issues in this tropical paradise.